Making the poster for this festival was a great honor

“I’m still struggling with the festival poster. It’s that the temperature in the area is below 50 degrees. My hands get dry and crack, and they burn every time I get them wet when I’m washing out my brushes.”

This year the poster of the 36th Claridad festival was designed by Puerto Rican political prisoner Oscar López Rivera. The previous quote is part of an electronic dialogue with his daughter Clarisa. This year López Rivera, 67 years old, will have served 30 years [sic] of cruel imprisonment, 12 of which he spent in the most punitive prisons of the United States government’s prison system. When he was arrested in 1981, he was accused of seditious conspiracy and sentenced to 55 years in prison. Then in 1988, as the result of a government sting operation, he was accused of an alleged conspiracy to escape, for which he was sentenced to an additional 15 years, which does not begin until he has finished serving the 55 year sentence. In other words, his release date is in 2027. Obviously the United States government is demonstrating through this inhumane and irrational attitude that it aims to dominate not only Oscar’s spirit, but that of the entire Puerto Rican people.

Before he was transferred at the end of the 90's to the prison where he is today in Terre Haute, Indiana, our artist learned to paint while he was at the federal prison in Leavenworth, Kansas.

Overcoming the inconvenience of being in prison, and with the help of attorney Jan Susler, Oscar’s legal advisor, we were able to send him some questions about his work. We hope that some time soon, our wills unite and motivate with full force the liberating spirit we are capable of, and that we have Oscar with us, unchained and free, to be able to talk fully and freely with this very brave and generous Puerto Rican man dedicated to the struggle. Here are his expressions about his work on the poster.

En Rojo: What was your first reaction when Claridad asked you to do the poster?

Oscar López: “My initial reaction, reading the email, was to not accept the invitation, because I don’t consider myself apt to do the work necessary for a poster, nor do the conditions I’m in lend themselves to do the work. I called Jan (our attorney, who has a Puerto Rican soul), and she explained the invitation a little more, and told me that companero Elizam (Escobar) was available to help me. I decided to take on the task, still thinking that I was facing an impossible mission, but hopeful that I could meet the challenge.”

Tell us about the process of creating the poster.

“I started to design the poster without yet having access to the reference materials I needed. The photos of Lucecita took two weeks to get to me. Later I received copies of previous festival posters. The most difficult things for me were the weather and the lack of access to the place where I paint. The temperature in the room where I paint was 50 degrees. The cold affects paint... and the painter... it affected me physically. Some weeks I could go to paint only two or three times, about three hours each time, because the jailers tend to take vacations during December, and there isn’t enough staff to open the recreation department. At the beginning, the paint didn’t dry. I had to remove it and use another type of paint that dried more quickly. I had to complete the painting before January 12 the last day to pack it up. I put it in a box and sent it to Chicago, so that Jan could overnight it to Puerto Rico so it would arrive on time. Thanks to her and to Elizam, I was able to get it there by January 25. It was a pretty difficult process.”

What images of the festival did you receive while you were working on the poster?

“I haven’t had the good fortune to be able to participate in any CLARIDAD festival. So I don’t have any images to be able to visualize, even vicariously, how this year’s festival will look. I really hope it’s a complete success, and that it meets the goals set by the organizers. For me, CLARIDAD represents one of the greatest achievements of the independence movement. It’s an institution created by independentistas (principally by don Juan Mari Brás) to serve as the voice for the entire movement. It’s done so for 50 years, and has survived every attack perpetrated by the enemies of independence, freedom, justice, and participatory democracy. I think every independentista has the duty to protect it, strengthen it, and work daily to make it better.”

How well do you know Lucecita?

“I can’t say that I know Lucecita. But for more than 4 decades I’ve been listening to her songs though in prison I’ve enjoyed them through Radio Rebelde. Her voice is precious, and she has earned the honor of being thought of as “the Puerto Rican national voice.” I hope that having the festival dedicated to her is a pleasing and memorable moment for her and for our people, because it’s an expression of the great love and respect our people feel for her.”

How do you want people to receive your work?

“The poster was made with much love and respect, and that’s how I hope people will receive it.”

What did the invitation mean to you?

“To me, to serve the Homeland is a sacred honor. The tasks I do in service of the struggle for the Homeland, I do with the humility, love and respect that our people deserve. For me, doing the poster was a great honor.”

Oscar López Rivera, political prisoner, father, grandfather, artist, is this year’s poster artist.