photo caption: Waiting room, veterinarian's office, Bayamon, PR. Framed contemporary folk art picture on wall shows two young combatants with their roosters at cockfight in Santa Olaya, PR.
Spring, 1987 artist David Wojnarowicz and his lover Tom Rauffenbart spent a few days in Puerto Rico:
David wanted to film a cockfight. They found a place in San Juan that Tom described as "upscale" and "classy," the top of the line for this activity. But they had a few days before the fights were scheduled, so they drove off to explore the island... On their way back to San Juan from the west coast of Puerto Rico, they ran into a heavy storm and flooded roads. At one point, they got stuck in a puddle and had to hire some kids to push them out. Tom found an alternate route through the mountains, so they avoided further floods, but they got back to San Juan too late for the cockfight. "David was miserable," Tom said. "I mean fucking miserable as only David could be. Inconsolable." Then, as they drove through town, Tom happened to spot a large drawing of a cockfight on a building. "As luck would have it, they were just starting their day's fights," he said. "Thank god."
This was a neighborhood place, shabbier and thus more interesting to film. The proprietor not only gave David permission to film the fight but also let him go back to where the handlers were prepping the birds, attaching razor-sharp spurs to their legs. David included this footage in a A FIRE IN MY BELLY. The cockfight must have seemed essential to him because it gave him an animal-versus-animal fight. He already had animal-versus-human (a bullfight filmed off a television) and human-versus-human (Mexican wrestling).
"We almost broke up twice during that trip," Tom said.
[excerpt from FIRE IN THE BELLY:The life and times of David Wajnarowicz, by Cynthia Carr, published by Bloomsbury USA, New York, First U.S. edition, 2012.]
note: In November 2010, G. Wayne Clough, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, removed an edited version of footage used in Wojnarowicz's short silent film A FIRE IN MY BELLY from the exhibit "Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture" at the National Portrait Gallery after complaints from the Catholic League, Minority Leader John Boehner, and Rep. Eric Cantor who threatened reduced federal funding for the Smithsonian. The video contains a scene with a crucifix covered in ants. [Wikipedia]
A FIRE IN MY BELLY (video excerpt courtesy PPOW gallery, NYC)
Jan Galligan
75Grand/Sur
Santa Olaya, PR
http://JANGuarte.posterous.com [art blog]
http://cinefestsanjuan.posterous.com [cine blog]
http://about.me/JanGalligan [about me]