El Jibaro T-shirt design does a good job of honoring el Jibaro de Puerto Rico. In the T-shirt design it show a Puerto Rican Jibaro with the flag drape around him. El Jibaro is wearing his Puerto Rican stall hat while he is holding on to his machete. How many times have you heard proud Puerto Ricans say “yo soy el Jibaro de Puerto Rico. Puerto Ricans say it with much pride because it is the symbol of a hard worker who never gives up.
Since at least the 1920s the term “jíbaro” has a more positive connotation in Puerto Rican culture, proudly associated with a cultural ideology as tough pioneers of Puerto Rico.
However, the term occasionally also has a negative connotation. A Jíbaro can mean someone who lack formal education, someone from the country side or “hillbilly”. Despite this negative connotation, the image of El Jíbaro represents an ideology of a “traditional Puerto Rican”: hard-working, simple, independent, and prudently wise.
Colloquially, El Jíbaro imagery serves as a representation of the roots of the modern-day Puerto Rican people and symbolizes the strength of such traditional values as living simply and properly caring for homeland and the family.
The struggles of the people on the island against colonial powers involved the Jíbaros fighting for the rights of the pure Puerto Ricans. They were the primary driving force in revolutions such as the one to liberate Puerto Rico from Spanish colonial rule in 1868, the well-known Grito de Lares (Cry of Lares). Even after that revolution failed, the Jíbaro were credited for keeping the spirit of Puerto Rican freedom alive. One final attempt to liberate Puerto Rico from Spain’s colonial control was the Intentona de Yauco in 1897.
In the Spanish-American War, the Spaniards were forced to cede Puerto Rico by the terms of the Treaty of Paris to the United States which then became the new colonial master. Many Jíbaros organized what were called Bandas Sediciosas (Seditious Bands) to oppose American colonial rule.
A few decades later many pro-American mobs had threatened the life of Luis Muñoz Marín, who at the time preferred Puerto Rican independence the Jibaros where ready to fight to protect Luis Munoz Marin (eventually, he became the willing collaborator of the American colonialists).
Puerto Rico’s history of el Jíbaro’s committed to freedom no matter how many times they are met with conflict or defeat they would never give up. Hard work and never giving up is what make el Jibaro So in honor by many Puerto Ricans. The T-shirt design has so much meaning behind it and those who are true Puerto Ricans can understand the power of el Jibaro can appreciate this T-shirt design. Long live el Jibaro.
For more information go to Cleveland Arcade Art Gallery
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