Hurricanes: What's Next? Teach-Out

Larry La Fountain-Stokes is an Associate Professor of Spanish at the University of Michigan. His main research interests are queer/LGBT Hispanic Caribbean (Cuban, Dominican, Puerto Rican) studies, U.S. Latina/o, and Latin American literary, cultural, and performance studies. He has served on the board of directors of the CUNY Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies (www.clags.org), on the Modern Language Association's Committee on the Literatures of People of Color of the United States and Canada (www.mla.org), and on the Executive Committee of the MLA's Puerto Rican Literature and Culture Discussion Group (2001-05). He was the chair of the Lesbian and Gay Studies Section (now known as the Sexualities Studies Section) of the Latin American Studies Association (2003-04). Larry is also a member of the Puerto Rican Studies Association (https://prsa.uconn.edu/), the American Studies Association, and the Caribbean Studies Association.

In this conversation with Perry, Larry speaks about his experiences in Puerto Rico just days after Hurricane Maria hit on September 20th, 2017. He speaks about what it was like to fly into Puerto Rico in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane and what challenges he faced when trying to move his 89-year-old mother off the island. He also talked about the challenges associated with the short- and long-term recovery processes.