Boricuas: Debt and Hurricanes in Paradise

“Boricuas: Debt and Hurricanes in Paradise” is a 90 minute documentary examining the colonial history of the island of Puerto Rico in relationship to the contemporary political moment there with a focus on the debt crisis. A massive debt still looms in Puerto Rico and there are many who critique the federal oversight board assigned to resolve it. High unemployment and a high cost of living due to laws like the Jones Act already rendered Puerto Ricans into second-class citizen status, but austerity measures and then the lack of meaningful support and preparedness for recovery from a massive natural disaster made it so that for those who live in Puerto Rico the pre-existing problems only got worse. This film will ask the questions:

“How did it get this bad? How can it get better?”

We will meet with and interview Puerto Ricans in Puerto Rico as well as U.S. based Puerto Ricans throughout the diaspora as part of an examination of how things are for people who live on the island. We aim to collect the voices of jibaros, working class individuals, scholars, artists, activists, journalists, students, government officials, community leaders and significant allies.

https://vimeo.com/378880973