This is not a drill
The feminist movement in Puerto Rico has made history in calling for a state of emergency
Image credit: Mari B. Robles López
This emergency is not the one that immediately springs to mind for many people. Gender-based violence during the COVID-19 pandemic has been described as the shadow pandemic for how invisible and under-addressed it remains in almost every country in the world grappling with the public health crisis. But in Puerto Rico, feminist organizations, groups, and activists have finally seen their efforts from years of mobilization pay off: the newly elected governor Pedro Pierluisi declared a state of emergency on gender-based violence on January 24, 2021 that will be in effect until June 30, 2022.
"Gender violence is a social evil, based on ignorance and attitudes that cannot have space or tolerance in the Puerto Rico that we aspire to," Pierluisi said in a statement. "For too long vulnerable victims have suffered the consequences of systematic machismo, inequity, discrimination, lack of education, lack of guidance and above all lack of action." A state of emergency means that the Puerto Rican government formally admits that gender-based violence is “different from other kinds of violence”, and specifically, that the governor now has more authority to implement policies across government agencies aimed at preventing and responding to gender-based violence. This decree is regarded as a feminist victory, as it has been a movement demand for years.
Image credit: Mari B. Robles López
It was in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina that feminist groups and activists began to campaign vigorously for a state of emergency decree on gender-based violence. They found that gender-based violence had exponentially worsened, but that the state did not recognize or address this particular impact of the natural disaster. Gender-based violence has historically been misunderstood, incorrectly categorized or flat out ignored by the Puerto Rican police. A 2019 report by feminist organization Proyecto Matria and anti-police brutality organization Kilómetro Cero found that between 2014 and 2018, Puerto Rico’s Police Bureau undercounted murders of women by 11 to 27 percent each year. The report also supported feminist activists’ claims, showing that in the two six-month periods following Hurricane Maria, more femicides were committed than in any other six-month period they studied.
Feminist activists have been unrelenting in their demands for formal recognition of the gravity and persistence of gender-based violence. Colectiva Feminista en Construcción, affectionately known as “La Cole”, is a young-feminist led organization in Puerto Rico that has led the collective demand for a state of emergency decree at an encampment at former governor Ricardo Rosselló’s home in 2018. When Wanda Vasquéz became governor after young feminist and LGBTQIA+ activists led the campaign to force former Governor Ricardo Rosselló to resign, feminist groups were also critical of her administration, ignoring the fact that she was Puerto Rico’s second female governor. Many believed that her administration followed Rosselló’s lines, and she proposed budget cuts for feminist organizations, as well as a relatively weaker gender-based violence “alert” despite the demands for a formal state of emergency. “La Cole” and other feminist groups have pressured both former governors with a list of demands, including education policy changes, transparency measures, and more.
Image credit: Mari B. Robles López
Zoán Dávila Roldán from Colectiva Feminista en Construcción knows that politically, something has shifted. “We are happy and proud that the fighting people have finally been able to take Ricardo Rosselló out of the government. This is more than just taking one single person out. This is a warning sign to others who occupy this position and other leadership positions. This is a people who recognize the power they have and will use it.” It is telling that recently elected Governor Pedro Pierluisi passed a state of emergency decree within a month of taking office. Youth-led organizing, and especially feminist-led organizing, has set a new tone for political accountability and historic demands for the island. Young Puerto Ricans are part of a new political movement that looks beyond the island’s two party-system. They are calling attention to the intersection of how history, capital, colonialism, and racism have shaped modern Puerto Rico’s systemic illnesses. This wave of grassroots activism led from the margins will continue to demand attention and accountability for structural issues in Puerto Rico for the years to come.
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Image credit: Mari B. Robles López
New Wave reached out to feminist photojournalist Mari B. Robles Lopez over email, who shared their photos of the feminist protests demanding a state of emergency in Puerto Rico and responded to a brief interview. This interview has been translated into English by the author and edited lightly for comprehension.
As a feminist photojournalist, what is your role in the feminist movements in Puerto Rico and how do you accompany these movements?
My role consists of documenting the feminist movement in its entirety. For me, it’s extremely important there is a tangible record of the work and the processes of the struggles here in Puerto Rico, especially of the feminist movement. In Puerto Rico, there isn’t a genuine interest in understanding why this documentation of the history of social movements [is important]. Many times, issues like the state of emergency are treated as “shock value” media material, bringing along editorial lines that criminalize and minimize the feminist effort that’s in the streets and in other spaces. To be able to demonstrate feminist struggle from a place of dignity and seriousness is my goal, and the goal of many of my comrades.
You’ve been present in the largest feminist mobilizations of recent years, so how do you see this collective construction and what type of changes have you seen in these years?
I think that a collective conscience has increased because of all the effort put in. It’s been two years (since November 2018) asking for a state of emergency, and yet, we’ve also been waiting decades bringing feminist issues to the state and I think that this has been key - obviously, that there’s a better collective understanding about our struggles, and also that there’s more people who are willing to walk together with us in the streets.
What are the strategies that are the most important to the actors (in the feminist movements in PR), who were able to accomplish this act of a state of emergency?
Shariana Ferrer from La Colectiva Feminista en Construcción, the organization that originally called for the state of emergency, once told us that more than the fact that we have each other, we need one another. And I think that’s been the most important part, the key to everything: love, solidarity, support, and understanding. That we need each other to eradicate gender-based violence, and that we respond every single time that we need each other. This is what has moved us. That we are not alone, and that this fight is for justice.
Image credit: Mari B. Robles López
You can see more of Mari B. Robles López’s work here and their published work on Hurricane Katrina here.
Ani Hao is a young feminist writer, journalist and media consultant. She reports on young feminist activism and youth-led social movements globally.
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