Presented in Point of Flesh (PoF), Se fue, a performance piece by major artists Awilda Sterling and Rigoberto Quintana is one of my most important works to date. My job alongside designer Christopher Santana was to conceptualize the dress for Sterling’s performance.

Sterling incarnated a plañidera, a woman that would typically get paid to cry a dead person. In this case, that person was Cuban revolutionary leader and dictator Fidel Castro.

I chose a silhouette typical of 1848’s Germany, year in which Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto was published. Since a plañideras attire is closer to 19th century silhouettes, the shape of the dress was a key point to what both artists wanted to portray.

My challenge as a stylist and consultant was to come up with a dress that could provide ease of movement and regardless of the silhouette, it had to be fresh because of Puerto Rico’s tropical weather. I asked the designer to use mostly black cotton, the corset was made in a stretch fabric in order to provide ease of movement, and the skirt base was mostly tulle for the desired volume.

The veil was highly exaggerated to represent both sides of the public opinion on Castro’s death, the ambiguity regarding his mourning in his country, and to question the authenticity of mourning as a public act.

Photography from left to right: Gaby Marcial, Usua Rio, Anna Astor