Over the weekend in Puerto Rico, flags were flying at half-staff by order of the governor, Aníbal Acevedo-Vilá. The island was mourning one of it’s own hijos, painter and printmaker Rafael Tufiño, who died last Thursday in San Juan at age 85 from lung cancer.

Tufiño, known as el pintor del pueblo, was born in Brooklyn, but lived in Viejo San Juan. His mark in the NY Rican community is huge as demonstrated by being a founder of Taller Boricua, a workshop and art collective started in East Harlem in 1970, and was also influential in the establishment of El Museo del Barrio.

Tufiño’s paintings present scenes of daily life in Puerto Rico — work, dance, music and festivals. Some of these painting form part of the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Library of Congress and the Galería Nacional in Puerto Rico.

Mr. Tufiño will lie in state in the Galería Nacional del Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña in San Juan before burial later this week.

Via / The New York Times