Puerto Rico’s Colonial Status

America and Race, Latinos and Race, Latinos in Media, New York City Politics, Puerto Rico's Colonial Status, US Intervention in Latin America

The Young Lords’ Revolution

The legacy of the Young Lords is something that has followed me throughout my adult life as a New York–born-and-bred child of Puerto Rican immigrants. The Young Lords’ unrelenting calls for Puerto Rican independence, their various interventions in local politics, their unyielding solidarity with colonized and working-class people everywhere, their stunning presence (often augmented by […]

Latinos and Race, Puerto Rico's Colonial Status, Urban/Global Politics, US Intervention in Latin America

Caught between two governments, Puerto Ricans show their resilience

The island recently withstood several earthquakes, hundreds of aftershocks, and governmental turmoil. It needs progressive change in policy from the U.S. [Originally published in The Hill February 18, 2020] It’s been such a rocky start to the year 2020 in Puerto Rico that hundreds of locals decided to tear it all up and start from […]

Puerto Rico's Colonial Status, Republican Party politics, US Intervention in Latin America

Hurricane Dorian missed Puerto Rico, but thanks to Trump and others its future remains stormy

Originally published on NBC Think Sept. 5, 2019, 6:14 PM As Hurricane Dorian spun erratically past Puerto Rico’s northeast corner last week, most of the island breathed a deep sense of relief. The storm did batter St. Thomas, a U.S. Virgin Island, and the offshore island-municipalities of Culebra and Vieques, and has wreaked havoc on the Bahamas, where […]

America and Race, Globalization, Hemispheric Identity, Latinos and Race, Puerto Rico's Colonial Status, Resistance in the Trump Era, Urban/Global Politics, US Intervention in Latin America

Hurricane Maria swept away the illusion of Puerto Ricans’ citizenship

Protesters in San Juan left more than 100 pairs of shoes outside the Capitolio, home to Puerto Rico’s legislature, as a silent rebuke to the government for undercounting the number of residents who died last year from the effects of Hurricane Maria. A Harvard University study published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine […]

America and Race, Globalization, Hemispheric Identity, Latinos and Race, Puerto Rico's Colonial Status, Resistance in the Trump Era, Urban/Global Politics, US Intervention in Latin America

A Cartoon History of Colonialism in Puerto Rico

This originally appeared in The Village Voice. Illustrations: Omar Banuchi Words: Ed Morales Written by Ed Morales, Illustrated by Omar Banuchi Originally published in The Village Voice, March 19, 2018

America and Race, Globalization, Hemispheric Identity, Latinos and Race, Puerto Rico's Colonial Status, Resistance in the Trump Era, Urban/Global Politics

Like most members of the Puerto Rican diaspora, I couldn’t reach my family and friends on the island for more than a week after Hurricane Maria made landfall on Sept. 20. All I had to work with was a quick phone call my mother’s neighbor had made to my sister. The neighbor said that my […]

America and Race, Globalization, Hemispheric Identity, Latinos and Race, Latinos in Media, Puerto Rico's Colonial Status, Urban/Global Politics, US Intervention in Latin America

In Puerto Rico, Disconnection and Chaos, but Grace Under Pressure

With almost no power and shortages of water and medicine, this island is full of people suffering from PTSD. By Ed Morales October 13, 2017 San Juan—As Donald Trump’s rule-by-disinformation strategy intensifies, three weeks after Hurricane Maria, a reeling Puerto Rico is becoming more of a sideshow for his callous stereotyping and ruthlessness. He is […]

America and Race, Globalization, Hemispheric Identity, Latinos and Race, Puerto Rico's Colonial Status, Urban/Global Politics, US Intervention in Latin America

Puerto Rico: Belonging to, But Not Part of

The Trump administration’s delay in sending real aid to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria is a distasteful display of colonialist racism. But it’s par for the course: our citizenship has always been second-class. “We’re American citizens. How can Trump turn his back on us?” This is one of the pleas I’m hearing over and […]

America and Race, Globalization, Hemispheric Identity, Latinos and Race, Puerto Rico's Colonial Status, Urban/Global Politics, US Intervention in Latin America

Puerto Rico Needs Massive Emergency Aid Now—and an End to Austerity

The island has become a target not only for rapacious vulture funds but also for exponents of Katrina-style “disaster capitalism.” September 27, 2017 Hurricane Maria has created a humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico. Much of the capital city of San Juan is flooded; there is contaminated water in the streets, shortages of gasoline and […]

Globalization, Hemispheric Identity, Latinos and Race, Puerto Rico's Colonial Status, Republican Party politics, Resistance in the Trump Era, Urban/Global Politics, US Intervention in Latin America

Puerto Rico’s Oversight Board Is About to Slash Government Workers’ Hours—and Pay

August 31, 2017 The most recent meeting of Puerto Rico’s Financial Oversight and Management Board (FOMB)—known colloquially as “La Junta”—was held Friday, August 4, at the luxurious Hotel El Conquistador of Fajardo, a remote fishing town on the island’s northeast corner. Far from the urban milieu of protest in the capital city of San Juan, […]