Manuel Hernández Acevedo
(1921-1988)

From a family of humble means, Manuel Hernández Acevedo, completed his education through the fourth grade and then went to work as a shoemaker, an apprentice sign painter and cook. While working at the Workshop for Graphic Arts of the Community Education Division for the Department of Public Instruction, he was inspired by other artists at the studio. His humble and honored personality showed through in his paintings, described as primitive because of their spontaneous character and the simplicity and variety of light and color. His favorite scenes were of streets and houses of old San Juan in which we appreciate strange little details, like fence posts, overhead power wires and small kites. Plaza San José, the artwork selected for the Census 2000 poster, is in the collection of the new Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico which will open in 2000 in San Juan.

The Census Bureau works cooperatively with The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, The Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, and The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands to take a census every 10 years. The 1990 census counted 3.5 million people in Puerto Rico, but Census 2000 should find the population nearing 4 million.