In Las Carpetas, Christopher Gregory-Rivera shares a cautionary tale of the American surveillance state.
Pia Peterson BuzzFeed News Photo Editor
Posted on January 29, 2021,
Christopher Gregory-Rivera
The carpeta of Providencia Pupa Trabal, a cofounder of the Pro-Independence Movement (MPI). She had surveillance outside her home in 8-hour shifts, 24 hours a day. It turned out a person who was like her second son had been informing on her to the cops. She found out when the files were declassified.
Growing up in Puerto Rico, Christopher Gregory-Rivera has always been deeply engaged with issues around colonialism, which he said has “unequivocally reshaped the island — and many parts of the globe.” Most of his work looks at the territory’s history as a way to understand the present and attempt to unravel the forces behind the injustices that colonized and marginalized communities face.
He began his photography career in Washington, DC. “I intimately experienced the way politics and power is crafted but grew increasingly disillusioned with the ability of political journalism to truly speak truth to that process,” he said. He kept this in mind for years before he saw his first “carpeta” (Spanish for “binder”), files on Puerto Rican residents compiled by a Puerto Rican secret police with the support of the FBI. The files targeted ordinary citizens who were suspected of aligning with the territory’s independence movement, whom authorities considered to be a political threat to US interests. Over the course of four decades, the FBI and the Puerto Rico Police Bureau maintained a secret network throughout the territory, “surveying, infiltrating, discrediting, and disrupting” any national movements for independence by instilling a culture of fear, violence, and intimidation. This movement threatened the lives of ordinary citizens and political activists and turned national folklore into a real and ugly story of American colonialism.
Las Carpetas, an exhibition now on view at the Abrons Arts Center in New York, was curated by Natalia Viera Salgado, the current curatorial resident at the Abrons Arts Center, and the assistant curator at the Americas Society.
Posted on January 29, 2021,
Christopher Gregory-Rivera
The carpeta of Providencia Pupa Trabal, a cofounder of the Pro-Independence Movement (MPI). She had surveillance outside her home in 8-hour shifts, 24 hours a day. It turned out a person who was like her second son had been informing on her to the cops. She found out when the files were declassified.
Growing up in Puerto Rico, Christopher Gregory-Rivera has always been deeply engaged with issues around colonialism, which he said has “unequivocally reshaped the island — and many parts of the globe.” Most of his work looks at the territory’s history as a way to understand the present and attempt to unravel the forces behind the injustices that colonized and marginalized communities face.
He began his photography career in Washington, DC. “I intimately experienced the way politics and power is crafted but grew increasingly disillusioned with the ability of political journalism to truly speak truth to that process,” he said. He kept this in mind for years before he saw his first “carpeta” (Spanish for “binder”), files on Puerto Rican residents compiled by a Puerto Rican secret police with the support of the FBI. The files targeted ordinary citizens who were suspected of aligning with the territory’s independence movement, whom authorities considered to be a political threat to US interests. Over the course of four decades, the FBI and the Puerto Rico Police Bureau maintained a secret network throughout the territory, “surveying, infiltrating, discrediting, and disrupting” any national movements for independence by instilling a culture of fear, violence, and intimidation. This movement threatened the lives of ordinary citizens and political activists and turned national folklore into a real and ugly story of American colonialism.
Las Carpetas, an exhibition now on view at the Abrons Arts Center in New York, was curated by Natalia Viera Salgado, the current curatorial resident at the Abrons Arts Center, and the assistant curator at the Americas Society.
Christopher Gregory-Rivera
READ THE REST HERE https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/piapeterson/puerto-rico-fbi-files-photos-carpetas
READ THE REST HERE https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/piapeterson/puerto-rico-fbi-files-photos-carpetas
A surveillance image of a strike at the University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras Campus. It was not uncommon for the police to photograph protests and identify those involved. The person identified with the number 14 was Arnaldo Darío Rosado, who was entrapped and murdered by police just three years after this image was taken. The individuals in the photograph are clearly numbered and identified
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