José Rodeiro Fireman, amazar-materials, 8" x 11," 2001 (Collection of Ella Rue)

This amazar depicts a brave NYC fireman and a loyal secretary helping a dying stockbroker within the World Trade Tower on September 11, 2001, during the infamous 9/11 attack. Notice how the three ash-covered specters allude to various Renaissance images of Christ’s “Deposition from The Cross.” In the background is Charles Demuth’s I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold (1928); which is based on Puerto Rican-American poet W. C. Williams’s The Great Figure. This poem asserts (via the image of a charging fire-truck) the valor of firemen and their stalwart and unwavering devotion to self-sacrifice and duty:

Among the rain / and lights / I saw the figure 5 /in gold / on a red/ fire truck / moving / tense / unheeded / to gong clangs / siren howls /and wheels rumbling / through the dark city.