Puerto Ricans both within the diaspora and Puerto Rico experience the colonial gaze. This book explores the impact of Hurricane Maria (2017) on Puerto Ricans who lived through it, and who watched it helplessly from within the diaspora. It defies the colonial gaze by existing in our own diasporic bilingual poetics, refusing the colonial expectation of access and legibility. This book looks out from within the Puerto Rican community, and invites the reader to look in, without fully gaining access to our colonial realities.

With contributions by Raquel Salas Rivera and Mariana Ramos Ortiz.