This work is part of a large-format triptych in which Belkis Ayón represents the consecration ceremonies of the Abakuá secret society and its hierarchies. In this fragment of the triptych, the ritual of the oath spiritual leaders known as “plaza” is staged. The characters are represented with attributes that show the rank held by each of them, organized in a pyramidal structure that replicates the stratification of political power on the island.

In the ritual representation, the mythical is reinterpreted to show ethical, social, or political issues in the Cuban context. This is a poetics that persists in Ayon’s work: transcending the religious sphere to address topics such as marginality, lack of freedom, censorship, fear, and violence while highlighting the oppression associated with gender and race.

A graduate of the Instituto Superior de Arte in 1991 and with an outstanding career as an art teacher, Ayón is considered one of the greatest exponents of engraving in the 1990s. The artist transcended the two-dimensionality of traditional engraving through experimentation with collagraphy, a technique with which she achieved complex assemblages and expands the genre toward installation formats.