Luna Jay Yvelisse Verified listing

Boricua—a visual archive of Caribbean American girlhood, resistance, and survival. This collection holds the layers of being Nuyorican and Puerto Rican identity.

This collection is a visual altar to Goddesses from Arawak (Indigenous Caribbean), Yoruba (West African) cultures and Biblical traditions—three sacred cultural lineages carried by Afro-Indigenous women through blood, spirit, and resistance. In Yoruba tradition, we honor Yemaya, Oshun, and Oya—Orishas, divine forces of nature venerated in traditions such as Santería, Ifá, Lukumi, and Candomblé. They are part of the Seven African Powers, called upon for protection, resistance, resilience, love, fertility, and transformation. Yemaya, mother of all, mother of oceans and nurturer of life. Oshun, mother of rivers, love, sensuality, and fertility. Oya, mother of storms, wind, and the gateway between death and rebirth. In Arawak (Taíno) tradition, we honor Diosa Luna, the moon goddess. She emerges from a sacred cave in the territory of Cacique Mautiatibuel (Child of Dawn) and returns with the moonrise. More than a celestial being, Diosa Luna was believed to have the power to bless women with pregnancy. In one story, a woman conceives in her sleep after praying to the moon, highlighting the Arawak connection between lunar energy, fertility, and spiritual conception. Caves were sacred spaces—seen as portals between worlds, and as sources of life, emergence, and feminine power. In Biblical tradition, we reclaim Eve and Lilith, two women whose stories have been reshaped and suppressed by patriarchy. Eve, the first woman in the Book of Genesis, often blamed for the fall of man, is reframed here as a life-giver—a bearer of wisdom, growth, and transformation. The act of her eating from the forbidden tree is controversial and means different things across cultures. Lilith, from ancient Jewish mysticism and folklore, is said to be Adam’s first wife who refused to submit to him and was cast out for demanding equality. Over time, she was demonized as a seductress, yet she remains a symbol of rebellion, autonomy, and feminine sovereignty. Together, Eve and Lilith speak to the duality of the sacred feminine—creation and refusal, softness and fire, womanhood and independence. They remind us that Biblical womanhood was never one-dimensional—it was revolutionary. These goddesses are not myths or metaphors. They are spirit, breath, memory, and living presence. This is how we honor them. This is how we remember ourselves.

Woman are God