In February 2022, I released a digital artwork titled Abriendo Camino.
At the time, I was going through a personal transformation — one that, in retrospect, mirrored a much larger shift taking place across the world.
What felt like an internal process soon revealed itself as part of a broader transition, where systems, technologies, and ways of creating were beginning to change at an accelerated pace.
A Gesture of Force and Direction
At the center of Abriendo Camino stands the figure of the jíbaro — a symbol deeply rooted in Puerto Rican identity.
Traditionally associated with the land, the jíbaro embodies resilience, labor, and a generational relationship with effort.
In this work, that figure becomes something more.
With the force of a hurricane, the jíbaro brings down his machete — not to destroy, but to open.
A path is carved.
A direction is established.
A future begins to emerge.
The Continuity of Effort
At its core, the piece reflects a simple idea:
The nature of effort evolves, but its essence remains.
What once took place in the fields now unfolds across digital landscapes.
The tools have changed.
The environments have shifted.
But the impulse to build, to survive, and to move forward continues.
Not as a fixed form, but as a persistent force that adapts to its context.
Entering the Unknown
Abriendo Camino was conceived in 2021 as a gesture of continuity.
A tribute to those who came before us,
and an offering to those who will come after.
It reflects a fundamental truth:
The path does not exist until we walk it.
Progress emerges through uncertainty.
Through risk.
Through the willingness to step into territories that have no guarantees.
Confronting Transformation
By 2023, that sense of transition became impossible to ignore.
Technology began evolving at a pace that challenged long-held assumptions about creativity, labor, and authorship.
In that moment, I experienced something many artists and creators have felt:
A confrontation with a system that seemed capable of surpassing human effort.
A presence that could generate, replicate, and accelerate processes that once required years of dedication.
It felt overwhelming. Even destabilizing.
But this moment reflects something larger — a historical shift where human creativity is not disappearing, but being redefined.
From Resistance to Collaboration
Rather than resisting this transformation, I chose to engage with it.
To understand it.
To experiment with it.
To explore how these emerging systems could become part of the creative process.
This led me to revisit Abriendo Camino —
not as a static work, but as a living concept.
Reinterpreted through the use of artificial intelligence, the piece expands into a new dimension, where traditional symbolism and computational processes intersect.
A Path That Continues to Open
This reinterpretation marks one of my earliest explorations into AI as a creative tool.
An attempt to translate a deeply human narrative — labor, identity, and progress — into evolving visual systems shaped by technology.
