Puerto Rico: A Pitch to the SCC

     As the people of Puerto Rico have been beset by abuse and calamity, La Colectiva Feminista en Construcción (The Feminist Collective in Construction or La Cole) has emerged. Their website presents “a political organization that is based on the legacy of black and decolonial feminism” (ColectivaFeminista.org). As an anti-capitalist, anti-colonialist, anti-racist, anti-patriarchal coalition, they act against State-imposed systems of oppression through political education and training, strategic alliances with other activist collectives, and mobilization and direct action. According to an analysis of their work entitled “La Colectiva Feminista en Construcci ón:  Puerto Rico’s antiracist & feminist movement”, La Cole epitomizes the concept of pensar-hacer, meaning theory and action. As defined in the article, “the notion of pensar-hacer argues for a decolonial turn that centers theorizing other ways of being and knowing, while simultaneously engaging in political...

  La Perla is a barrio, a neighborhood in Puerto Rico with a heart of community, camaraderie, and unity under a strong sense of cultural identity — though one rooted in the necessity for resistance. Every Friday, residents and guests gather to organize a batey , or a communal space for people to come together to sing, play, and dance la bomba , the oldest genre of the Afro-Puerto Rican musical tradition. The spot is known as the “Community Batey of La Plaza del Negro”, and the collective performance that occurs there every week functions as a cultural agent that both strengthens the individuals’ conception of their identity as Puerto-Rican and serves as a form of social and cultural resistance that edges into the political sphere by serving as a refuge for those who have been historically and systematically marginalized.  Bomba has a history tied to resistance, self-expression, and cultural memory. It emerged as a genre in the context of colonialism, providing a means for a di...