El Mirador Azul (Puerto Rico, 1957[1]) was the only self-proclaimed surrealist group in Puerto Rico. The group included student artists and poets under the guidance of Spanish surrealist Eugenio F. Granell during his tenure (approximately 1950–1958, depending on source) at the University of Puerto Rico in Rio Piedras.
The group of university students—artists and poets—who would come to make up El Mirador Azul (The Blue Lookout) was meeting informally in a makeshift classroom in the basement of the University of Puerto Rico's main administrative building's tower, where art professor Eugenio Fernández Granell's studio space was located, before the group became known by that name.
The Blue Lookout refers to the space the group rented in 1957 located at #34 Calle Aibonito in Hato Rey.[2] (An announcement for the group's 1957 exhibit in Artes y Letras locates the rented space on Calle Arecibo in Hato Rey.)[3] It was a small apartment above the garage of a house within walking distance of the university, and it was painted blue with a balcony. Eventually, the students began referring to their meeting place as "el mirador" and "el mirador azul."[4] After the group could no longer afford to rent the mirador azul, gatherings were convened at different members' houses but slowly dissipated after members graduated, moved away, and began their careers.
The group, El Mirador Azul, firmly establishes Surrealism as a movement in Puerto Rico. Although the official group was short-lived, a number of its members continued with their artistic endeavors, both privately and publicly. Recent scholarship and exhibits have renewed public interest in the Mirador Azul, its members, and Granell's surrealist influence on the island's literary and artistic sensibilities of the time.
