Monuments to Mestizaje and the Commemoration of Racial Democracy in Puerto Rico

Abstract In this paper, I argue that monuments to mestizaje (miscegenation) in Puerto Rico reaffirm the myth of a harmonious mixture between the White Spaniard, Black African, and Indigenous Taíno. This racial triad, originally conceived in the nineteenth century, was institutionalized in 1956 by the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture to legitimize the reformulation of Puerto Rico's colonial status. It was meant to foster a consensus‐driven nation‐building project through a depoliticized harmonious mixture of races. I analyze ten monuments to mestizaje that privilege the white European root of Puerto Rican identity and demonstrate how their visual discourse sustains the narratives of racial democracy in Puerto Rico.