Estudio de Arte Samuel Lind

Samuel Lind’s two-story wooden home functions as an art gallery and studio.

Visitors can view his overwhelming collection of work, which ranges from colorful cartoonish posters for local festivals, to life-like paintings of Black women, to serious life-sized clay and bronze statues depicting African people and deities.

Themes of nature and African heritage fill the walls of the studio—and so does the Puerto Rican flag.Several of the island’s flags hang visibly and proudly among Lind’s hundreds of paintings, because most of Lind’s work is inspired by his hometown, the small beachside community of Loíza, Puerto Rico.

Loíza is Puerto Rico’s center for African-inspired traditions and it retains one of the largest Black populations on the island; more than 60 percent of its 30,000 residents identify as Black.

Known as the “Capital of Traditions,” Loíza is the birthplace of Black Puerto Rican music and is where the dance Plena was born. Bomba music and other African-Taino infused food and traditions are commonplace here. Loíza artisans produce the colorful coconut masks displayed at festivals and make the unique Bomba drums.