Ketsy Ruiz: ‘Mi upbringing en Estados Unidos y Puerto Rico as a preteen’

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#boricuadiaspora, Sketzii (Ketsy Ruiz)

#boricuadiaspora, Sketzii (Ketsy Ruiz)

En esta entrevista especial Ketsy Ruiz (Sketzii) nos habla de su obra #boricuadiaspora, “un physical representation de mi upbringing en Estados Unidos y Puerto Rico a la misma vez as a preteen”.

Preguntas para guiar la lectura

  • ¿Qué representa el lado izquierdo de la obra? ¿Y el lado derecho?
  • ¿Cómo refleja la obra “symmetry and balance“?
  • ¿Cuáles son algunos aspectos de su “double life… living between two cultural spaces“?
  • ¿Qué ícono ambienta la obra en los años 90? ¿Y qué logotipo lo ambienta simultáneamente en la actualidad?
  • ¿Qué idioma habla y por qué?
Entrevista a Ketsy Ruiz sobre #boricuadisaspora

¿Qué representa la obra #boricuadisaspora?

    Para mi #boricuadiaspora es un physical representation de mi upbringing en Estados Unidos y Puerto Rico a la misma vez as a preteen. It also represents the false idealism of the U.S and notions of assimilation I was taught at a young age.

Vemos que la obra se divide en dos y hay varios pares, uno al lado izquierdo y otro al lado derecho, que parecen representar ciertos aspectos de su vida. ¿Pudiera describir estos pares? ¿Cuáles son y qué representan?

    Creo que eso es lo que mas resonates con la gente que vean esta obra. The two sides are clearly different, dos diferente sitios, dos diferente culturas, but so easily recognizable. Al lado izquierdo tengo mi vida en Estados Unidos. On the right is the life I had cada verano staying en Puerto Rico. I spent my youth, every year, viajando back and forth between the two. As a teenager era dificil manejando los dos culturas to try and “fit in” dependiendo where I was at.

    What I really wanted to be visible before anything else were the similarities in the shapes and colors of these experiences. After you notice the symmetry and balance of that (aka my upbringing) then the viewer can pick apart the pieces of the cultures.

    En los estados tenemos the big colorful fireworks I’d experience at every holiday in every city I’ve ever lived in. En Puerto Rico there are banana trees everywhere I’d look en el campo.

    In the U.S the Statue of Liberty and the Disneyworld logo are synonymous with the idea of the American Dream and I’ve seen both in person. En Puerto Rico El Morro and the sunsets are synonymous con la idea of La Isla del Encanto and I’ve also visited El Morro and watched a sun set there several times.

    The apple pie is an American staple (y odio pies), I much rather eat (lo que yo llamo) pastelillos de Puerto Rico. Pero I would eat hamburgers o mofongo dependiendo on my mood.

    The NFL Super Bowl is a big deal in the U.S but beisbol is the big deal in PR and larger part of my life now.

    I would watch MTV y Sabado Gigante. English and Spanish language programming was always on at the same time in my house growing up.

    En Estados Unidos I lived in cities most of my life, sitios que tenian un downtown area with a night skyline. En Puerto Rico mi familia es de Hatillo y Quebradillas y tenian casas de madera and tin.

Su figura se encuentra en el centro de la obra. Entonces, ¿cómo navega entre estos dos lados culturales? ¿Qué desafíos ha tenido al moverse de un lado de la obra al otro, por así decirlo?

    The image of the girl represents me living this double life. Over her head is the first ever emoji made by AOL. This dates the piece so we know it’s around the early-mid 90s.

    She has straightened her natural hair in the U.S but left her pelo con rizos naturales en Puerto Rico. Eso nada mas era algo dificil to comes to terms with as a teenager because the more “Americana” I looked in the US the more I fit in. Pero en PR my hair wouldn’t stay straight del calor y humidad alla so I had to wear it however it naturally was.

    En los estados I would talk to my friends over the house phone but to talk to my cousin en PR I would write letters back and forth until I saw them in the summer. As a kid I had an impression that PR tenian “less than” the US.

    My shirt also has a Bad Bunny “YHLQMDLG” logo on it which brings the figure to present times and mimics the AOL emoji porque fue mi followers en Instagram que decidieron I put that in the painting!

    I always felt like it was important to be very Latina (whatever that meant) to prove my latinidad, to prove my Puertorican-ness in Puerto Rico. I had this idea that I had to be cool in both cultures at the same time. Todavia siento un poquito asi pero no me importa tanto de la cultura in the states. I have fully embraced being Puertorriqueña, finding my roots, holding onto my cultura, which is why in the painting the U.S side kind of disappears into the background and Puerto Rico is fully colored and detailed. Mi cultura puertorriquena y latina feels way more real to me than any “American Dream”.

Por email hablamos sobre su forma de expresarse (es decir, con más spanglish e inglés que español). ¿Cómo se conecta esta forma de hablar con su identidad cultural?

    Siento que Spanglish could be a whole language! Yo siempre hablo los dos, my whole family and most of my Latino friends do. It is a literal an extension of who I am as a person and how I express myself being someone who was raised and currently is living between two cultural spaces. I never felt like I spoke Spanish well enough to only speak in Spanish y alguno veces palabras en Ingles just don’t come to me as easily as in Spanish. It’s the coolest and strangest combination that I was not always proud of. Ahora siento que importa si hablo los dos, it’s authentically me and is for so many other Latinos living in a diaspora.
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