San José y el Cristo Niño (1794, Puerto Rico) by José Campeche y Jordán - Public Domain Catholic Painting

According to the Gospels, Joseph was the husband of the Virgin Mary and the foster father of Jesus. In Puerto Rico, St. Joseph is often invoked by and for the dying. He is the patron saint of several Puerto Rican communities, including the island’s western region of Lares. (Yvonne Lange, ​“Santos: The Household Wooden Saints of Puerto Rico,” PhD diss., 1975).

José Campeche y Jordán (December 23, 1751 – November 7, 1809)^[1] is the first known Puerto Rican visual artist^[1][2][3] and considered by art critics as one of the best Latin American portrait artists of the Rococo period^[4]. He was Puerto Rico's most sought-after painter in the late 18th and early 19th century^[3] and learned his craft from Spanish painters in San Juan^[5].