Proyecto Mariposa Sonia Pentz
To understand this project it is
necessary to know a little bit about my life growing up in Uruguay. From the
time that I was four years old to my teen years, Uruguay, like many
Latin-American countries, was under a military dictatorship (1973-1985). In
this period there was not freedom of press; no public gathering (we could not
celebrate a birthday without asking for a permit); strict military regulation
of everything including what should be taught, worn, and said.
In response to my newly obtained
freedom I started to express myself in the civic life. I was only fifteen when we had our first
democratic election, too young to vote but not too young to help campaign. I made signs and distributed pamphlets around
the city. I remember cutting out my
candidate’s pictures from newspapers and pasting them on my bedroom walls,
already filled with poster and magazines pictures of favorite actors and
singers. I had to rip down some in order
to give room for the new ones. This overlay
of paper and paint on my walls was very peculiar and somehow very attractive.
Similar to the artwork in my wall
and seeking that same feeling I developed my thesis project. It has two
different components: a floor piece and an altar wall which highlights my
American life and my Latin roots respectively. The floor piece is composed of 15 elements
using the symbolic colors of the flag. It represents my own views of America’s
past and present. I believe history, more specific, our mistakes made in the past,
should be used as a learning tool to correct our broken foreign policies. In the triptych, the Mirabal’s sisters,
Patria, Minerva, and Maria Teresa, Dominican sisters who made the ultimate
sacrifice for their country during one of the many dictatorships supported by
US during the Cold War, are depicted in wooden doors. In the lunette an oversize butterfly is used
to make reference to the symbolic underground name of the sisters (mariposas).
An audio installation represents the only surviving sister, Dede, who was the
one left to tell their story.
The purpose of my work is very
symbolic. I want, in some way, to bring
back to the USA the excitement of my very active political life in
Uruguay. The overlay of information and
ideas, used in my artwork, give form and meaning to my message. I feel that the youth do not know or probably
cannot imagine a life without freedom and take for granted their own civil
rights like the right to vote and the right to express their opinion. The
Mirabal sisters’ altar is to remind us that we can be butterflies and even
though not necessarily cause a hurricane, like they did, we can make a
difference. To canonize Minerva, Maria Teresa and Patria is the beginning of my
homage to those who gave everything for freedom and justice, including their
own life. We Americans are to be aware
of tragedies like the dead of the Mirabal’s sister, and the many consequences
of our interventions in other countries in order to correct and to avoid the
same mistakes.
