José Luis Falconi discusses Nuyorican photographer Adal Maldonado’s series, Out of Focus Nuyoricans, as a metaphorical depiction of the mutable nature of Puerto Rican identity and nationhood. By choosing to portray his Puerto Rican subjects as blurred, Maldonado’s series highlights how the perception of individuals, communities, and nations as a whole, is dependent on both memory and desire. Falconi concludes that the value of Out of Focus Nuyoricans’ series is that spectators are challenged to consider the sociopolitical and physical conditions that render subjects visible. Ultimately, Maldonado’s photographs and installations do not satisfy the desire to actualize Puerto Rican identity, but instead ask us to take pleasure in beholding subjects that cannot be completely seen.

Adal Maldonado’s photographic series, Out of Focus Nuyoricans, features blurry images of well-known artists and musicians of Puerto Rican descent including: Tito Puente, Raul Julia, Pepon Osorio, and Papo Colo. First exhibited at El Museo del Barrio in 1996, Out of Focus Nuyoricans was last shown at the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University, in 2004. The series is accompanied by an introductory text by the late poet Pedro Pietri, entitled “Nuyoricans Out of Focus.”Pedro Pietri (1944–2004) is recognized as the poet laureate of the Puerto Rican Diaspora in New York City. A member of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe circle that includes Miguel Algarin, Papoleto Melendez, and Sandra Maria Estevez, Pietri engaged in interdisciplinary collaborations with visual artists, such as Nitza Tufiño and Adal Maldonado. Pietri wrote “Nuyoricans Out of Focus” as an introduction to a series of photographic portraits by Adal Maldonano that is entitled Out of Focus Nuyoricans. First exhibited at El Museo del Barrio in 1996, Adal’s photographs feature blurry images of well-known artists and musicians of Puerto Rican descent including: Tito Puente, Raul Julia, Pepón Osorio, and Papo Colo. This ongoing series was last exhibited in 2004 at the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University.