We visited Puerto Rico in December 2019 before the pandemic froze vacation travel. Highlights for us were staying wet in El Yunque rainforest and wandering the streets of San Juan, where I spotted two dragonflies etched on a mural covering the front of the colonnaded Museo de Arte. Their abdomens were shaped like the chunky old keys that open door locks with holes you could peer through.
The artist, Alexis Díaz, is a Puerto Rican street muralist, who also illustrated the island’s Medalla beer cans, with his phantasmagoric roosters, sea creatures, hands sprouting hibiscus flowers and trees rooted in beating hearts.
The woman in Museo de Arte mural, titled “He Who forgets the Past is Condemned to Repeat It” has a heart that sprouts a plant with berries (coffee?) that entwines a thick rod, her spine. An extra pair of arms seem to both support and block her aspirations. The keys to this mystery, of course, must be delivered by the dragonflies! Perhaps they provide the key to memories that the title suggests we must move beyond. Terrific street art honored by one of San Juan’s finest institutions.
