ep278 Research & Reading List

 Title: Puerto Rico: Freedom From Fantasy 

Description:  What most Americans know about Puerto Rico is based on a colonial fantasy, says journalist and Columbia University professor, Ed Morales. This fantasy, and the reality it obscures, is the subject of his new book, Fantasy Island. In this episode, Laura interviews Morales and scholar/activist Rosa Clemente about the personal and political implications of the island's ongoing debt crisis, recovering from Hurricane Maria, and #RickyRenuncia, the intersectional protest movement that led to the resignation of Governor Ricardo Rosselló in the summer of 2019. Exploitation, corruption, and neglect may be business as usual in the United States' relationship with Puerto Rico but Morales and Clemente suggest that new movements provide some hope for change.

Related Laura Flanders Show Episodes:

•After Maria: Puerto Rican Self Determination 

•Unsung: Puerto Rican People’s Power #1YearAfterMaria 

•Divest to Decolonize: Michelle Cook and Hartman Deetz 

•Minicast: Who’s Afraid of Public Ownership? 

•Feminists Writing History: Cherríe Moraga and Adrienne Maree Brown 

Related Articles and Resources:

•“Fantasy Island: Colonialism, Exploitation, and the Betrayal of Puerto Rico” by Ed Morales (Hachette Book Group)

•Puerto Rico on the Map a grassroots media delegation devoted to reporting on, reimagining, and reviving Puerto Rico. 

•“Dozens of Murdered Women are Missing from Puerto Rican Police Records, New Report Finds”  by Alleen Brown, The Intercept

•Puerto Rico Syllabus: Essential tools for critical thinking about the Puerto Rican debt crisis. 

•Defend Puerto Rico  A multimedia project designed to document and celebrate Puerto Rican creativity, resilience, and resistance. 

•“The Jones Act, the obscure 1920 shipping regulation strangling Puerto Rico, explained” by Matthew Yglesias, Vox

Guest Bios:

Ed Morales  is an author and journalist who has written for The Nation, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Rolling Stone, Jacobin, and the Guardian. ... He is the author of Latinx: The New Force in Politics and Culture (Verso Books, 2018), Living in Spanglish

Rosa Clemente:  Rosa Alicia Clemente is an organizer, political commentator and independent journalist. An Afro-Puerto Rican born and raised in the Bronx, NY she has dedicated her life to organizing, scholarship and activism. 

Featured ‘Music in the Middle’ of the Podcast:  

“Una Ola” by Eljuri from her album Resiste courtesy of Manovil Records.