Challenging "Muerto Rico": Cooperativas and the Movement for a Solidary Economy in Puerto Rico

• In Event: Solidarity Against Settler Displacement in Puerto Rico

Abstract

A photo series by the visual artist ADAL uses the term "Muerto Rico" in a series of photos that comment on the deadly regime of austerity that magnified the deadly impact of Hurricane Maria. This paper looks at the growth of the cooperative movement in the aftermath of Maria, which seeks to nurture a solidary economy that can offer new opportunities to the dispossession and abandonment that Puerto Ricans on the island are living with. Using interviews with leaders in the cooperative movement, as well as documents and histories of cooperativism I discuss the historic efforts in the aftermath of Maria to bring federal resources to Puerto Rico through the CDFI fund, and the ways that cooperativa leadership expanded their conceptions of what the movement could accomplish after stepping in to deal with the abandonment that occurred after Maria. I argue that the cooperativa movement, a historically conservative movement associated with prior eras of (US) state led development, has acquired new energy and significance in this period of colonial dispossession. First, the shift to cooperative banking and membership is a consumer led way to express disgust and rage at what Puerto Ricans have been subjected to as an American colony. Second, cooperativa leadership is using their political and economic clout to influence the economic direction taken by the fiscal oversight board that controls Puerto Rico’s budget and economic planning. Third, financial cooperativas (credit unions) are using their growing economic clout to lend and plan in ways that can help to create new, more just economic assemblages. This influence is especially visible in the area of solar lending, where cooperativas have taken a role in experimenting with different ways of using solar to redesign an energy grid in crisis.

Biographical Information

Miranda Martinez is an Associate Professor in the Department of Comparative Studies at the Ohio State University. Her research is on community movements, financial inclusion and predatory finance, community gardening and gentrification.

Author

• Miranda J Martinez, The Ohio State University