Section 13

Collaboration: Vieques Microsyllabus and Study Guide

Puerto Rico Syllabus & Archivo Histórico de Vieques

Sarah Molinari, Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Puerto Rico Syllabus
Isabel Guzzardo, Seton Hall University and Puerto Rico Syllabus
Marie Cruz Soto, New York University and Archivo Histórico de Vieques
Alexandra Connelly Reyes, Archivo Histórico de Vieques
Marisol LeBrón, UC Santa Cruz and Puerto Rico Syllabus

As part of a collaboration between the Puerto Rico Syllabus and the Archivo Histórico de Vieques (AHV), the Vieques Microsyllabus and Study Guide brings new directions, source materials, and methodologies to the Puerto Rico Syllabus’s resource curation for critical thinking about Puerto Rico’s debt crisis. The AHV stewards, preserves, and provides access to historical materials relevant to the study of Vieques. This collaboration supports the AHV’s mission and vision dedicated to the study of Vieques and the empowerment of Viequenses to narrate their own history and imagine Viequense futures. 

The Vieques Microsyllabus and Study Guide emerged from a recognition that the Puerto Rico Syllabus lacked resources about Vieques and by Viequenses, despite the reality of Vieques’ double marginalization in relation to San Juan and the United States, and its centrality to the production of US empire, colonial debts, and transnational resistance movements. If the Puerto Syllabus underscores how vulnerable populations have borne the brunt of the debt crisis, it is critical to consider the island-municipality of Vieques which  confronts  environmental and health crises, hospital and school closures, difficult access to basic needs, and the forced displacement of its people. However, crisis does not define Vieques nor foreclose its future. While debt works to discursively construct victimization and blame, the Vieques Microsyllabus highlights how Viequenses, and in particular Viequense women, are imagining and constructing their futures.  

With support from the Digital Library of the Caribbean’s (dLoc) Open Educational Resources (OER) in Caribbean Studies Program, we developed a  Microsyllabus dedicated to Vieques and Viequense voices to not only fill a gap in the  Puerto Rico Syllabus , but also to co-produce narratives that historicize contemporary issues in Vieques–from health injustices to transportation struggles and displacement–and highlight visions of Viequense-led futures. These efforts introduced new methodologies to the Puerto Rico Syllabus. Primary sources were gathered from the AHV’s digitized collections in dLOC and from a research trip to the AHV in 2023. Archival materials are integrated with contemporary sources and multimedia to build units that mix temporalities around a topic. The mutual support and collaboration between these two archival and educational projects–the digital Puerto Rico Syllabus and the Archivo Histórico de Vieques–reveal how the digital and the archival, with their diverse methodologies and forms of preservation and political action, can work together to curate critical historical narratives.

Furthermore, conversations with Viequense activists and researchers shed light on several concerns that significantly shaped the project. First, Viequense resistance did not begin or end with the social movements that brought a close in 2003 to the US Navy’s active weapons testing on the island from the 1940s-2003. The Microsyllabus thus seeks to highlight the plurality of Viequense resistance over time, including and beyond the demilitarization movements. Relatedly, the Microsyllabus foregrounds the concerns, perspectives, and voices of Viequense women, whose contributions had too often been overlooked. To this end, AHV collaborator Alexandra Connelly Reyes conducted four original video interviews with women at the center of struggles around reproductive health, displacement, public education, and food sovereignty in Vieques.  

The Vieques Microsyllabus contains nine units and a PDF Study Guide for teaching and learning.

 

DONATE HERE to the Archivo Histórico de Vieques

 

Acknowledgements 

This project would not have been possible without support from dLOC and the AHV, especially the guidance and expertise of Marie Cruz Soto, interview recording and editing by Alexandra Connelly Reyes, and research and transcription support from Neishmarie Fontánez Ortiz. We are especially grateful for the generous conversations with the AHV collaborators and Diana Ramos during our research trip to Vieques. Finally, we thank all the interview participants for sharing their time, experiences, and future dreams: Adelmarí Lassús De Jesus, Elda Guadaloupe Carrasquillo, Jennifer Martínez Molina, and Katherine Martínez Medina.

History of Vieques

Unit 1: History of Vieques includes multiple books exploring Vieques’ history, beginning with native and African-descended peoples. These books place Vieques in relation to Puerto Rico and US imperialism, underscoring the key moments and the growing movement to remove the US Navy. Several texts study the crucial role women have played in Vieques’s history.

Juan Amédée Bonnet Benítez. Vieques: En la Historia de Puerto Rico. F. Ortiz Nieves, 1977.  (AHV)

Summary
A critical history of Vieques that spans from indigenous inhabitants to the twentieth century.

Comité Nacional Pro Defensa de Vieques, “Vieques tiene historia.” March, 1979. (dLOC)

Summary
This document prepared by the Comité Nacional Pro Defensa de Vieques, in broad strokes, goes through Vieques’ history, from Juan Ponce de Leon’s abandonment of the island, to the arrival of french plantation owner Teófilo Leguillou, to the US colonization and the ways the US Marines endangered the environment, provoked an exodus of Viequenses, ruined the community’s industries, and sent poverty rates soaring . The authors explain their motives as educating Puerto Ricans of the abuses happening in Vieques and the need to join the fight to liberate the Viequense people. It ends with a poem by environmentalist and professor, Efrén Rivera.

