Listening to Puerto Rico Teach-Out

Maritza Stanchich, PhD, is a Professor of English at University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras, where she teaches Caribbean, Latina/o and U.S. Literatures, and served for four years in the Academic Senate. She previously worked as an award-winning journalist and her more recent columns for The Huffington Post and The New York Times helped bring international attention to the crisis in Puerto Rico. She has also worked for academic unionization at University of California, Santa Cruz, and with the Asociación Puertorriqueña de Profesores Universitarios.

In this interview, Professor Maritza Stanchich speaks about the limited attention that the failure of telecommunications companies has received by the media in the aftermath of Hurricane María, about the perils of disaster capitalism, and the undeniable fact that Puerto Ricans who fled after Hurricane María are “environmental refugees”. She also spoke about the close-knit community of Old San Juan and how they banded together to survive after the Hurricane.