The migratory condition distinguishes the art of the end of this century. It is about the movement of figures, colors, forms from one shore to another, from one time to another, from one culture to another culture. In painting, for this reason, we witness the ceremony of transition: the messages come from far and develop in the dialogue. The flow of this transcontinental and multilingual voyages is literal (a meeting of aduanas, languages and times), but also it is symbolic (a meshing of desires, rites and protocols). In the actual art this produces the displacement and decentralization of the old, stable notions (the figure, the landscape, the model) and imposes on us the mental processes (fluidity of color, movement of forms, languages of process). This migratory art declares the vulnerability of the body but also the stregth of its adventure. And, moreover, affirms the fleeting but solid space of a threshold.

      All of these characteristics have a place in the paintings of Raphael Díaz, a Latin-American artist based in Providence whose art in this exposition demonstrates its nomadic nature (an art which is the product of the great Hispanic migration of the end of this century) as well as its deeply-rooted calling (an art that seeks to make the mix livable, to give a base to the Hispanic experience in the United States). For this reason, this exposition is not necessarily the last of the twentieth century but rather, perhaps, the first of Hispanic art of the twenty­first century.

      The elements in the paintings of Raphael Díaz are, in fact, migratory materials. They have not, however, forgetten their own place on this shore. Each of them refers to its origin, yet each of them demands a future. Raphael Díaz, in truth, is a nomadic artist who has found lineage in the rich Latino world of Rhode Island. Never in vain, he moves with comfort between Dominican literature and the Mexican kitchen, between Puertorican painting and Colombian music. Dedicated to teaching art in the public schools, he dedicates himself as well to the social and cultural development of the Hispanic community. Recently, Raphael´s decision to leave New York and to establish himself in Providence has proven a decisive one in the development of his art. This sample proves that he has achieved not only artistic maturity and technique but also a skillful control of his natural talent in scenes of exploration and forms of celebration. It´s no coincidence, then, that the window be the physical format that he has chosen in which to elaborate his message. The window is what follows a threshold. The migrant who has won the right to his space has conquered as well the possibility of viewing the world (real or dreamed) from his own window.

      The windows are, first of all, ope spaces to the world. Not mere observatories, but rather elaborate marks of reference each framing of the world is an artistic style, a cultural history. The abserce of paradise that the sample declares as its perspective converts into an exploration; that is to say, in a convocation of its signs. The windows offer, on one hand, our world (plagued with injustice, violence and loneliness); but, on the other hand, the possible world (where dreams are a utopian pronouncement). But the window itself - its ornate, laborious form; its sensual color-represents to the art its ability to focus and define our capacity to see, and to see more. These windows come from far away but are here as part of a house of art, and for this reason they give shelter to the gaze. In the space of migration Raphael´s talent with art and color has been able to open a privileged onlooker. His windows welcome us.

      These constructions (windows) and figures (male bodies) are characterized by the vivacity of their coloring. The painter is capable of giving vibration and warmth to the colored gamut with which he recovers spaces and souls. His color is full of light and sympathy, of contrast and sensuality. But it is also a delicate and subtle color, almost nostalgic of the abundance that the art permits and of the memory that it evokes. In his great work of migration, Raphael Díaz paints a vast, agitated sea on which five migrants navigate towards their luck in a paper boat. They are propably Cubans crossing the few miles that have become an abyss; but they could also be Dominicans crossing the straight that has become a tomb. Or Mexicans and Central Americans, rising against the danger of the United States border, that "scar", as Carlos Fuentes refers to it. This painting, as it is, denounces the vulnerability of the migrant but also celebrates his courage, his capacity to take risks. This painting suggests that we have moved past the vision of a traumatic migration condemned to ostracism to a more mature and secure vision of the migrant as an subject capable of etching his own space.

      In this sample, the new Latino art declares its ability to build a threshold forged by the Hispanic culture, by its capacity for dialogue, and by its tendency to add and include. These windows (lyrical, crafted, nostalgic) await whomever is able to see them freely. We must thank the imaginative and refined quality of Raphael Díaz for having added these windows to the world.