(by Steve Hopkins)
Butterfly Table Tennis (and Bowmar Sports TTC the distributor for North America and Latin America) has an international focus, not just watching trends and results from table tennis hotbeds in Europe and Asia, but also supporting our sport in this hemisphere and seeking out great stories from events, tournaments, clubs, players, and enthusiasts.
The focus of this story is Puerto Rican artist and table tennis enthusiast, Alfredo Bauza. A few years ago, Bauza gained attention by presenting a piece to Puerto Rican player Adrian Diaz at the Universal 2020 ITTF Pan America Cup which was held in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico in early February 2020.
When asked about coming up with the idea to create a piece for Adriana Diaz, Bauza said, “Drawing Adriana is a powerful symbol of our nation and the world of table tennis – It is very important to highlight through art the triumphs of this great sport by the hands of a former player who emerged from both sport and art.”
Bauza was a table tennis player himself, and he credits the sport as part of his development both as an artist and as a human being. Art is something very personal to both the artist and the audience. And there was additional meaning for Bauza, a Puerto Rican artist immortalizing Diaz, a Puerto Rican athlete. For Bauza, art and sports are two elements where sovereignty can be achieved in Puerto Rico. As Bauza said, “[S]overeignty is only achieved through sports and art, it makes us free – something that politically cannot be achieved in our country.”
The piece itself was also uniquely Puerto Rican. The medium of the art was charcoal and tree ashes. The work was drawn on paper with the tree ashes coming from trees that had fallen during Hurricane Maria (which devastated large portions of the Island about two years earlier). As explained by Bauza, “The ash from the fallen Puerto Rican trees is a metaphor to draw the essence through the energy that Adriana pours into our society.”
The work was presented and “symbolically delivered” to Adriana at the event. Bauza and the Diaz family have remained in close contact and the original piece is expected to be on display at the Utuado Table Tennis Club. A print of the original will also be on display at the Chicago Latino Museum, where other Bauza pieces are regularly shown.
Bauza attended Albergue Olimpico, a sports-focused secondary school in Salinas that has trained many of the best table tennis players in Puerto Rico. He credits much of his intellectual and social development to excelling in a sport – as well as having an ability to travel and interact with other cultures. Combining education and sport instilled a sense of discipline and national pride and these have become powerful elements in his evolution as an artist. As Bauza explains:
“I have had to represent my country through art. I learned this in sports. It has been the complement to my success. So much so, that my art thesis mentions table tennis concepts translated into painting. Movements, gestures, speed and energy have been present in the creative process of painting (…) I am a competitive painter, disciplined with a line developed with energy and effect acquired with table tennis. That is evidenced in the testimony of my canvases.”
In table tennis, Bauza has played in regional and national championship events including Olympic festivals. He was a strong collegiate player. He played internationally, including the US Open. And he is still connected to the sport, not just following the achievements of Adriana Diaz and other great, Puerto Rican players, but also visiting recent events like the Butterfly Puerto Rico Open Teams Tournament held in April in San Juan each year.
As an artist, Bauza has exhibited both nationally and internationally with exhibits in Chicago, Miami and Boston and other international locations in Cuba, Spain, Germany, Italy, France, and the Dominican Republic. He has studied at Altos de Chavón in the Dominican Republic and at Casa Las Américas in Havana, Cuba. He was named resident artist at the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico, and has received a UNESCO medal along with numerous other awards and recognitions.
We closed our interview with a question about Bauza’s future plans in table tennis. Without missing an opportunity, Bauza suggested doing the first art exhibition sponsored by Butterfly. With some additional reflection, he said he’d like to display the real rackets of great players where he captures their face on their paddle and he could display both his signature and the player’s signature together.
To contact the artist: bauzaalfredojose@gmail.com
