Pura Cruz

Pura Cruz (born September 2, 1942) is a Puerto Rican feminist artist most famous for her artworks in her Adam–1999 series and her Broken Guitar series. Cruz currently creates art in Long Island after living and moving from New York.

Biography On September 2, 1942, Pura Cruz was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico and later moved and grew up in East Harlem, New York. Cruz owes most of her artwork and inspiration to her life in New York, claiming that living in New York gave her “street smarts” and “independence” and allowed her art to convey social and political views. Although born in Puerto Rico and considered a Latin American feminist artist, growing up in New York gave her her roots and played a huge part in her childhood and who she is, even creating several collections and art pieces about her life in New York.

Unlike other young girls she grew up with, Cruz was more of a tomboy and read comics and superhero stories growing up. Wonder Woman played a large part in her childhood and helped find her femininity and strength in being a woman. Unlike most woman in her era who were submissive and catered to male needs, Wonder Woman provided Cruz with a sense of empowerment and individuality which inspired a lot of her work, even describing Wonder Woman as her role model. Cruz also owes her inspiration to family folklore and "domestic magic".

Cruz describes her art process as sporadic, spontaneous, and pure, starting from just playing with art supplies. Her art usually does not start with a formula or set idea, but is executed through trial and error and usually involved political statements or a combination of her life in New York and upbringings in Puerto Rico.

2015 Marcelo Lucero painting:

Cruz honored a painting for Lucero after he was stabbed to death by teenagers in 2008 as a result of a hate crime. This painting was to honor Lucero and to bring awareness to anti-Latino hate crimes in Long Island.

Honors and awards WWCode Scholarship – Awarded scholarship through Zenva academy and plans to use it to expand visual arts through Java Script Programming.

"BIG PICTURE" Award of Excellence – Pura Cruz, "A Guitara Grows on Long Island". Cruz was awarded the Award of Excellence for this piece in her Broken Guitars collection by the Art League of Long Island in the BIG PICTURE exhibit.

Publications Pura Cruz has no known publications.