Half Deck // Brooks. Aguadilla, Puerto Rico (2021)

Images by Isil Sol and Javier Carrera Montalvo

On November 23rd 2021, Luis Vasquez La Roche began digging a 1.5 feet hole in the shape of the Brookes slave ship on the coastline of Playa Punta Borinquen. In the following four days, after shovelling for 5 to 8 hours each day, they would return to find the sea had undone all the work from the previous day.

After several attempts, on November 27, they marked the half-deck of the slave ship on the coastline. This section of the slave ship transported enslaved women.