Robert Rabin. “La Mujer En La Historia Viequense.” 1988.  (dLOC)

Summary
Through five centuries of struggle that have shaped the history of Vieques, Indigenous women, enslaved women, freedwomen, workers, nationalists, and activists opposing military presence have played pivotal roles in the development and defense of Vieques. This brief text will provide information from Vieques’ historical documents about some cases of the struggle and sacrifice of Viequense-Puerto Rican women.

Arturo Meléndez López. La batalla de Vieques. Editorial Edil, 1989.  (AHV)

Summary
The book focuses on the struggle to remove the the U.S. Navy from Vieques. Years of persistent protests eventually led to the Navy’s withdrawal in 2003.

Tere Villegas Pagán. Taso: Un pedazo de Vieques Puerto Rico. Publicación Independiente, 1999.  (AHV)

Summary
This text discusses the Viequense resistance through Carlos “Taso” Zenón, one of the fishermen who challenged the US Navy. Between 1978 and 1983, Zenón and other fishermen repeatedly confronted U.S. Navy ships and halted planned military exercises.

Ivonne Acosta. El Grito de Vieques. Editorial Cultural, 2002.  (AHV)

Summary
This volume features twenty essays by historian Acosta Lespier, written to highlight the importance of the final decade of the 20th century. The essays explore a crucial shift during this time, as Puerto Rico moved from suppressing nationalist sentiment to more open militancy. This change inspired solidarity with the people of Vieques in their fight against the U.S. Navy’s presence.

Alejandro Torres Rivera. Visión de Vieques: El uso del territorio nacional puertorriqueño por parte de las fuerzas armadas de Estados Unidos (1999-2002). Ateneo Puertorriqueño: Editorial LEA, 2003.  (AHV)

Summary
A historical text that focuses on the period of the U.S. military intervention in Vieques.

“Medio Siglo de Presencia Militar y la Lucha del Pueblo por el Rescate de Vieques” Historical timeline document, Vieques: Vieques sí, Marina no!  (AHV)

Summary
  This timeline narrates major events in Vieques’s history in relation to US military occupation and struggle, beginning with the US Navy’s expropriation of Viequense territory through the 1993 founding of the Comité Pro Rescate y Desarrollo de Vieques.

Mario Murillo. Islands of Resistance: Puerto Rico, Vieques, and U.S. Policy. Seven Stories Press, 2001. (CONT)

Summary
  This text describes the events of 1999, including President Clinton’s clemency for Puerto Rican Nationalists and the tragic death of David Sanes in Vieques and how they revived American awareness of Puerto Rico’s political struggles. The protests against U.S. naval exercises in Vieques highlight Washington’s long-standing control over Puerto Rico and its impact on the island’s future. This book connects this struggle to U.S. dominance and Puerto Rican resistance.

Marie Cruz Soto, “In Vieques, Life Amid Devastation,” NACLA 50.2, 2018. (CONT)

Summary
The article examines Vieques’ history of colonialism, from Spanish enslavement and displacement of Indigenous peoples, to U.S. militarization, that have perpetuated cycles of dispossession, exploitation, and vulnerability. The U.S. Navy’s occupation of much of the island (1941–2003) left a legacy of environmental and health crises that persist, compounded by Hurricane María and  institutional neglect. The article highlights the precarious state of essential services like the Susana Centeno Clinic, which serves as a critical yet underfunded and inadequate lifeline for residents.

Katherine Martínez Medina. Activismo Viequense por mujeres. 2022. (CONT)

Summary
The project Activismo Viequense por Mujeres documents the activism in Vieques from the perspective of women, often overlooked in official histories. Using digital humanities, it creates a digital exhibit with a timeline showcasing women-led activist groups and their contributions. The initiative seeks to inspire and educate the youth of Vieques to carry forward the legacy of social justice and human rights advocacy on the island.

Viequense Resistance Against the US Navy

Unit 2: Viequense Resistance Against the US Navy highlights several iterations, actors, and key moments in the decades-long struggle against the US Navy, including transnational networks, solidarity expressions, the demands of Viequense fishermen, and the role of the Alianza de Mujeres Viequenses.

Proyecto de Intercambio Juvenil, American Friends Service Committee, Vieques Up-Date, 1980, Report, Vieques: Vieques sí, Marina no!  (AHV)

Summary
This report highlights the criminalization of multiple activists protesting the US Navy operations in Vieques and shares the status of 21 people arrested for trespassing in Vieques. The report also contains a copy of a San Juan Star article from 1/26/1980 about the FBI arrest of the US Navy’s liaison officer in Vieques.

Connelly, Charlie, “Vieques’ Fate Symbolically Tied to Uprooted Tree,” San Juan Star. (AHV)

Summary
In the wake of Hurricane Hugo, this article links hurricane recovery in Vieques to the efforts to save and replant the generations-old landmark tamarind tree, which had been torn down by the storm. The replanting effort brought together generations in Vieques, as well as the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture (ICP), the Fortaleza, the National Guard, and the Education Department, among others, and symbolically linked the tree’s survival to Viequenses’ survival.

