Remembering Angela Sonquo Tapia

Photo by Michael Reyes Salas

Scholar, alumna, friend
May 10, 1974 – April 29, 2023

 

Photos by Angela Sonquo Tapia

 

Read Angela Tapia’s 2017 Portal article,
“Making Beauty: The Wearing of Polleras in the Andean Altiplano”

A woman dressed in traditional Andean polleras sits on a white love seta surrounded by three stuffed teddy bears. There are flowers in various places around her, and there is a wall in back with a photograph of a heart made of red roses and large colorful parrots, almost out of the frame. Centered, she smiles. She is wearing an off-white straw hat, a shawl in brown plaid draped across her chest, and a pale pink full-length skirt with brown accents sewn on vertically in two places. Her hands are folded. Her hair is black and gathered behind.
Angela Tapia in polleras, undated. Courtesy of Michael Reyes Salas.
A woman with brown skin and black hair is dressed in a dark gray bowler hat and a bright yellow coat, along with purple pants. She is wearing a backpack. She also has a round purse that sits centered at about the level of her hips. She stands in front of an ornate wrought-iron gate, and a red brick pillar with a sign that reads American Philosophical Society, Founded 1763. The sun is hitting her face and the front of her coat. She has a slight knowing smile.
Angela Tapia in Philadelphia at the American Philosophical Society, where she was a fellow in 2019–2020. Photo by Michael Reyes Salas.