Summary of Project Option in Lieu of Thesis
 Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida
 in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the
 Degree of Master of Fine Arts

 DIALOGO URBANO: PERCEPTIONS OF LIFE, LANGUAGE AND IDENTITY IN
 METROPOLITAN PUERTO RICO

 By
 Ricardo Hernandez
 May 2007

Chair: Brian Slawson
Major Department: Art and Art History

 This creative project explores my perception of the urban landscape of the metropolitan

area in Puerto Rico. Since its discovery by the Spanish, San Juan has always been primarily

urban and it is this density that has defined the way we are today. This urbanity has affected our

language, cuisine, music, architecture, and entire way of life. It has also molded me as an

individual, artist, student, and citizen. My objective in this research project is to expose the

urban, and other, realities that live within me through writing and visual memories. It also

attempts to depict several urban conditions in which exist in the metropolitan area today.

 In order to begin my explorations, I, collected from imagery that belonged to my family for

generations and as well as that which I collected during my visits and life in Puerto Rico. This

auto-ethnographic technique accentuates my perception of life in the city (this being the

metropolitan area of Puerto Rico). Through a process of collection, analysis, and evolution, I

emphasized poetry and cockfighting- the latter a metaphor for being a man in the city. Through

these I filtered then transformed the content and visual product of my creative work. It became

the threshold between my past, my present and my future. The connections between my imagery

and poetry are an attempt to better understand not only myself but the complexity of Puerto

Rican identity in an urban setting.