Last week’s research led me to think about how the sound and symbolism of the coquí evolved as a marker of Puerto Rican identity, both on the island and in the diaspora? Through different sources, I learned that the coquí is more than just a small frog with a loud voice. It’s an ancestral soundscape, a symbol of resistance, and a cultural lifeline. According to the EPA, the coquí has been significant in Puerto Rican culture since Taíno times, appearing in ancient pictographs, pottery, and oral stories. The frog’s song was believed to be the voice of a woman crying for her lost love, giving the coquí a mythic, spiritual aspect.
However, today that sound is under threat. Not only from climate change and invasive species, but also from cultural erasure. Gisselle Rivera-Flores from Silencing the Coquí. Silencing the People argues that attempts to silence the coquí, especially by tourists who find it "annoying," mirror deeper colonial dynamics where Puerto Rican people, culture, and language are expected to quiet themselves for mainland comfort. Similarly, in El País, it documents how American tourists have tried to complain about the coquí’s call, treating it as noise rather than song, highlighting tensions between cultural preservation and the pressures of a tourism economy. So through these findings, I want to deepen my commitment to centering the coquí in my artwork and in this art intervention, not just as a symbol of Puerto Rico’s natural beauty, but as a resistance to colonial silencing and as a call for cultural memory.
For my artist intervention, I was considering creating a multi-part, visual and audio-based installation centered on the coquí frog. Though tiny in size, the coquí’s call is one of the loudest and most recognizable sounds of the island, deeply tied to memory, belonging, and resistance. Today, that sound is under threat due to climate change, gentrification, and the silencing forces of colonial tourism. This project is my way of amplifying that voice, making it heard, seen, and remembered. The idea is to feature posters. Each will highlight artwork of the coquí, accompanied by urgent statements or facts about its cultural importance and the efforts to silence or erase it. Each poster will also include a QR code that links to a curated soundscape featuring real coquí calls. Alongside these posters would be stickers featuring the coquí symbol, which can invite viewers to spread the coquí. An addition I'm thinking of is installing an enlarged coquí with the QR code. While the real coquí is small, this intentional scale shift can show how marginalized voices must sometimes be amplified to be heard.
https://www.epa.gov/climateimpacts/climate-change-connections-puerto-rico-coqui-frog#:~:text=The%20coqu%C3%AD%20has%20a%20deep,art%2C%20pictographs%2C%20and%20pottery.&text=According%20to%20Ta%C3%ADno%20beliefs%2C%20the,Coqu%C3%AD%2C%E2%80%9D%20her%20lost%20love. Climate Change Connections: Puerto Rico (Coquí Frog)
https://giselleriveraflores.substack.com/p/silencing-the-coqui-silencing-the Silencing the Coquí. Silencing the People.
https://english.elpais.com/climate/2025-06-01/puerto-ricans-denounce-that-american-tourists-are-trying-to-silence-the-song-of-the-coqui-the-islands-endemic-and-endangered-frog.html Puerto Ricans denounce that American tourists are trying to ‘silence’ the song of the coquí, the island’s endemic and endangered frog
https://centropr.hunter.cuny.edu/publications/ricanactments-mourning-kinship-and-existential-waiting-in-natalia-lassalle-morillos-en-parabola-conversations-on-tragedy-2024/ Rican(actments): Mourning, Kinship, and Existential Waiting in Natalia Lassalle-Morillo’s En Parábola/Conversations on Tragedy
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