Gabriella Torres-Ferrer, Untitled (Valora tu mentira americana) (Value Your American Lie), 2018

Gabriella Torres-Ferrer: My name is Gabriella Torres-Ferrer. Untitled (Valora tu mentira americana) is composed of an unembellished piece of the Puerto Rican power authorities' failed infrastructure. The destroyed power pole or light post features in the center a political sign that unveils the twist of the piece's title. The sign reads: “Valora tu ciudadanía americana. Garantizala vota estadidad.” In English, this means: "Value your American citizenship. Guarantee it, vote statehood.”

Narrator: The sign alludes to the referendum on the political status of Puerto Rico held on June 11, 2017, three months before hurricane Maria. The referendum consisted of three options: becoming a state of the United States, independence, or maintaining its current territorial status. In their own words, Torres-Ferrer aimed to highlight:

Gabriella Torres-Ferrer: The contradiction between the perceived protection of the U.S. citizenship and the post-hurricane destruction and ongoing infrastructural disaster in Puerto Rico, as well as the colonial reality of the island ever since the long sixteenth century colonization of the Americas under Western European powers.

Narrator: The title translates as “Value your American lie.”

Gabriella Torres-Ferrer: The ironic twist in the piece's title and the materials in the piece gesture towards a close reexamination of this broad and compounded colonial reality. What is the value? Who benefits from it? Also inviting viewers to question today's colonial innovations and who ultimately benefits from them.