UCTP Position on the Borinquen Sculpture at the Museum of Art of Puerto Rico
Presented by: Tekina Tai Pelli & Kasike R. Múkaro Borrero Executive Committee Members,United Confederation of Taíno People September 15, 2026
The United Confederation of Taíno People (UCTP) thanks Prensa sin Censura for bringing to our attention the controversy surrounding Borinquen, a sculpture by the late Rafael López Del Campo, an artist and sculptor from Barranquitas, as well as the position taken by the Board of Trustees of the Museum of Art of Puerto Rico.
The history and art of the Borikén archipelago, colonially known as Puerto Rico, did not begin in 1493 with the arrival of Europeans on our lands. The historical and archaeological record confirms that these lands were home to ancient Indigenous Peoples and cultures with developed social, economic, cultural, and political systems, including our own people. The colonial legal doctrine of terra nullius ("nobody's land") was used by Europeans to justify the dispossession of lands that were neither empty nor without sovereign peoples.
Borinquen is an approximately eight-foot-tall sculpture depicting a young Taíno woman seated on a dujo and listening to the sound of the sea through a guamo. It represents those origins, that history, and that legacy, which remain alive in the lives of millions of Puerto Ricans. The continued failure to install the sculpture in the location for which it was designed, after more than 25 years of delay, perpetuates the erasure of our People's heritage and historical legacy. It is another act of cultural marginalization and invisibilization directed against our Indigenous history.
It is of grave concern to us that the Museum's Board of Trustees has failed to take the steps necessary to comply with the requirements of the Commissioned Art Project. López Del Campo's Borinquen was an integral part of that project, together with works by 30 other artists. At present, 30 of those other works are properly displayed in the museum. Yet the principal work, intended from the earliest plans for the museum's entrance hall, remains excluded. The area was specifically designed and prepared to accommodate the sculpture's weight and lighting, and even the museum's entrance doors were planned with its installation in mind.
It is profoundly paradoxical that a colossal statue of Christopher Columbus, created by a Russian artist from outside Puerto Rico, was accommodated and prominently installed in our beloved Borikén, even though, for many of our people, Columbus represents dispossession, violence, discrimination, and death. Meanwhile, Borinquen, a beautiful and internationally honored work representing the Indigenous origins of our archipelago, created by the acclaimed Puerto Rican artist and sculptor Rafael López Del Campo, has remained sequestered for more than 25 years and denied the place for which it was commissioned and designed. This stark contrast compels us to ask: Why has Puerto Rico found space to monumentalize a colonial figure through the work of an outside artist, while withholding space from a Puerto Rican artist's tribute to the first peoples of Borikén?
We therefore call upon the Board of Trustees of the Museum of Art of Puerto Rico to fulfill the commitments of the Commissioned Art Program and install Borinquen in the place of honor originally designed for it. We further ask the Board to provide the public with a transparent timetable for its installation and to engage respectfully with Dr. Adlín Ríos Rigau and representatives of the Taíno community as this matter is brought to a just resolution. As affirmed in the preamble to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples:
"Affirming further that all doctrines, policies and practices based on or advocating superiority of peoples or individuals on the basis of national origin or racial, religious, ethnic or cultural differences are racist, scientifically false, legally invalid, morally condemnable and socially unjust, ..."
Museums do more than preserve objects: they shape public memory and help determine which histories a society chooses to honor. Installing Borinquen in its intended location would correct a decades-long institutional failure. It would also affirm that the Indigenous history of Borikén is neither peripheral nor confined to the past. That history is foundational to the identity of our archipelago and remains alive in our people today.
The UCTP remains prepared to engage in respectful dialogue toward a timely and dignified resolution. We urge the Museum's leadership to meet this moment with transparency and integrity and to ensure that Borinquen finally receives the recognition and place of honor it deserves.
MEDIA CONTACT United Confederation of Taíno People
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