Star Power: A Puerto Rican Superheroine and Her Creator Are Flying High – Vanguard Seattle

Powered by Puerto Rico’s ancient spirits of wind, water and mountains, La Borinqueña—aka Afro Latinx college student Marisol Rios de la Luz—is a superheroine who’s moving heaven and earth to call attention to the island’s environmental and debt crises. But that’s not all. La Borinqueña and her creator, Nuyorican artist Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez, are holding up a mirror for people consistently left out of mainstream superhero comics. From her proud black-boricua heritage, to her realistic body proportions, to her presence as a bilingual STEM student at an Ivy League college, to her friends and family rendered in a refreshing variety of skin tones and hair types, Marisol is not the kind of heroine one usually sees in print. Her costume is also based on the Puerto Rican bandera and her name is the title of the Puerto Rican national anthem, which literally translates to “The Puerto Rican Woman.” La Borinqueña just debuted in winter 2016 through Somos Arte, Miranda-Rodriguez’ own indie imprint, but the artist has been working for years to address this lack of representation. He curated an art exhibit on longtime Cuban-American Marvel editor, writer and artist Joe Quesada, bringing the cultural aspects of his legacy into focus. There was also… Read more »

Source: Star Power: A Puerto Rican Superheroine and Her Creator Are Flying High – Vanguard Seattle