Inside ¡Wepa!: Puerto Rican comics and pastelillos take center stage
The New York Public Library’s ¡Wepa! exhibition brings decades of overlooked Latino comic-book history into the spotlight, featuring works that blend everyday life, food culture and whimsical visuals.
By Rich Tenorio | Edited by Patricia Guadalupe
University of Puerto Rico graduate Stephany Moyano Ayala found a way to combine two very different fields of study: Drawing and Culinary Arts. She created comic books based on her experiences in the food service industry. Sometimes, working in restaurants was decidedly unsavory – a swarm of cockroaches, a directive to prepare rotten fish. Yet she found solace in a new job: Making pastelillos, or stuffed turnovers, in the coastal island town of Luquillo. In a comic book named after the Luquillo ZIP code of 00773, Moyano Ayala created whimsical, wordless art – pastelillos that take on human characteristics, smiling at the reader.