The vejigante runs the street in batwing sleeves, swinging an inflated bladder, wearing a face that Loíza carves from coconut and higuera gourd and Ponce builds from newsprint and homemade glue. Its crown of horns points every way at once.

This system takes its discipline from the paint itself: flat enamel fields, thick black keylines, dots and wedges stacked over one another, horn tips in contrast — all of it sitting on the dark unpainted shell that the maker deliberately leaves bare.