{"id":9799,"date":"2023-02-02T15:01:40","date_gmt":"2023-02-02T20:01:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/?p=9799"},"modified":"2025-07-01T10:27:31","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T14:27:31","slug":"puerto-rican-carnival-mask","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/2023\/02\/puerto-rican-carnival-mask\/","title":{"rendered":"Puerto Rican Carnival Mask"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/prod.wp.cdn.aws.wfu.edu\/sites\/417\/2023\/02\/AOTM-Puerto-Rican-Carnival-Mask-500.jpg\" alt=\"Vejigante carnival mask with many protruding horns\" class=\"wp-image-9800\" srcset=\"https:\/\/prod.wp.cdn.aws.wfu.edu\/sites\/417\/2023\/02\/AOTM-Puerto-Rican-Carnival-Mask-500.jpg 500w, https:\/\/prod.wp.cdn.aws.wfu.edu\/sites\/417\/2023\/02\/AOTM-Puerto-Rican-Carnival-Mask-500-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/prod.wp.cdn.aws.wfu.edu\/sites\/417\/2023\/02\/AOTM-Puerto-Rican-Carnival-Mask-500-170x170.jpg 170w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>This carnival mask comes from Ponce, the second largest city in Puerto Rico. The Carnival of Ponce dates to the mid-1700s and includes a parade featuring floats, bands, Carnival queens, and a distinctive character known as the <em>vejigante<\/em>. The <em>vejigante<\/em> wears a brightly colored costume with bat-like wings and a papier-mache mask like this one. The predominantly black and red colors on this mask reflect the official colors of the town of Ponce. The character\u2019s name is a combination of the words <em>vejiga <\/em>meaning bladder and <em>gigante<\/em> meaning giant. Traditionally, the character carries an inflated cow or goat bladder used to hit other revelers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <em>vejigante<\/em> is a demonic character meant to scare people, and the mask features sharp fangs and forward pointing horns.\u00a0Using devil and demon masks during Carnival is a tradition that dates to 17th century Spain, when they were intended to scare people into going to church. The tradition came to Puerto Rico with Spanish colonialization, but the <em>vejigante<\/em> mask and costume reflect African and Taino influences as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Vejigantes<\/em> can be any gender or age. This mask was intended for a male masquerader because it covers the full face.&nbsp; Women commonly wear partial masks that only cover the upper part of their face. Older versions of the <em>vejigante<\/em> have an articulated jaw, while more modern ones, like this one, are made as a single piece. Some revelers construct their own masks, but they may also be passed down in the family or purchased from artisans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This mask was made by celebrated artist Miguel Caraballo, whose work can also be found in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Caraballo, now in his 70s, learned how to make <em>vejigantes<\/em> when he was an apprentice to a woman in his neighborhood as a teen. Caraballo makes the masks with a flour and water paste which is brushed onto layer after layer of newspaper placed over a basic mold. The horns, also made of papier-mache, are then added. Caraballo follows the traditional painting scheme with many tiny dots on top of the primary colors.&nbsp;Painting a single mask can take Caraballo up to two weeks.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This mask is currently on display in <a href=\"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/exhibits\/new-at-the-lam-recent-acquisitions\/\">New at the Lam: Recent Acquisitions<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Research assistance for this post was provided by Silver Byrd (\u201923).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This carnival mask comes from Ponce, the second largest city in Puerto Rico. The Carnival of Ponce dates to the mid-1700s and includes a parade featuring floats, bands, Carnival queens, and a distinctive character known as the vejigante. The vejigante wears a brightly colored costume [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":201,"featured_media":9800,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"overlay_title":false,"hide_featured_image_post":false,"wfu_hide_page_title":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artifacts"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Puerto Rican Carnival Mask - Timothy S. Y. Lam Museum of Anthropology<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This carnival mask comes from Ponce, the second largest city in Puerto Rico, and it represents a distinctive character known as the vejigante.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/2023\/02\/puerto-rican-carnival-mask\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Puerto Rican Carnival Mask - Timothy S. Y. Lam Museum of Anthropology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This carnival mask comes from Ponce, the second largest city in Puerto Rico, and it represents a distinctive character known as the vejigante.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/2023\/02\/puerto-rican-carnival-mask\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Timothy S. Y. Lam Museum of Anthropology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-02-02T20:01:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-01T14:27:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/prod.wp.cdn.aws.wfu.edu\/sites\/417\/2023\/02\/AOTM-Puerto-Rican-Carnival-Mask-500.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cromwess@wfu.edu\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cromwess@wfu.edu\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/2023\/02\/puerto-rican-carnival-mask\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/2023\/02\/puerto-rican-carnival-mask\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cromwess@wfu.edu\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/#\/schema\/person\/943833eccd0de6b4defd882b6f8bbe13\"},\"headline\":\"Puerto Rican Carnival Mask\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-02-02T20:01:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-01T14:27:31+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/2023\/02\/puerto-rican-carnival-mask\/\"},\"wordCount\":389,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/2023\/02\/puerto-rican-carnival-mask\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/prod.wp.cdn.aws.wfu.edu\/sites\/417\/2023\/02\/AOTM-Puerto-Rican-Carnival-Mask-500.