Puerto Rico and PROMESA: Reaffirming Colonialism

With this dramatic announcement, Governor Alejandro García Padilla transformed the island nation’s long-simmering debt overhang problem into an international spectacle.

War Against All Puerto Ricans

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The powerful, untold story of the 1950 revolution in Puerto Rico and the long history of U.S. intervention on the island, that the New York Times says “could not be more timely.”

Preserving Identity: Puerto Rican Shift from Catholicism to Pentecostalism

Ramón Ortiz discusses how Puerto Ricans have struggled to maintain their identity, culture, heritage in the midst of New York City Catholicism which often viewed the newly arrived Catholic Puerto Ricans as inferior and in need of evangelizing.

The Puerto Rican Diaspora to the United States: A Postcolonial Migration? (2009)

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In 1953, the General Assembly of the United Nations removed Puerto Rico from its list of "non-self-governing territories." However, the exact nature of the relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States has been intensely disputed since the creation of the Commonwealth.

The First Birth Control Pill Used Puerto Rican Women as Guinea Pigs

Eugenics and unethical clinical trials are part of the pill’s legacy.

Herstory: 10 Puerto Rican Women Kept Out of History Books

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Latinas in the U.S. come from a long line of influential, barrier-breaking, rebel Latin American women. Through Remezcla’s Herstory series, we introduce readers to the women warriors and pioneers whose legacies we carry on.

In Puerto Rico, Women Won the Vote in a Bittersweet Game of Colonial Politics

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Puertorriqueñas’ fight for suffrage shaped by class, colonialism and racism—but even today, island residents cannot vote for president

Cafecito con William D. Caballero: Big Stories with Small Figures

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Filmmaker William D. Caballero and Dr. Jillian M. Báez discuss William’s 2017 short film Chilly & Milly, which explores the director’s own experiences with his chronically ill father and his mother’s role as his eternal caretaker.

Ancient DNA reconstructs the genetic legacies of pre-contact Puerto Rico communities 

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September 2019 Abstract Indigenous peoples have occupied the island of Puerto Rico since at least 3000 B.C. Due to the demographic shifts that occurred after European contact, the origin(s) of these ancient populations, and their genetic…

Anthropological genetic insights on Caribbean population history

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By Maria Alejandra Nieves Colon, University of Minnesota Twin Cities Abstract As the last American region settled by humans, yet the first to experience European colonization, the Caribbean islands have a complex history characterized…