Oscar López Rivera, Carta a Bob Rabin, June 1, 1992, Hand-written letter, Vieques: Vieques sí, Marina no!  (AHV)

Summary
Former political prisoner, Oscar López Rivera writes to Robert “Bob” Rabin from prison, thanking Rabin for some materials he had sent. López Rivera expresses his solidarity with the struggles in Vieques, and asserts that the struggle in Vieques “has a great potential to convert to a model for radical organizing.”

Ultimátum de los Pescadores Viequenses a la Marina de Guerra de Estados Unidos, August 7, 1994, Document, Vieques: Vieques sí, Marina no!  (AHV)

Summary
This document presents a list of demands from Viequense fishermen directed at the US Navy, after, they said, having exhausted all other means of dialogue. Their demands include protecting their rights as laborers, protecting the health, environment, and social and economic wellbeing of Vieques and Viequenses, and their right to “not disappear” as workers of the sea. The document declares the Navy an “enemy” of Vieques and the fishermen.

Juan Carlos Rodríguez, “Interview with María Velázquez,” Vieques Struggle: A Digital Video Archive, 2004. (CONT)

Summary
María Velázquez, along with her husband Carmelo Feliz Matta, are iconic figures of resistance in Vieques. They engaged in multiple land rescues and founded “Monte Carmelo,” inhabiting and rescuing land that the Navy had occupied and restricted. This video interview captures part of María’s life story.

Benjamin Torres Gotay (autor de textos), “Vieques: 20 años sin la Marina: Las fotos que retratan la lucha de décadas de los viequenses por desmilitarizar sus tierras”. El Nuevo Dia, 2019. (CONT)

Summary
A photo essay that documents the fight against the US Navy

Diana Ramos-Gutiérrez with Myrna Pagán, “How the People of Vieques Evicted the U.S. Navy, NACLA 55.4, 2023, (CONT)

Summary
“A Puerto rican demilitarization activist reflects on the decades-long struggle to urge U.S. forces to withdraw from the island and the ongoing challenges Viequenses face today.”

Génesis Ibarra Vásquez, “La lucha Viequense tiene rostro de mujer,” El Nuevo Día, 11 de noviembre de 2023, (CONT)

Summary
This article highlights two intergenerational women-led initiatives in Vieques: La Alianza de Mujeres Viequenses (founded in 1999) and the Colmena Cimarrona (founded in 2017).

Adriana Díaz Tirado y Naylie Vélez Figueroa, “Las mujeres al frente de las luchas viequenses,” Todas, 13 de septiembre de 2021. (CONT)

Summary
Women have been at the forefront of intersecting struggles in Vieques for decades. This article highlights the Alianza de Mujeres Viequenses, a collective of women initiated in 1999 that played a central role in the demilitarization movement. La Alianza members participated in protests and civil disobedience, lobbied US Congress, and organized community cancer monitoring programs and educational workshops to create a broader understanding about the gendered impacts of the US Navy’s operation in Vieques.

Health

Unit 3: Health focuses on the health struggles and multifaceted harms of militarization, including heavy metals contamination, high cancer rates, and environmental decay, all exacerbated by the lack of comprehensive and dignified health care facilities in Vieques. This unit also examines the contradictions of the post-2003 “clean up” and how reproductive rights injustices shape precarious maternal and pediatric health.

Health Struggles and the Harms of Militarization

Carlos Zenón and Radamés Tirado, “Vieques, Puerto Rico, and US Navy,” Congressional Briefing, June 26, 1979.  (AHV)

Summary
This document contains the briefing given by Carlos Zenón, President of the Vieques Fishermen’s Association, and Radamés Triado, Mayor of Vieques (both fishermen), on the Vieques crisis, to US Congress. “In essence, their statements were intended to dramatize the needs of the people of Vieques, the adverse impact on the quality of life that the presence of the Navy has affected in Vieques and to stress the importance of Congressional action to have the US Navy stop immediately its illegal air to ground, ship to shore bombing, amphibious landings and other military operations and to have the US Navy removed from Vieques, once and for all.” They outline how the Navy’s operations have hindered economic development and destroyed the environment.

Comité Pro Rescate y Desarrollo de Vieques, “Vieques: El cáncer lo causa la Marina.” Flyer, Vieques: Salud Pública/Cáncer  (AHV) 

Summary
The comité offers health statistics on the high cancer incidence in Vieques as compared to the rest of Puerto Rico, denounces the US Navy, and argues that the Navy bombing has caused cancer rates to spike, especially since 1979.

Blasor, Lorraine, “Study Finds Cancer Incidence in Vieques Jumped in mid-1980s,” San Juan Star, November 14, 1997. Newspaper clipping, Salud Pública/Cáncer  (AHV)

Summary
This article discusses an epidemiological study conducted by Puerto Rico’s Health Department that found an increased cancer incidence in Vieques between 1986-1989 compared to mainland Puerto Rico. The article cites activists calling for the full release of the study and attributing the cause to the Navy’s bomb contamination practices.

The Vieques Times, December 2001. (dLOC)

Summary
This issue of The Vieques Times depicts Vieques amidst the Paz para Vieques struggle. It includes an article about the mayor’s civil disobedience and imprisonment from trespassing in the military’s firing range, an article about Japan’s solidarity with Vieques and their own struggle against militarization, and a briefing on the environmental impacts of US Navy training that states, “The precise ways that heavy metals and other contaminants reach the people, animals and plant tissue in the civilian area are not completely understood.”