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Artifacts\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/2023\/02\/puerto-rican-carnival-mask\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/2023\/02\/puerto-rican-carnival-mask\/\",\"name\":\"Puerto Rican Carnival Mask - Timothy S. Y. Lam Museum of Anthropology\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/2023\/02\/puerto-rican-carnival-mask\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/2023\/02\/puerto-rican-carnival-mask\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/prod.wp.cdn.aws.wfu.edu\/sites\/417\/2023\/02\/AOTM-Puerto-Rican-Carnival-Mask-500.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-02-02T20:01:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-01T14:27:31+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/#\/schema\/person\/943833eccd0de6b4defd882b6f8bbe13\"},\"description\":\"This carnival mask comes from Ponce, the second largest city in Puerto Rico, and it represents a distinctive character known as the vejigante.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/2023\/02\/puerto-rican-carnival-mask\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/2023\/02\/puerto-rican-carnival-mask\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/prod.wp.cdn.aws.wfu.edu\/sites\/417\/2023\/02\/AOTM-Puerto-Rican-Carnival-Mask-500.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/prod.wp.cdn.aws.wfu.edu\/sites\/417\/2023\/02\/AOTM-Puerto-Rican-Carnival-Mask-500.jpg\",\"width\":500,\"height\":500,\"caption\":\"Vejigante Mask\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/\",\"name\":\"Timothy S. Y. Lam Museum of Anthropology\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/#\/schema\/person\/943833eccd0de6b4defd882b6f8bbe13\",\"name\":\"cromwess@wfu.edu\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/author\/cromwess-2\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Puerto Rican Carnival Mask - Timothy S. Y. Lam Museum of Anthropology","description":"This carnival mask comes from Ponce, the second largest city in Puerto Rico, and it represents a distinctive character known as the vejigante.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/2023\/02\/puerto-rican-carnival-mask\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Puerto Rican Carnival Mask - Timothy S. Y. Lam Museum of Anthropology","og_description":"This carnival mask comes from Ponce, the second largest city in Puerto Rico, and it represents a distinctive character known as the vejigante.","og_url":"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/2023\/02\/puerto-rican-carnival-mask\/","og_site_name":"Timothy S. Y. Lam Museum of Anthropology","article_published_time":"2023-02-02T20:01:40+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-07-01T14:27:31+00:00","og_image":[{"width":500,"height":500,"url":"https:\/\/prod.wp.cdn.aws.wfu.edu\/sites\/417\/2023\/02\/AOTM-Puerto-Rican-Carnival-Mask-500.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cromwess@wfu.edu","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cromwess@wfu.edu","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/2023\/02\/puerto-rican-carnival-mask\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/2023\/02\/puerto-rican-carnival-mask\/"},"author":{"name":"cromwess@wfu.edu","@id":"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/#\/schema\/person\/943833eccd0de6b4defd882b6f8bbe13"},"headline":"Puerto Rican Carnival Mask","datePublished":"2023-02-02T20:01:40+00:00","dateModified":"2025-07-01T14:27:31+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/2023\/02\/puerto-rican-carnival-mask\/"},"wordCount":389,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/2023\/02\/puerto-rican-carnival-mask\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/prod.wp.cdn.aws.wfu.edu\/sites\/417\/2023\/02\/AOTM-Puerto-Rican-Carnival-Mask-500.jpg","articleSection":["Artifacts"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/2023\/02\/puerto-rican-carnival-mask\/","url":"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/2023\/02\/puerto-rican-carnival-mask\/","name":"Puerto Rican Carnival Mask - Timothy S. Y. Lam Museum of Anthropology","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/2023\/02\/puerto-rican-carnival-mask\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/2023\/02\/puerto-rican-carnival-mask\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/prod.wp.cdn.aws.wfu.edu\/sites\/417\/2023\/02\/AOTM-Puerto-Rican-Carnival-Mask-500.jpg","datePublished":"2023-02-02T20:01:40+00:00","dateModified":"2025-07-01T14:27:31+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/#\/schema\/person\/943833eccd0de6b4defd882b6f8bbe13"},"description":"This carnival mask comes from Ponce, the second largest city in Puerto Rico, and it represents a distinctive character known as the vejigante.","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/2023\/02\/puerto-rican-carnival-mask\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/2023\/02\/puerto-rican-carnival-mask\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/prod.wp.cdn.aws.wfu.edu\/sites\/417\/2023\/02\/AOTM-Puerto-Rican-Carnival-Mask-500.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/prod.wp.cdn.aws.wfu.edu\/sites\/417\/2023\/02\/AOTM-Puerto-Rican-Carnival-Mask-500.jpg","width":500,"height":500,"caption":"Vejigante Mask"},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/#website","url":"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/","name":"Timothy S. Y. Lam Museum of Anthropology","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/#\/schema\/person\/943833eccd0de6b4defd882b6f8bbe13","name":"cromwess@wfu.edu","url":"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/author\/cromwess-2\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/201"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9799"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12281,"href":"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9799\/revisions\/12281"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}