Meet La Borinqueña, The Puerto Rican Superhero From NYC
July 10, 2018, 4:52 p.m.
The anthology features contributions from the likes of Rosario Dawson and Frank Miller, and cameos from Wonder Woman, Batman, Superman, Aquaman, and The Flash, thanks to DC Comics.
Since Hurricane Maria slammed Puerto Rico on September 20th, 2017, many have been organizing, donating, and advocating in support of recovery efforts; now you can add to that list comic book writing. Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez is the creator of La Borinqueña, a Puerto Rican superhero from NYC who helps the island in a new anthology called Ricanstruction: Reminiscing & Rebuilding Puerto Rico. The anthology, which was released in May, features contributions from the likes of Rosario Dawson and Frank Miller, and cameos from Wonder Woman, Batman, Superman, Aquaman, and The Flash, thanks to DC Comics.
In 2016, Miranda-Rodriguez decided that La Borinqueña (real name Marisol Rios De La Luz) could shed light on the humanitarian crisis caused by the island’s enormous debt load. He spoke to WNYC’s Shumita Basu recently about how the character came to be:
“I thought to myself I'm going to create a superhero, and I will hit the benchmarks that everyone is used to looking for in a superhero: colorful costume, engaging origin story, a cape. And I made her a Puerto Rican from New York City because I wanted to, through my narrative, create a story that will connect the three million people living in Puerto Rico to the six million living here across the United States but also connecting her to the world.”
On the cover of the new anthology, Wonder Woman joins La Borinqueña to dance above Puerto Rico’s famous “El Yunque” rainforest. DC Comics gave Miranda-Rodriguez permission to use any of its famous characters to help La Borinqueña in Puerto Rico (all proceeds will go to recovery efforts). Supergirl shows up to help out as well.
“When I speak to many of my friends in Puerto Rico and I would ask them, what can I do? Overwhelmingly, the response is just keep talking about us," Miranda-Rodriguez said. "Once the conversation ends, everything stops over here. And that connection is literally disconnected.”
On that note, 150 un-caped contributors got on board for the anthology (including the aforementioned Dawson and Miller). La Borinqueña doesn’t feature in all of them, however. Esmeralda Santiago’s story, for instance, looks back to the 1928 Hurricane San Felipe, and Miranda-Rodriguez said it was a way for the author of When I Was Puerto Rican to work out a narrative that her grandfather had first told her about rebuilding nearly 100 years ago.
La Borinqueña isn’t the only Puerto Rican superhero. Two years ago, Miranda-Rodriguez also gave Groot a boricua backstory.
Shumita Basu is a host, producer and reporter in the newsroom. You can follow her on Twitter @shubasu.