Arnab Mondal, “Failing healthcare on the island of Vieques,” Medill Reports, July 17, 2020, (CONT)

Summary
The report documents a manifestation and commemorative activity in Vieques demanding a dignified hospital that included cement blocks representing the building blocks to the new hospital and ribbons commemorating the fight against cancer. The initiative was organized after the premature death of Jaideliz Moreno Ventura, a 13-year-old girl who died during emergency medical transport to an emergency room in the big island after being failed by the provisional health center in Vieques that did not have a respirator to stabilize her. Jaideliz’s mother is quoted in the article asserting that her daughter “was murdered by the system.”

“Vieques and the Promise to Build Back Better,” La Brega, WNYC, February 4, 2021, (CONT) Español

Summary
“Weeks after Hurricane Maria, the Government of Puerto Rico accepted an emphatic suggestion from officials of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), put it in writing as if it were its own decision, and celebrated it would be used to rebuild in a “resilient” way. On the island of Vieques — which has a very high rate of cancer — they were supposed to rebuild its only hospital, destroyed by the hurricane in 2017. Now, a young girl has died from lack of care, and a neglected community fights for their basic human right: access to quality medical services.” Reporters explain how “federal red tape has hindered hurricane recovery.”

“Limpieza” Pos-Marina

Coordinadora Todo Puerto Rico con Vieques y Comité Pro Rescate y Desarrollo de Vieques, “Informe al Gobernador de Puerto Rico sobre la responsabilidad del departamento de salud, Junta de Calidad Ambiental, Departamento de Recursos Naturales y Ambientales y la Junta de Planificación ante la situación actual de Vieques,” 2005. Informe, Vieques: Salud Pública  (AHV)

Summary
The report addressed to the governor explains the health and environmental situation in Vieques in the immediate wake of the Navy’s ceasing of military practices and calls upon the Department of Health, the Environmental Quality Board, the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources, and the Planning Board to act and take responsibility for the military contamination. It asserts that the work for peace in Vieques did not end with the end to military practices, but rather has just begun. Furthermore, the report denounces and calls for a stop to open detonation of the “clean-up” and demands citizen participation for all Navy remediation proposals.

US Navy, “La Marina les informa sobre la limpieza de Vieques,” 2006 (AHV)

Summary
This newsletter informs Viequenses about the studies the US Navy conducted to identify the contamination and their plans for waste removal. The Navy warns residents that they will close access to contaminated areas “for their safety.” The Navy highlights the progress they’ve made and how they’ve removed live munitions and artifacts from 200 acres. The newsletter also describes how the Navy is training local residents to help with the cleaning process.

VIEQUES DICE ¡NO A LAS DETONACIONES!, 2007, Press release addressed to government agencies, Vieques: Vieques sí, Marina no! (AHV)

Summary
Press release addressed to multiple local and federal government agencies and signed by Viequense residents that demands a stop to open detonation practices of the military “clean-up” due to their health, emotional and environmental impacts, and an adequate cleanup that involves residents, keeps people safe, and employs alternative high-tech detonation strategies.

“Ultimatum a la Junta de Calidad Ambiental,” 2010.  (AHV)

Summary
This ultimatum to the Environmental Quality Board is signed on behalf of Viequense residents and local political figures to express indignation with the Environmental Quality Board for accepting the US Navy’s burning of vegetation and open detonation as part of their “cleaning’’ processes. The document describes open detonation as a “crime” that is causing severe health issues to Viequenses.

RT, “Vieques: futuro minado?,” May 24, 2024. (CONT)

Summary
This video report details the effects of decades of militarization in Vieques, including health harms such as cancer and heavy metals, undetonated ordinances, and botched clean up. The report includes interviews with activists, fishermen, and scientists engaged in the ongoing struggle for justice for Viequenses.

Reproductive Rights

Myrna Pagán y Myrna Renaud. “La Plena de Madres Viequenses ‘La Sala de Parto,’” The Vieques Times, March 1992, p. 12. (dLOC)

Summary
Plena song that explains the difficulty pregnant Viequenses face when they must leave Vieques to give birth.

Diana Ramos Gutiérrez, “Expectant Mothers Still Lack Delivery Rooms to Give Birth on the Puerto Rican Islands of Vieques and Culebra,” Latino Rebels, August 23, 2021, (CONT)

Summary
This article describes the dismal state of maternal and child care in Vieques and Culebra. For years, Vieques has not had a delivery room, and the island municipality’s only hospital was destroyed during Hurricanes Irma and Maria, leaving only a provisional health care center while Viequenses await reconstruction. Viequense mothers describe the physical, economic, and emotional tolls of birthing via emergency medical transport to the big island.

Adriana Díaz Tirado y Naylie Vélez Figueroa, “Viequenses reclaman el derecho a un embarazo respetado,” September 13, 2021. (CONT)

Summary
This article addresses the intersections of precarious health care, privatization, and inadequate transportation in Vieques and the birthing experiences of several Viequense women. Since the closure of the Vieques hospital that included an emergency room and birthing center in the 1970s, health access has deteriorated. The health crisis manifests through poor maternal health, lack of emergency care, and premature deaths when patients cannot access needed care on the big island in time.

