The devastating impact of two major hurricanes in 2017 and their ongoing aftereffects reveal the inequalities that have long marked the relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States. Following the storm’s passage, when the media showed images of Puerto Ricans standing in the rubble of their homes or drinking from contaminated bodies of water, a narrative emerged that the U.S. government needed to step up recovery efforts because “Puerto Ricans are Americans.” The reality, however, is that American citizenship has seldom extended bodily protection or sympathetic recognition to racially and economically marginalized others under the dominion of the United States.

Opinion article with Marisol Lebrón for The Funambulist No. 16, Proletarian Fortresses, March-April 2018 (subscription).