Shifting From Resiliency to Resistance: Youth Participatory Action Research at the University of Puerto Rico, Cayey

• In Event: Participatory Action Research as Site of Student Agency, Social Transformation, and Resistance in Puerto Rico

Abstract

This presentation, Shifting from Resiliency to Resistance reports on a YPAR project that focused on the resiliency of Puerto Rican undergraduates who experienced hurricane Maria. The project began with this particular focus but as the YPAR project unfolded, students shifted more toward understanding their actions and those of other young Puerto Ricans as resistance. We will discuss how YPAR, which is both an inquiry and learning process, facilitated this shift by orienting students to the types of agency necessary to initiate structural changes. In this case, YPAR is a form of praxis that engages students in identifying and addressing root causes to social and economic problems of how precisely that relationship develops, in a particular place and context. The issue of mental health in Puerto Rico should begin to be normalized. It is extremely necessary to stop considering this topic as a taboo and start working it on the island. As we could see in the literature review section, the number of suicides has been increasing since Hurricane Maria and this is something that is not given the necessary emphasis. Many of the aid provided after the hurricane was to fix physical and material damage on the island, no initiative was ever seen to assess the health status of Puerto Ricans after this trauma. After this investigation and seeing personally the psychological damage that this natural disaster entailed, we encourage all institutions to take action on the matter with this extensive problem that we have been dragging from Maria. It is necessary to begin to recognize mental health as a problem that has a solution if it is given the necessary attention. For this, campaigns could be created to raise awareness of mental health and its importance for the well-being of the human being, also greater emphasis could be given to the media -social networks, press, etc.-, we could create support groups in the communities or different towns on the island and finally, have a greater focus from part of the government. Currently at the University of Puerto Rico at Cayey there is the Interdisciplinary Center for Student Development (CEDE), where professional counseling and psychology services are offered to students enrolled at this university. The context in which the project was situated – the University of Puerto Rico, Cayey will be examined to reveal how the students’ research existed in post-Maria environment that was politically charged and economically volatile. The presentation will also cover the political and economic landscape of Puerto Rico and the disasters that led to the defunding of public education. Finally, the presentation features the work of Puerto Rican undergraduate researchers who took up subjects related to hurricane Maria and were meaningful for them, such as government neglect, psychological responses, artistic resistance and political awareness.

Authors

• Julio Cammarota, University of Arizona

• Regina J. Deil-Amen, University of Arizona