Public Education, Popular Education

Unit 4: Public Education, Popular Education contains pamphlets about Vieques’s sustainable and decolonial futures, produced to be circulated among students in schools. This section also informs us of the education system’s current conditions, including school closures and students’ struggle with poverty and lack of resources.

Grupo de Apoyo Técnico y Profesional Para el Desarrollo Sustentable de Vieques (GETP)”Alternativas de Vieques,” 2002. (AHV)

Summary
A guide for sustainable development that was made by Viequense students, teachers, and professionals with the intention of widely distributing them in schools and in the community. This comic book describes a variety of  issues faced by Viequenses due to the military’s effect on the economy and the environment. It provides different solutions like investing in the arts, alternative economies, and community buidling.

Grupo de Apoyo Técnico y Profesional Para el Desarrollo Sustentable de Vieques (GETP) “Desarrollo Urbano y Viviendas” 2002.  (AHV)

Summary
A guide for sustainable development that was made by Viequense students, teachers, and professionals with the intention of widely distributing them in schools and in the community. This comic book describes the housing issues faced by Viequenses due to the military’s control of the land, the cost of building materials, and the job crisis. It discusses sustainable housing options and how they can be effected through urban planning to combat the fact that housing is scarce and expensive.

José M. Encarnación Martínez, “El Secretario de Educación y ‘el paseo a Vieques para la foto,’” Centro de Periodismo Investigativo, October 6, 2020. (CONT)

Summary
The article criticizes Puerto Rico’s Secretary of Education, Eligio Hernández, for a visit to Vieques during which he distributed used laptops as a public relations move rather than addressing the deeper educational needs of the island. The article focuses on the issues that were exacerbated during the pandemic, due to the fact the schools and households lacked the necessary technology for remote learning. However, this moment reflects a larger educational crisis in Vieques: geographically isolated, the island lacks adequate educational resources, technology, and governmental support. Local teachers and parents are left to improvise to meet students’ needs. The visit, seen by residents as superficial, highlights the government’s neglect of Vieques’ educational and infrastructural challenges.

Tayna Mía Rivera Rodríguez, “Las voces de los jóvenes viequenses y su percepción ante la exclusión, los juvenicidios y la educación,” Revista [IN]Genios, December 7, 2021. (CONT)

Summary
This study uses interviews and focus groups to explore the perspectives of young people from Vieques, Puerto Rico, on issues like social exclusion, youth-targeted violence, and education. Rather than seeing the youth as an object of study, they are the subjects of this research. The young people expressed concerns about poverty, marginalization, and inadequate educational support, which drive issues such as school dropout and delinquency. The study highlights systemic exclusion and the state’s abandonment, recommending that educational programs be reassessed, that we hear students and teacher’s perceptions, that community organizations be integrated, and for health and transportation facilities improve.

Tatiana Díaz Ramos and José M. Encarnación Martínez, “Educación planifica nueva ola de cierre de escuelas,” Centro de Periodismo Investigativo, January 14, 2022. (CONT) English

Summary
The article reveals that Puerto Rico’s Department of Education (DE) is planning to close 83 schools by 2026, affecting over 18,644 students. This plan, part of an infrastructure proposal, was prepared without input or acknowledgement from affected communities. The proposal has sparked criticism from teachers and experts. In Vieques, two of the six public schools that the island municipality has would close. This schools are critical to communities in Vieques and desperately need resources.
 

Displacement and Gentrification

Unit 5: Displacement and Gentrification includes information on the two-way labor migration between Vieques and St. Croix. However, Viequenses are also displaced to St. Croix within the context of expropriations due to the establishment of US military bases. In addition to the ongoing displacement caused by the military occupation, nowadays, Vieques struggles with gentrification and external investors buying properties for short-term rentals, provoking Viequenses to face a housing crisis. 

Hand-typed manuscript, “St. Croix Statistics,” 1947.  (AHV)

Summary
This document indicates that from January 1945 to June 1946, more than 150 “Puerto Rican and Viequense” immigrants arrived to St. Croix.

Pedro Albizu Campos, “La destrucción de la Isla de Vieques por Estados Unidos,” El Imperial, January 12 1984.  (AHV)

Summary
In this article, Albizu Campos describes a conversation that took place within the Committee of Territories and Insular Cases, where Puerto Rican independence is considered contrary to Puerto Rico’s safety. They determined that the US’ ability to build military operations in Vieques and elsewhere in Puerto Rico is in the best interest of both the US’ and Puerto Rico’s safety. Moreover, they state that the US should be the “sole judge of future military needs in the zone.”  Albizu Campos describes a Puerto Rican government that bends towards the US’s will. He describes the violent displacement of Viequenses to Isabel II and warns of the continuing displacement of Viequenses and of Puerto Ricans across the island due to US military operations.

Colección Viequense and US/Puerto Rico Solidarity Network, “Vieques Update 50 Years of Expropriation,” 1991. Pamphlet, Vieques: Vieques sí, Marina no!  (AHV)

Summary
The “Vieques Update” reports on different aspects of the “people’s movement to reclaim their island from the US Navy.” This 1991 bulletin provides historical information about the US Navy’s expropriation of ⅔ of Vieques in the 1940s, accompanied by the forced relocation of thousands of Viequenses. The bulletin also details some transnational relations, including how Vieques and Roosevelt Roads played into US imperial wars in Grenada and the Persian Gulf, a “construction brigade” from the US that spent 10 weeks in Vieques, and anti-war activism in Vieques protesting the Gulf War. The bulletin includes document excerpts from the then-newly-formed “Movimiento Local Viequense,” which was demanding a “medical center” in Vieques, among other things.
 

