Students with the Initiative for Transformative Social Work (ITSW) organized this video dialogue in October, 2016, to explore a highly contested issue among Puerto Ricans, Latinos, and people in the U.S.: the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA). Puerto Rico has been an unincorporated territory of the U.S. since 1917 and Puerto Ricans are the second largest Latino group in the United States. PROMESA grants a seven-member oversight board with the power to require balanced budgets and fiscal plans in Puerto Rico. The controversy of PROMESA has centered on what it can really promise and the kind of relationship it will solidify between the U.S. and Puerto Rico. This video dialogue provides insight into the history, protests, and challenging issues surrounding economic relations between the U.S. and Puerto Rico.

Meet the speakers for the series:

Dr. Annie Isabel Fukushima, University of Utah
Federico de Jesus, FDJ Solutions
Dr. Gisela Negron Velazquez, Universidad de Puerto Rico
Denis Nelson, Author, War Against All Puerto Ricans

Ani Robles, Experiential Scholar, ITSW