Emerson College Library: Teach-in on Race 2025: Session 2:¡Lucha sí, entrega no! The History of Student Movements for the Liberation of Puerto Rico

Description

Session 2:¡Lucha sí, entrega no! The History of Student Movements for the Liberation of Puerto Rico

Wednesday, February 5, 2:00-3:00 PM - Little Building, Lower Level, Judee Wales Watson Theater

Join us for a presentation and discussion on student-led strikes and organizations for Puerto Rican liberation, exploring their role in challenging colonialism and advocating for self-determination. We’ll also feature End the Debt! Decolonize! Liberate Puerto Rico!, a powerful artistic response to Hurricane María. This 170-foot pre-cinematic scroll tells a story of resistance to U.S. colonialism in Puerto Rico and its diaspora, integrating hand-illustrated images and original music, created by AgitArte, Papel Machete, and collaborators.

Presenters:
Miguel Nieves Mercado ’27, Emerson Student, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Juanma Suárez Teissonniere ’23, Emerson Alum and Coordinator, Intercultural Student Affairs, Emerson College, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Jorge Díaz Ortiz ’94, AgitArte Co-Founder, Artist, and Co-Director

End the Debt! Decolonize! Liberate Puerto Rico! Scroll Project Resources

End the Debt! Decolonize! Liberate Puerto Rico! Scroll Project
End the Debt! Decolonize! Liberate Puerto Rico! Scroll project is an artistic response to Hurricane María which tells a story of struggle and resistance to U.S. colonialism in Puerto Rico and its diaspora. This pre-cinematic technology employs continuous moving images, performed with an original song by Papel Machete. The hand-illustrated scroll is over 170 feet long and 3 inches wide, and was developed over fifteen months. The piece was created by artists from AgitArte and Papel Machete, in collaboration with Estefanía Rivera, Crystal Clarity, Rachel Schragis, and Emily Simons.
End the debt! Decolonize! Liberate Puerto Rico! Scroll
End the Debt! Decolonize! Liberate! Scroll is a participatory cultural response to Hurricane María that tells the story of U.S. imperialism through the lens of the current economic and environmental state of Puerto Rico and its diaspora. The piece was developed between AgitArte and collaborators in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, and is part of the Arts and Culture tour of the recently released book, "When We Fight, We Win!: Twenty-First Century Social Movements and the Activists That Are Transforming Our World." To view the whole scroll, click on the main image and scroll to zoom.
Boston Public Library's Guide on the End The Debt! Decolonize! Liberate! Scroll Project
This page is the Boston Public Library's information guide about the End The Debt! Decolonize! Liberate! Scroll Project, featuring information on the history and goals of the project, as well as a few highlighted images from the project.
When We Fight, We Win
The homepage of Agitarte's project and book "When We Fight, We Win", which captures the stories, philosophies, tactics, and art of today’s leading social change movements.

When We Fight, We Win by Greg Jobin-Leeds; AgitArte
Call Number: HN59.2 .J625 2016
ISBN: 9781620970935
Publication Date: 2016-01-05
Same-sex marriage, #BlackLivesMatter, the DREAM Act, the People's Climate March, End the New Jim Crow, Occupy Wall Street, the fight for a $15 minimum wage--these are just a few of the remarkable movements that have blossomed in the past decade, a most fertile and productive era of activism. Now, in a visually rich and deeply inspiring book, the leaders and activists of these and other movements distill their wisdom, sharing lessons of what makes--and what hinders--transformative social change.

Resources at Emerson

The Spanish-American War by Brad K. Berner (Editor); Kalman Goldstein (Foreword by)
This documentary history is intended for specialist and non-specialist alike. The contents cover the pre-war, war, and post-war periods in Cuba, Guam, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Spain, the Philippines, and the United States. Included are documents on the main battles and diplomatic history of the war, along with internal situations in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Spain, the Philippines, and the United States. Of particular interest is the section on Black Americans' views and participation in the war, and the section on the views of many participants, military and non-military.
Encyclopedia of Modern Latin America (1900 to the Present) by Thomas M. Leonard (Editor)
Authoritative yet accessible, the Encyclopedia of Modern Latin America (1900 to the Present) covers the history and culture of Central America, South America, and the Caribbean, focusing on Latin America as it asserts itself in international politics, experiences the effects of globalization, and becomes an influential area worldwide, from the 20th century through the present day. This volume offers in-depth A-to-Z entries, drawing readers into the events and daily lives and achievements of the people who occupied the area during this period.
Decolonization Models for America's Last Colony by Angel Collado-Schwarz
Addresses the colonial relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States, and provides the long-term options that Puerto Rico might have as a sovereign country using six countries as case studies- Singapore, Ireland, New Zealand, Estonia, Slovenia and Israel
Matters of Choice by Iris Lopez
In Matters of Choice, Iris Lopez presents a comprehensive analysis of the dichotomous views that have portrayed sterilization either as part of a coercive program of population control or as a means of voluntary, even liberating, fertility control by individual women. Drawing upon her twenty-five years of research on sterilized Puerto Rican women from five different families in Brooklyn, Lopez untangles the interplay between how women make fertility decisions and their social, economic, cultural, and historical constraints. Lopez makes a stirring case for a model of reproductive freedom, taking readers beyond victim/agent debates to consider a broader definition of reproductive rights within a feminist anthropological context.
Boom and Bust in Puerto Rico : How Politics Destroyed an Economic Miracle by A.W. Maldonado
In this engaging and approachable book, journalist A.W. Maldonado charts the rise and fall of the Puerto Rican economy and explains how a litany of bad political and fiscal policy decisions in Washington and Puerto Rico destroyed an economic miracle. After illuminating the century of misunderstanding between Puerto Rico and the United States--the root cause of the economic crisis and the island's gridlocked debates about its political status--Maldonado concludes with projections about the future of the relationship.