Robert Rabin, “Relaciones Históricas Vieques-Santa Croix.” Publication date unknown. (dLOC)

Summary
In this article, Rabin outlines some of the history of labor and migration that mark the relationship between St. Croix and Vieques. The migration between Vieques and the Virgin Islands, especially Saint Croix, began as early as the late 19th century. Initially, people from the Virgin Islands moved to Vieques to work in the thriving sugar industry, drawn by the island’s economic opportunities. However, by the 1920s, as Vieques’ sugar economy declined and its plantations shut down, a reverse migration began, with Viequenses seeking work elsewhere. This movement accelerated in the 1930s due to the Great Depression and further increased when the U.S. military expropriated large parts of Vieques in the 1940s, reducing local employment and worsening economic conditions. Many Viequenses emigrated to Saint Croix, where there were jobs in agriculture, the budding tourism industry, and later in petrochemical plants. This document includes transcriptions of interviews he conducted with people who were part of the migration in the early twentieth century.

Ivis Garcia Zambrana, “From Bomb Zone to Boom Town: Real Estate Trends and Community Based Practice in Vieques, Puerto Rico,” Thesis: University of New Mexico,  2009.  (CONT)

Summary
This thesis examines the transformation of Vieques, Puerto Rico, from a neglected military testing ground to a real estate hotspot after the Navy’s departure in 2003. The newfound appeal of Vieques attracted a surge of outside investors, particularly from the U.S., who sought vacation properties, driving property prices to unprecedented levels. This rapid increase in real estate values created affordability challenges for local residents, leaving many Viequenses unable to purchase or retain homes on the island. Community concerns grew around issues of displacement and cultural preservation, as the influx of outsiders altered the island’s socioeconomic landscape. In response, local activists, residents, and officials began exploring community-based solutions and affordable housing initiatives. In sum, the aim of this thesis is to document the real estate market trends in Vieques, demonstrate how rising prices and an influx of outsiders have impacted the local community, and report local housing initiatives.

Martha Bayne and Isabel Sophia Dieppa, “Puerto Rico’s Vieques Island Ousted the U.S. Navy. Now the Fight’s Against Airbnb.” Pulitzer Center, July 16, 2019. (CONT)

Summary
After successfully expelling the U.S. Navy, Vieques, Puerto Rico, now faces challenges from external investors purchasing properties for vacation homes and Airbnb rentals, leading to rising real estate prices that local residents cannot afford. This influx of foreign capital has resulted in a “tsunami of gentrification,” displacing long-time residents and altering the island’s social fabric. The local economy, already weakened by the Navy’s decades-long occupation and the devastation of Hurricane Maria, offers limited employment opportunities, compelling many Viequenses to leave in search of better prospects. The high levels of toxins from the military occupation combined with the absence of adequate healthcare facilities, including the lack of a hospital, exacerbates the hardships faced by the remaining population. Since the navy left, a plan made by community leaders for sustainable development that prioritizes local ownership and preservation of natural resources has been in law, but largely ignored. Nowadays, while many feel forced to sell their property to Americans, there are also organizers like La Colmena Cimarrona — the Maroon Beehive — who founded a community land trust, to develop a farm and protect the land.

Adriana Maldonado Raimundí, “Mujeres resisten ante desplazamiento en Vieques,” Todas PR, July 11, 2023. (CONT)

Summary
The gentrification process in Vieques, driven by the rise of short-term rentals and property sales, primarily affects women, especially those who are heads of households and face difficulties accessing affordable housing. Community organizations led by women, such as La Colmena Cimarrona, highlight that this situation increases child poverty, with 86% of minors in Vieques living under such conditions. On July 6, 2023, Vieques residents, including members of the Alianza de Mujeres Viequenses and La Colmena Cimarrona, protested against the auction of 10 municipal properties, successfully preventing the auction by blocking participants’ entry. During the demonstration, state police assaulted several women and attempted to press charges against Katherine Martínez, a young activist from La Colmena Cimarrona. Community organizations continue their efforts to halt displacement and secure dignified housing for Vieques residents.

Stephanie L. López, “Buscan solución a la crisis de vivienda asequible en Vieques,” El Vocero, August 15, 2023. (CONT)

Summary
In response to affordable housing concerns in Vieques, Puerto Rico, where 53.2% of the 8,040 residents live below poverty levels, the municipal administration is planning to build 100 social interest housing units. While most available homes on the market exceed $300,000, the median household income in Vieques is only $14,942, and only 70.3% of residents own their homes. Mayor José Corcino and housing officials are working with $45 million from ARPA funds, hoping to start construction soon. Local activists and experts, including Elda Guadalupe Carrasquillo from Colmena Cimarrona, while appreciative of the initiative, argue that 100 units won’t be sufficient to address the needs of the working class. Additionally, the mayor mentioned plans to address abandoned properties for further affordable housing.
 

