Hatillo in Chicago: El Festival de Máscaras de Hatillo

Opened: April 2014

Hatillo in Chicago brought the colorful Festival de Máscaras de Hatillo to Chicago, commemorating the biblical Día de los Santos Inocentes. Through photographs and interpretive materials, the exhibition traced the festival’s beginnings with Canary Island settlers in 1823, who brought the tradition of masked horseback riders to Puerto Rico. It illustrated the transformation of the celebration from rural processions into a spectacular urban carnival filled with elaborately decorated floats, masks, music, and playful masqueraders.

The exhibition’s interpretive arc explained how the December 28 celebration blends solemn remembrance with exuberant play. Visitors encountered images of riders and carrozas moving through town, the bright textiles and painted cardboard masks, and the humorous “pranks” historically carried out in honor of the Day of the Holy Innocents. By highlighting the festival’s Canary Island roots and its evolution in the twentieth century, the show underscored the fluidity of tradition—how communities adapt ritual to contemporary life while preserving meaning.

In Chicago, the Hatillo story resonated with audiences whose own neighborhoods continually reinvent culture under pressure. The exhibition framed Hatillo’s festival as an example of collective creativity and social cohesion, drawing connections between craft, procession, and community identity. Detailed labels credited artisans and explained common motifs—horned masks, bold stripes, whistles, and sound systems—so viewers could decode the festival’s aesthetic language.

Completing PRAA’s “Carnival Trilogy,” this exhibition connected with Loíza in Chicago (2012) and Ponce in Chicago (2013), forming a collective portrait of Puerto Rico’s diverse festival traditions.