Alana Casanova-Burgess

This is La Brega Campeones.

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By 1 p.m., a city crew had removed the statue of Ponce de Leon, or the two pieces of it, from the plaza.

No one knew the whereabouts of the shattered colonizer, but with five hours left until the king's arrival, we got a glimpse.

Someone, it seemed likely that it was a municipal employee, had recorded an eight-second video that I can only describe as art.

The opening frame shows one of those blue quilted blankets people use to protect precious cargo.

A left hand pulls the fabric back and reveals Ponce de Leon's face and gives him a short swift slap.

It's hard to keep a straight face, even just remembering the video.

It has derailed our editorial meetings and makes it hard to even record these lines.

The comedic timing is impeccable, but it's also deep.

In life, Ponce de Leon was a violent conquistador.

As a statue, he was glorified on an adorned pedestal.

But now he was broken in two and casually slapped.

— That's not to say everyone agreed.

It's typical, when a controversial monument is vandalized, for some people to see it as an affront to heritage and an effort to rewrite history.

And there were people who certainly felt that way and were offended.

Online, there were arguments in comment sections and on Facebook posts about what the statue really represented.

The director of the Museum of San Juan was giving voice to that reaction in interviews.

And that's because Juan Ponce de León isn't only a person who existed and who enslaved and killed indigenous people and Africans.

He's also a symbol of Spanish heritage and part of a conversation about what it means to be Puerto Rican and who represents our origins.