“Manifiesto de organizaciones aliadas en apoyo a Vieques.” September 26, 2023. (CONT)

Summary
In October 2023, over thirty community-based organizations in Vieques issued this manifesto opposing displacement and gentrification on the island. The manifesto calls for urgent regulation of short-term rentals, explaining that in Vieques, in 2020, short-term rentals accounted for 74% of rental units. The signatories demand the transfer of public lands to community land trusts, inclusive community participation in land-use decisions, the prioritization of affordable housing, and property sales regulation.

Transportation/(Im)Mobilities

Unit 6: Transportation/(Im)Mobilities focuses on the ferry system that links Vieques to the big island–essential maritime transportation. For decades, Viequenses have been defending their right to reliable, dignified transportation that responds to their needs and realities. This unit contextualizes transportation and mobility injustices and highlights how Viequenses have contested poor service, rate hikes, and the 2020 ferry privatization.

Ismael Guadalupe Ortiz, “Ponencia, Vistas Públicas sobre aumento tarifas.” Ponencia, Vieques: Transportación Marítima (AHV)

Summary
This document contains Ismael Guadalupe’s presentation at a public hearing with the Autoridad de Puertos in Vieques on ferry fee hikes. On behalf of the Comité Pro Mejor Transportación Marítima Vieques, Guadeloupe presents objections to the proposed fee hikes for cargo and passenger ferries that center around the economic and social hardships Viequenses face, including the high cost of living, unemployment, and a stagnant population.

Comité Pro Mejor Transportación Marítima Vieques, 1991, “Coro: Ese aumento no lo quiero.” Coro, Vieques: Transportación Marítima. (AHV)

Summary
This is the Comité’s protest chant from 1991 opposing the ferry fee increase and demanding the “ruta corta” (short route) and improved maritime transportation service.

International Human Rights Clinic of Santa Clara Law, “Stranded: Human Rights Implications of an Inadequate Transportation System Between the Islands of Culebra, Vieques, and Puerto Rico,” Santa Clara University School of Law, 2020. (CONT)

Summary
Based on research from 2019-2020, this report finds that the lack of a reliable maritime transportation system connecting Vieques and Culebra to the big island violates international human rights law. The report makes recommendations for legal and policy changes and provides an appendix of “talking points” geared towards residents and activists.
 

José Hernández Díaz for AgitArte, 2021, “¡LUCHAMOS POR EL TRANSPORTE! ¡LUCHAMOS POR LA VIDA! (CONT)

Cristina Corujo, “Maritime transportation issues cause outrage in Puerto Rico,” ABC News, April 2, 2021. (CONT)

Summary
The essential ferry service that connects Vieques and Culebra to Puerto Rico’s main island suffers from lack of maintenance, accessibility, and reliable schedules needed to support residents’ daily transportation needs to access education, health, and shopping. This article documents the 2021 protests over the poor ferry service and connects transportation injustices to the lack of other basic services such as a hospital.
 

James Baratta, “In Puerto Rico, Privatization Jeopardizes Already Weak Ferry System in Vieques and Culebra,” Latino Rebels, January 26, 2022. (CONT)

Summary
This article documents residents’ concerns with the ferry service after the 2020 privatization, when Puerto Rico’s Public-Private Partnerships Authority contracted US-based HMS Ferries to assume control of the Marine Transport Authority (ATM) and moved the ferry terminal from Fajardo to Ceiba. Residents of the island municipalities have demanded cancellation of the multi-million dollar contract and criticize how privatization decisions are made without public consultation and favor tourists’ needs.
 

CENTRO, 2023, Season 5, Episode 3, “After the Boats Left” (CONT)

Summary
“Elba Dávila (a community leader in Fajardo) organizes the community of Maternillo to demand better public services for an aging community facing displacement after the Ferry Service to Vieques and Culebra was moved to the town of Ceiba. The community has collapsed without the economic activity provided by the Ferry transit and local fishermen fight to maintain their livelihoods.”

Andrea Pimentel Rivera, “Opposing powers at the helm and the immobilities of passenger-ferry governance in Vieques, Puerto Rico,” The Geographical Journal, 2023 (open access). (CONT)

Summary
“Drawing upon approaches from recent critical transportation geographies, this article uses a mobility justice framework to understand how the afterlives of over sixty years of direct militarised colonial violence continue to repeat through Viequense mobile life. I particularly focus on how Vieques’ environmental injustices become mobility injustices through the poor ferry service. The article explores the governance of the maritime transportation service by disentangling its mobile politics, revealing the deeper impacts of coloniality on infrastructures of mobility.”

Food Sovereignty: Land, Food, and Agroecology

Unit 7: Food Sovereignty: Land, Food, and Agroecology addresses the Navy occupation’s harms to local agriculture and fishing, as well as how activists leading the Colmena Cimarrona are working toward food sovereignty for Vieques.

La Cruzada Pro Rescate de Vieques, “La Marina Destruye La Cruzada Construye,” October 30, 1981.(dLOC)

Summary
La Cruzada Pro Rescate de Vieques was an organization involved with Viequense fishermen that participated in various protests against naval ships with fishermen boats. This issue of the organization’s publication expresses frustration with a lack of support for the fishermen’s protests and defends their concerns. It recounts the ways that the US Navy occupation affected farmers and fishermen through the contamination of the natural resources, the land occupation, and the destruction of property.

