Hurricane Maria: LatAm’s Biggest Stories of the 2010s
Reading Time: 2 minutes
The natural disaster devastated the Caribbean – exposing corruption and climate risks in its wake.
Puerto Rico
Book Review: The Battle for Paradise
Reading Time: 3 minutes
Award-winning journalist and activist Naomi Klein takes on “disaster capitalists” in Puerto Rico.
How a Hedge Fund Could Derail Puerto Rico’s Debt Negotiations
Reading Time: 4 minutes
A hedge fund’s lawsuit could nullify Puerto Rico’s oversight board and upend its debt restructuring.
What the U.S. Congress Owes Puerto Rico
The inaugural meeting of Puerto Rico’s fiscal control board lasted just 26 minutes. The seven unelected technocrats deputized in September with overseeing nearly every facet of the island’s economy met in a boardroom a few blocks from Wall Street to select a chairman and decide which of Puerto Rico’s institutions would come under their watch. Their … Read more
What Puig’s Olympic Gold Really Means for Puerto Rico
On Saturday afternoon, I was sitting with my blanket gripped tightly to my face as my boyfriend patiently repeated (for the fifth time) the difference between a game and a set. Like many other Puerto Ricans, it was the first time I had watched tennis, and I kept forgetting the rules. For the 8 million … Read more
Congress Offers Broken PROMESA to Puerto Rico
The U.S. Senate this week voted to pass the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act, known as PROMESA (“promise” in Spanish), without amendments. Cast as “Puerto Rico’s last chance” before a July 1 default, the bill is a classic congressional compromise in which neither Democrats nor Republicans are completely satisfied. The bill offers Puerto Rico the … Read more
Puerto Rico’s Student Activists See Default as Only Option
Desperate for a lifeline from the U.S. Congress, university students in Puerto Rico are pushing local politicians to take an extreme step – default on their debt. With the island’s fiscal troubles going from bad to worse, student leaders say default on upcoming payments is the only way to force Congress to pass restructuring legislation … Read more
AQ Top 5 de Chefs Jóvenes: Xavier Pacheco
Read in English Cuando el chef Xavier Pacheco regresó de Barcelona a su natal Puerto Rico sabía que abrir un restaurante que sirviera platillos con ingredientes frescos de la localidad sería una lucha cuesta arriba. Puerto Rico, antes poseedor de un próspero sector agrícola, ahora importa el 85 por ciento de sus alimentos, pero Pacheco, … Read more
AQ Top 5 Young Chefs: Xavier Pacheco
Leer en español See the rest of the AQ Top 5 When Chef Xavier Pacheco returned to his native Puerto Rico from Barcelona, he knew opening a restaurant that served dishes with fresh, local ingredients, would be an uphill struggle. Puerto Rico, once home to a thriving agricultural sector, now imports 85 percent of its … Read more
La diáspora es la mejor opción para cambiar la situación en Puerto Rico
Read in English Es complicado vivir entre dos países. Creo que la película Selena explica bien la situación cuando el padre de la protagonista le dice a su hija: -Tenemos que ser más mexicano que los mexicanos y más gringo que los gringos. ¡Ambos al mismo tiempo! ¡Es agotador! Para los que crecimos como miembros … Read more
Puerto Rico’s Diaspora Offers Its Best Chance for Change
Leer en español Feeling caught between two countries is always complicated. I think the experience was best summed up in the movie Selena when the title character’s father laments: “We have to be more Mexican than the Mexicans and more American than the Americans, both at the same time! It’s exhausting!” For those of us … Read more
Puerto Ricans Are Leaving in Droves – And Stirring Up the 2016 U.S. Election
In November, Ben Carson became the fifth 2016 U.S. presidential candidate to make a campaign stop in Puerto Rico. Though Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, none of the island’s 3.5 million residents can vote in presidential elections. So why do both Democrat and Republican candidates continue to spend time and money visiting the territory? Demographics play a role. Campaigning in … Read more
Puerto Rico Deserves Better from Washington
The United States consists of 50 states, the District of Columbia, and five U.S. territories — one of which is Puerto Rico. Individuals born in Puerto Rico are U.S. citizens, but island residents cannot vote for president or senators. The territory has a single delegate in the U.S. House of Representatives who can vote in … Read more
Puerto Rico’s Debt Debate Overlooks Human Costs
Imagine that you only have access to running water every three days. That’s not so bad, given the government’s plans in response to an extreme summer drought to shut down tap water completely for up to four days at a time. To add insult to injury, imagine you still have to pay for the tap water … Read more
