PUERTO RICO'S JURAKÁN
Colonialism during the Climate Crisis
and the Role of Movies in Society

EDUCATIONAL SERVICE ​ 

 

We offer lectures to university faculty and students to share our multidisciplinary findings in the field of documentary films.

Students will comprehend the complex Puerto Rican situation. The lecture objectives are to: ​ 

 

1. Analyze the legal and economic structures that sustain colonialism in Puerto Rico. 

2. Examine its impact on people's daily lives.

3. Highlight the decolonial solutions proposed by different communities.

4. Assess the threat posed by the climate crisis.

5. Discuss and reflect on the historical importance of the stories that we tell ourselves within the aforementioned processes, from our perspective as filmmakers. 

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Who am I?

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Rosa Emmanuelli Gutiérrez, a sociologist turned filmmaker, is co-creator of the Jurakán Documentaries Collection.

 

Rosa has 9 years of experience in the field studying Puerto Rico's complex situation. Her perspective is the sum of multiple dialogues with more than 100 scholars, activists, farmers and community leaders. 

 

She offers a profound analysis on how social, economic and political crises are exacerbated by the climate crisis, which already affects Puerto Rico.

 

Several universities use Jurakán as classroom material, including Stanford, Yale, NYU, and UCLA.

 

Her next documentary about the Puerto Rican community in Chicago, currently in production,

received a MacArthur Foundation grant.

 

Rosa was a keynote speaker at DePaul University's The Transformative Humanities: A Symposium on Racial and Social Justice.

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FUNDAMENTAL QUESTIONS TO ANSWER ​ 

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What is colonialism? How does it manifest? 

What are colonialism's real impacts? 

How are the climate crisis and social crises related? 

What role do movies play within civilization?

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SOURCES

• Annual and Cumulative Estimates of Resident Population Change for the United States, Regions, States, District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico and Region and State Rankings: April 1, 2020 to July 1, 2021 (NST-EST2021-CHG)

• Arrázola, R. (1986). Palenque, primer pueblo libre de América. Bogotá, Colombia: Todo Impresores.

• Ayala César J., & Bernabe Riefkohl, R. (2016). Puerto Rico en el siglo americano: Su Historia Desde 1898. Ediciones Callejón. 

• Colón Ramos, U., & César Ostolaza. (2020, July). Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutricional en Puerto Rico: Pre y Post Coronavirus. 

• Colonialismo. (n.d.). Real Academia Española. Retrieved from https://dle.rae.es

• Dennis, A. (2020, February 19). A Tax Haven Called Puerto Rico. Little Sis.

• Downes v. Bidwell, 182 U.S. 244 (U.S. Supreme Court May 27, 1901). 

• En pobreza el 50% o más de la población en 36 Municipios de Puerto Rico. (2019, December 19). State Data Center-PR. 

• Federici, S., Gago Verónica, Cavallero, L., Ferrer-Núñez, S., & Dávila Roldán, Z. T. (2021). Nosotras contra la deuda. In ¿Quién le debe a quién?: Ensayos Transnacionales de Desobediencia Financiera (pp. 41–59). essay, Tinta Limón. 

• Gillette, C. P. (2014). DICTATORSHIPS FOR DEMOCRACY: TAKEOVERS OF FINANCIALLY FAILED CITIES. Columbia Law Review, 114(6), 1373–1462. 

• Harari, Y. N. (2011). Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. Random House Harper. 

• Joel Cintrón Arbasetti and Carla Minet | Center for Investigative Journalism. (2017, June 29). The silent expansion of fiscal control boards in the U.S. Centro de Periodismo Investigativo. 

• La Clínica Internacional de Derechos Humanos de la Facultad de Derecho de la Universidad Interamericana de P.R., & El Instituto Caribeño de Derechos Humanos (ICADH). (2016). Informe presentado ante la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos . In Deuda Pública, Política Fiscal y Pobreza en P.R.

• Ma, C., & Smith, T. (2020). Vulnerability of renters and low-income households to storm damage: Evidence from Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. American Journal of Public Health, 110(2), 196–202. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2019.305438 

• Mazzini, G., & Emmanuelli Gutiérrez, R. (2017). Jurakán: Nation in Resistance. 

• Mazzini, G., & Emmanuelli Gutiérrez, R. (2022). In the Eye of Jurakán. 

• Mendelson, A. (2016, August 9). Puerto Rico and Section 936: A Taxing Lesson from History [web log]. 

• Puerto Rico Territory Energy Profile. Puerto Rico Profile. (n.d.). Retrieved October 19, 2022, from https://www.eia.gov/state/print.php?sid=RQ 

• Valentín Ortiz, L. J., Olmo López, D. M., & Arbasetti, J. C. (2021, June 24). Fracasa la exención contributiva de la Ley 22. Centro De Periodismo Investigativo. 

• Zambrana, R. (2021). Colonial debts: The case of Puerto Rico. Duke University Press. 

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