Amil Droz, an artisanal mask maker based in Boquerón, Puerto Rico, took us for a walk through his rustic wooden home and art studio to see his vejigante masks and other 3D works of art he has created.
Amil (pronounced Ay-MEEL) is originally from Puerto Rico, but spent most of his life living in New York, which you will be able to tell from his accent. He calls his business Tuntuneco Arts. His masks are mostly made out of coconuts in the style found in Loiza, Puerto Rico. We purchased one to display above the bar of our Cabo Rojo home.
Amil Droz Torres is a certified cultural Artisan whose art studio and shop, Tuntuneco Arte Taino, is located above the Copy Hamburger bar in Boqueron, Puerto Rico. His masks sculptures and painting are found in museums, schools, and corporations in New York and PR. He also teaches and presents as a guest artist. We were lucky to meet him in a Cabo Rojo sports bar while watching the AFC Championship Game! He’s also a NY Yankees fan, but we can forgive him for that.
The southern Puerto Rican city of Ponce (pronounced PONE-say) has been celebrating its annual carnival for 165 years, making it one of the longest-celebrated carnivals in the Caribbean. The festivities are brought to life by vejigantes, a local folk character that wears a colorful paper-mâché mask and a bright jumpsuit. Since we have commissioned a couple of vejigante masks from renowned mask maker Miguel Caraballo, we were eager to see the colorful masks in use during a carnival parade!
The event spans six days right before Lent. The carnival parades include King Momo’s appearance and the Carnival Queen’s coronation, a masquerade ball, and the Burial of the Sardine, a simulated funeral marking the beginning of Lent.
We were there on Saturday night for the kids’ day and Queen’s Coronation activities, which included a family-friendly version of the main event. It was a delight! (But thank God we brought our earplugs.) Enjoy!
When we lived in San Juan 28 years ago, Bob and I journeyed south to the Ponce home of Puerto Rico’s renowned carnival mask maker, Miguel Caraballo. We commissioned a beautiful mask that dominated the dining room wall of our homes for more than two decades.
That “vejigante” mask is now in storage in Colorado, and a little bent at the tip of one of its horns. Since we spent a few months in Puerto Rico last fall, we decided to commission another one. So last November, we journeyed to Ponce again, and met Miguel Caraballo, his son and his grandson.
Caraballo’s masks are world-renowned. He has a mask on display in the Museum of the Americas in Old San Juan, and another in the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of American Art.
These papier-mâché masks are typically worn by young men who don the colorful costume of a vejigante, a character who roams the streets during Carnaval de la Playa de Ponce, or the Ponce Beach Carnival, playfully scaring children and other revelers. The carnival held each February, features a huge parade, with the vejigante as a protagonist along with the kings and queens of carnival.
Miguel Caraballo started making masks as an apprentice to a woman in his neighborhood when he was 15, 66 years ago. The masks are made with cardboard, newspaper and brown paper, pressed onto molds and held together with a glue made of flour and water. His son makes masks now, and his grandson of the same name does the family marketing.
We picked up our new mask five weeks after our visit. We were delighted! But it was so big that we almost didn’t get it onto the plane back to the States. We had to buy a very large bin from Home Depot to accommodate all the protruding horns. Although the package weighed hardly anything, the combined length, width and height exceeded Southwest’s size limitations by 2 inches. It was only after we cut open the package and took out the mask to show the ticket agent what we were carrying that he decided to seek special approval from his manager. We had to pay $75 for the oversized item, and the agent exhorted us never to try to fly with such a large item again.
We would have been heartbroken to have to leave such a special item behind.
Now that we have purchased a home in Puerto Rico, we plan to return to the Caraballo home to commission yet another mask!
