Puerto Rican pride shines at New York Comic Con with superheroes, art, and folklore

By Sarah Yáñez-Richards

New York, US- Puerto Rican culture is taking center stage at this year’s New York Comic Con, where folklore, dance, local superheroes, and diverse art forms are highlighting the island’s creative power.

Among the crowd, Lily Torres, dressed as “The Boricualorian,” a Puerto Rican twist on The Mandalorian, stands out as a symbol of cultural pride and imagination.

To attend the massive convention, Torres created her own character: The Boricualorian, wearing a Star Wars-inspired helmet and armor painted with Puerto Rican flags, paired with a traditional folkloric skirt.

Her costume is accompanied by a “baby Yoda” dressed as a jíbaro, with a straw hat, white shirt, and pants, and a red scarf, an affectionate nod to Puerto Rican rural culture.

“This music and dance come from the time of slavery,” Torres told EFE, referring to bomba, the traditional rhythm she will perform at Comic Con alongside drummers also in costume. “For them, it was a way of expressing freedom and resistance, and that’s part of who we are.”

The performance is part of a special event dedicated to Puerto Rico within the convention, which runs in New York City through Sunday.

From Bad Bunny to “La Borinqueña”

Torres’ costume evokes the look of La Borinqueña, a comic book superheroine with curly hair and brown skin created by graphic novelist Edgardo Miranda-Rodríguez.

During one of the panels, Miranda said the character has become a patriotic symbol for Puerto Rico and is often seen at protests.

“The love people have for my character fills me with pride,” Miranda told EFE. “But I also know it’s bigger than me. She represents a movement, afro-descendant and Latina women everywhere.”

The artist praised the growing presence of Latino culture in the United States entertainment, particularly in music with stars like Bad Bunny, but added that there’s still work to be done.

“You don’t see many Latino artists. It’s like a chocolate chip cookie, you take a bite and think it’s all chocolate, but it’s not,” he said. “We make noise, yes, but we’re still not the majority.”

He noted that while most people can name Bad Bunny, few could list 10 or 20 other Latin artists with comparable success.

Miniatures, memory, and Puerto Rican creativity. From his Comic Con booth, Danny Cortes, a Brooklyn-born artist of Puerto Rican descent, shared how he rose to fame through social media by posting photos of his miniature replicas of 1980s-2000s New York street life.

“Instead of using the typical miniature setup, I held the piece in my hand, and I guess that triggered the algorithm,” he joked.

One of his most popular works, a miniature ice machine like those seen outside New York corner stores, sold for 1,890 dollars at Sotheby’s in 2022.

His success now enables him to work full-time as an artist, collaborating with major brands such as Gucci and the NBA.

The legacy of Puerto Rican art in comics is also preserved thanks to Manuel Martínez Nazario, a retired librarian who donated over 1,400 comics and graphic novels created or illustrated by Puerto Rican artists since 1950 to the New York Public Library.

“I wanted to showcase the work of Puerto Rican creators both on the island and in the U.S.,” he told EFE. “There are over four million Puerto Ricans living here, and their stories deserve to be seen and remembered.”

Con información de UNAR AGENCY