Category: Writings
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Liberation Means Us Too: Dispatches from the Puerto Rican Diaspora
A book of essays, art review, interview, and reporting on Puerto Rico and its Chicago Diaspora. A project of La Medusa | Experimental Workshop, developed at Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center’s Artist Residency program, 2026.
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The Puerto Rican Student Movement Remakes Chicago (Essay)
A reflective, historical essay on the 21st century Puerto Rican youth and student movements in Chicago.
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(Re)Performing Initiation, Ancestral Memory, and Prophecy (Artist Essay)
Academic essay on my performance art piece “Dance of the Elephant / The Spirits’ Revenge” (2022)
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“Dominicanidades in Motion” (Art analysis and Interview)
Raelis Vasquez is an artist of movement. In his portraiture paintings, we travel through the senses, accepting a subtle invitation to imagine and feel subjects that refuse physical or temporal constraint.
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Diaspora Dreams (Essay)
To have our people, the islanders, and the rest of the world, read our pains and adversities, our hopes and dreams, our intellect and accomplishments.
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All Hail The Boricua Diaspora (Essay)
La Respuesta magazine exists to (re)claim the Diaspora’s place in an expanded Puerto Rican nation and to counter the negative portrayal of us in mainstream media and U.S. cultural productions.
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Speak the Truth and Set the Path (Essay)
“Thus, to struggle is to envision what seems impossible: a liberated future.“
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A Decaying Boricua Diaspora (Essay)
We continue to face high levels of poverty and low levels of formal education, exacerbated by the destruction and displacement of our historic centers and a psyche of inferiority.
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Behold, The Boricua Diaspora (Essay)
If we construct a New Boricua Diaspora aesthetic we can, with greater clarity, understand who we are and map out possible directions.
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From Barrio Dream to Nightmare, But With Hope (Reporting)
In 2005, a real estate developer sought to buy his and his parents’ property and when they refused, he bought the home that was sandwiched between their two properties, demolished it, and constructed a huge condominium.
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Love in the Time of Migration (Play Review)
The Puerto Rican playwright José Rivera, who with his recent play Boleros for the Disenchanted, has come as close as anyone to portraying the surreal 20th century Puerto Rican experience.
Xavi Burgos 