Verbal Description: Danielle De Jesus, Google the Ponce Massacre, 2021

Narrator: Google the Ponce Massacre is a horizontal oil and graphite painting on linen that is 5 feet tall by 7 feet wide. There is a stark contrast between the background and foreground. The background is painted with graphite mixed with medium, and depicts four bodies on the ground who were shot by the police during the Ponce Massacre in 1937. Upon Googling you might read that “The Ponce massacre was an event that took place on Palm Sunday, March 21, 1937, in Ponce, Puerto Rico, when a peaceful civilian march turned into a police shooting in which 19 civilians and two policemen were killed, and more than 200 civilians wounded.” The body closest to the viewer has been shot in the chest. Blood seeps out of his chest and covers his face. Right next to him in the bottom right of the painting we can see a flag pole, a bundled up flag and the rim of a hat. Just above in the center right edge of the painting is a pile of hats and other hard to identify belongings. 

In the center of the painting, the second body in the row of four has his arms folded across his abdomen, and his face is turned towards us. Right next to him in the top third of the painting are the other two bodies on the sidewalk. All of their eyes are closed and they seem to be wearing suits with pants, a shirt, a belt and jacket. 

This greyscale historical image of the Massacre is foregrounded by two figures painted in monochrome red and blue tones from their hair to their skin and clothes. In red is a person with shaved short hair wearing a bandana or piece of fabric tied behind their neck covering their nose and mouth. They can be seen from the shoulders up facing the right edge of the painting. A figure in blue covers the entire left edge and bottom left corner of the painting. They are cropped so that we see them from the shoulders up and only a small portion of their face cutting off at the corner of their eye. They wear a jacket and hat that reads as a police uniform in navy blue while their skin is light blue. This is significant because the artist explains, “Not only does it represent the American flag, but it also represents the change of the Puerto Rican flag from the light blue to the navy when it was colonized by the United States government. The original color of the Puerto Rican flag was a light blue and then this color was adopted. I decided to incorporate that into the painting as well.”