Adrian Díaz Tirado, “La Colmena Cimarrona: mujeres que gestionan la soberanía alimentaria de Vieques.” Todas, September 13, 2021. (CONT)

Summary
Led by a group of women, the Colmena Cimarrona is dedicated to food sovereignty and agroecology in Vieques. This article captures the voices of the initiative’s leaders and contextualizes their work in relation to combatting machismo and promoting women in agriculture, rescuing land, and providing local food alternatives to improve health outcomes in Vieques.

RT, “Puertorriqueños intentan recuperar la soberanía alimentaria afectada por la asociación con EE.UU,” March 13, 2024. (CONT)

Summary
This video report addresses the relationship between US colonial policies and food insecurity in Puerto Rico. It features the case of Vieques and the agroecology initiatives led by the Colmena Cimarrona, which works to grow food for Viequenses and promote changes to consumption. Activists interviewed in the report explain how Vieques is doubly food insecure. For instance, food imports arrive by ferry only one day per week, creating scarcity and poor quality selection.

Viequense Literature and Cultural Production 

Unit 8: Literature and Viequense Cultural Production includes fictional and creative texts that focus on Vieques’s culture, history, and its peoples’ lived experiences. The section contains poetry, novels, a film, a touristic guide, and a cultural festival.

Pedro Juan Soto. Usmaíl. Editorial Cultural, 1974. (AHV)

Summary
This novel tells the story of the orphan son of a Black Viequense woman and a North American man who was sent to Vieques to manage a government assistance program. The son is abandoned by a father who doesn’t want to recognize his Black son and left by his deceased mother. Named after the letters from his father that never arrived in the US mail, Usmaíl bears the weight of this name as he navogates growing up in Vieques.

Carmelo Rodríguez Torres. La casa y la llama fiera. Ediciones Partenón, 1982. (AHV)

Summary
This book’s story moves between Mayagüez and Vieques. Additionally, we get a glimpse into the writer’s interior world.

Angel Rigau. Isla y mar de Vieques: Poemas. Yaurel, 1984. (AHV)

Summary
Poetry collection about Vieques.

Norma Torres Sanes. Yo sueño con ser poeta: Vieques y otros poemas. (AHV)

Summary
Poetry collection about Vieques.

Guillermo Rodríguez. Vieques: Isla Nena. Publicación Independiente, 1999. (AHV)

Summary
Poetry collection about Vieques.

Carmelo Rodríguez Torres. Vieques es más dulce que la sangre. Editorial Cultural, 2000.  (AHV)

Summary
This book synthesizes Carmelo Rodríguez Torres’ oeuvre in the sense that all the characters from his previous novels and stories make an appearance. While other texts only allude to Vieques, this novel directly names and discusses Isla Nena. Here, Viequenses are a people who are about to reach liberation.

Archivo Histórico de Vieques y Beta-Local. Guía de Turismo Cultural de Vieques. La Impresora, 2024. (AHV)

Summary
This guide explores emblematic and culturally important places in Vieques, such as the Fortín Conde de Mirasol, Parque Costero La Ceiba, the bioluminescent bay, the malecón, etc. It also explores its gastronomy and nature. It celebrates this island’s legacy and culture.
 

Glorimar Marrero, director. La Pecera. 2023. (CONT)

Summary
La Pecera tells the moving story of a Noelia, woman from Vieques who has built a life on Isla Grande but finds herself drawn back to her roots. As she battles cancer, she returns to Vieques to reconnect with her mother and confront the legacy of the island—a place scarred by US Navy military practices and its lingering environmental toxicity. In this lyrical and evocative narrative, her illness and the island itself mirror each other, both serving as “fish tanks”—spaces of confinement that paradoxically hold both pain and breathtaking beauty.

Gloria Fontanez, Juan Camacho, and Zolimar Ortiz Jusino, editors. Sensibilidad, belleza y lucha. Poema, 2024. (CONT)

Summary
This edited collection of Viequense poetry is curated from the Archivo Histórico’s materials.

Festival de la lucha Viequense.

Summary
Annual festival that celebrates the anniversary of the cessation of the US Navy’s bombing of Vieques. It centers the self-determination and self-development of the island and centers organizations and cultural production. The first one took place in 2023.

Viequense Futures

Unit 9: Viequense Futures presents four video interviews on women’s experiences of reproductive health, displacement, public education, and food sovereignty in Vieques. The interviews provide insight into daily life in contemporary Vieques, how Puerto Rico’s multiple crises have impacted their work, and their desires for the future.

Health

Adelmarí Lassús de Jesús

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Education

Jennifer Martínez Molina

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Displacement

Elda Guadalupe Carrasquillo

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Food Sovereignty

Katherine Martínez Medina

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Study Guide

The study guide offers reflection questions for group discussion and self-study based on the Microsyllabus units and an activity that invites users to explore connections between historical and contemporary issues in Vieques through creative synthesis and critical reflection. DOWNLOAD THE STUDY GUIDE PDF HERE

AHV indicates a source found physically in the Archivo Histórico de Vieques.

dLOC indicates a digitized source from the Archivo Histórico de Vieques that can be found in the Digital Libraries of the Caribbean online database.

CONT indicates a contemporary source accessible online.