Checklists on Puerto Rico’S Soverano ROCÍO ZAMBRANA
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Checklists On Puerto Rico’s SoVerano ROCÍO ZAMBRANA abstract In July 2019, almost two weeks of protest led to the ousting of Puerto Rico’s Governor Ricardo “Ricky” Rosselló. The di ver sity and cre a tiv ity of the pro tests were na tion ally and in ter na tion ally cel e brat ed. Asambleas de pueb lo, peo ple’s as sem blies, con tin ued po lit i cal par tic i pa tion be yond the pro tests. This arti cle at tends to a feature of the protests that has yet to be explored. Throughout the pro tests, check lists appeared on signs, on walls in Old San Juan, and on Facebook and Twitter. These in dex a mo dal ity of power ex plicit in the pro tests and in re serve in the asambleas. The check lists, I sug gest, re cord the power of removal that established the protests as suc cess ful irrespective of the insti tu tional im pact that Rosselló’s resig na tion pur port edly had on the indebted col o ny. The checklists in scribe the ongo ing task of in ter rup tion, to the point of re mov al, that seeks to ren der coloniality in op er a tive in the ev ery day. keywords Puerto Rico, coloniality, decoloniality, debt, pro test Vamos por todxs.1 —Anonymous Beatriz Llenín Figueroa’s 2018 12 sugerencias para todos los días (12 Suggestions for Every Day) of ers a list of ques tions ubiq ui tous in the un in cor po rated ter ri tory of Puerto Rico in times of debt and aus ter i ty: What is to be done? How is it to be done?2 The book is de scribed as an “in can ta tion against in ac tion and com plic i ty,” a “chart [ta bla] for nav i gat ing the quo tid ian plun der” ex pe ri enced in Puerto Rico, a “rev o lu tion ary set of watch words [arenga]” for re sis tance.3 Llenín Figueroa adds that the best part about mak ing a list is cross ing it out—tacharla.4 The book’s cover ori ents its read er, show ing a re pro duc tion of an im age by the col lec tive BEMBA PR (fig. 1). The back cover reads: Tacha al Macho (cross the ma cho out).5 The twelve sug ges tions named in the book’s ti tle are im per a tives. They sum mon us to cross out, to CRITICAL TIMES | 3:2 | AUGUST 2020 DOI 10.1215/26410478-8517743 | © 2020 Rocío Zambrana This is an open ac cess ar ti cle dis trib uted un der the terms of a Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 277 Downloaded from http://read.dukeupress.edu/critical-times/article-pdf/3/2/277/829134/277zambrana.pdf by guest on 30 September 2021 FIGURE 1. BembaPR, Propaganda Feminista. in ter rupt, the op er a tion of coloniality in the in debted col ony of Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane María. In July 2019, al most two weeks of non vi o lent pro test led to the ousting of Governor Ricardo “Ricky” Rosselló. The di ver sity and cre a tiv ity of the pro tests have been na tion ally and in ter na tion ally cel e brat ed.6 Asambleas de pueb lo, peo ple’s as sem blies, con tin ued po lit i cal par tic i pa tion be yond the pro tests. In what fol lows, how ev er, I pay at ten tion to a fea ture of the pro tests that has yet to be ex plored. Throughout the pro tests, check lists appeared on signs, on walls in Old San Juan, and on Facebook and Twitter. These in dex a mo dal ity of power ex plicit in the pro tests and in re serve in the asambleas.7 The check lists, I sug est, re cord the power of re moval that established the pro tests as suc cess ful irrespective of the in sti tu tional im pact Rosselló’s res ig na tion pur port edly had on the in debted col o ny. Following Llenín Figueroa, I show that the check lists in scribe the on go ing task of in ter rup tion, to the point of remov al, that seeks to ren der coloniality in op er a tive in the ev ery day. I be gin by recounting the po lit i caleco nomic con junc ture in which the pro tests oc curred as well as their im me di ate af er math in the asambleas. I then doc u ment the check lists that appeared. I ex plore the power that they in dex by clar i fy ing, first, that in the case of Puerto Rico one must track the op er a tion of coloniality in the col o ny.8 Second, I sketch how we might con ceive of the check lists as indexing a power of in ter rup tion that seeks to ren der coloniality in op er a tive.9 Interruption, in this case, is not ar bi trary. It can serve the ends of decoloniality when read in terms of Llenín Figueroa’s call: tacha al ma cho. The lat ter is a call to map the repro duc tion of a race/gen der/class hi er ar chy and to seek its de struc tion, its dis so lu tion. The check lists can be seen as indexing a form of decolonial power in re serve, since they cat a logue the will to dis man tle the co lo nial con di tion, interrupting the work CRITICAL TIMES 3:2 | AUGUST 2020 | 278 Downloaded from http://read.dukeupress.edu/critical-times/article-pdf/3/2/277/829134/277zambrana.pdf by guest on 30 September 2021 of coloniality in the ev ery day. I end by reflecting on the Jan u ary 2020 pro tests call ing for the res ig na tion of Governor Wanda Vázquez as ex pres sions of this will to in ter rupt and undo co lo nial re al i ty. 1. Ricky Rosselló be came gov er nor of Puerto Rico in 2017. He ran for of ce pledg ing to pay back the ter ri to ry’s debt, re struc ture the gov ern ment, and achieve state hood.10 During his time in of ce, Rosselló’s admin is tra tion pur sued a la bor re form that wors ened the ero sion of work er’s rights, an ed u ca tional re form that closed 438 schools, and a re sponse to Hurricane María plagued by mis man age ment and cor rup tion. In Sep tem ber 2017, two weeks af er Hurricane Irma im pacted the ter ri to ry, Hurricane María made land fall in Puerto Rico. Homes were destroyed. The electrical grid, wa ter dis tri bu tion and fil tra tion sys tems, the tele com mu ni ca tions net work, roads, and bridges col lapsed. Federal and lo cal gov ern ment mis man age ment and lo cal gov ern ment cor rup tion hin dered hur ri cane relief. An es ti mated 3,000 peo ple died in the im me di ate af er math of the hur ri cane, though the of en quoted num ber is an es ti mated 4,645.11 In Feb ru ary 2018, Rosselló sought to reboot the in debt ed, hur ri caneriven ter ri to ry’s econ o my. He pur sued in ves tors by high light ing the ben e fits of ter ri to rial sta tus (where reg u la tions, laws, and rights op er a tive in states are lacking), tax ha ven con di tions (ag res sively pro moted in the realm of real es tate with Act 20/22 of 2012), and “right siz ing” through aus ter i ty.12 Puerto Rico’s $123 bil lion debt is the larg est mu nic i pal debt in United States his to ry.13 In May 2017, Puerto Rico filed for bankruptcy un der ti tle III of PROMESA, a 2016 fed eral law that in sti tuted a Fiscal Control Board tasked with en sur ing fis cal re spon si bil ity and regaining ac cess to cap i tal mar kets.14 Austerity and pri vat iza tion are key to the Board’s ef orts to pay back cred i tors. The USappointed board over rides lo cal gov ern ment de ci sions that con flict with its aims. Puerto Rico has no rep re sen ta tion in Congress and can not cast a pres i den tial vote. The US Congress is the seat of juridicopo lit i cal sov er eignty de spite the cre a tion of the Estado Libre Asociado (Associated Free State) in 1952.15 Restructuring deals and the bank ruptcy plan un veiled in Sep tem ber 2019 have been reached with out an au dit. Legal and po lit i cal ef orts for an in de pen dent au dit, par tic u larly a cit i zen au dit, have been on go ing since at least 2015.