The River Rail: Puerto Rico features artists, writers, scholars, poets, and activists whose work considers the history and future of Puerto Rico and the ongoing recovery efforts since Hurricane Maria in 2017.
A Message from the Publisher
Phong H. Bui on the impetus for the River Rail Puerto Rico.
Art, Activism, and the Environment in Puerto Rico
Editorial introduction by Iberia Pérez González and Natalia Viera Salgado.
Colonial Waterscapes: The Water Issue in Puerto Rico
Environmental sociologist José Anazagasty-Rodríguez on the changing social circumstances of water resources on the island.
Río y Respiro (River and Breath)
Through a performance action, ephemeral installation, and production of a homonymous documentary video, Dhara Rivera proposes a conversation about the current state of the bodies of water that flow across the island.
Excerpts from Falsa heladería and Sal de magnesio
Poetry by Mara Pastor.
The Rain Gardens Project
The Institute for Socio-Ecological Research documents the collaborative work of rain gardens in Ponce.
We Can Clean Water with Our Earth
Agroceramicist Amara Abdal Figueroa writes on how locally sourced clay can be used to create natural water filtration systems.
¿Jácana, dónde estás?
Poetic Reflection by Amara Abdal Figueroa.
Recollections on the Cartography of the Caribbean Coast
By studying the indigenous and alien species found on coastal habitats, botanist and architect Steve Maldonado Silvestrini builds a picture of an ever-changing coastline.
Playuela
Artist, writer, and naturalist Javier A. Román-Nieves on the struggle to preserve one of the last undeveloped stretches of coastline on the island.
Las Playas Son Nuestras (The Beaches Are Ours)
Experimental dance pioneer Viveca Vázquez’s 1989 video highlights the coastline as a site of contention.
Subtropical Dry*
Poems by Nicole Cecilia Delgado, translated by Urayoán Noel
Black Beach/Horse/Camp/The Dead/Forces
A 2016 film by Beatriz Santiago Muñoz addresses the contamination of Vieques.
Fuerzas Sutiles (Subtle Forces)
nibia pastrana santiago’s large-scale choreographic event took place in 2017 inside a hangar at the Isla Grande Airport with the airstrip and San Bay serving as a dynamic backdrop.
Barrio Vietnam
Photographer Chris Gregory-Rivera surveys a waterfront neighborhood whose original residents are being pushed out by evictions.
Nothing Exists in a Void
Curator Michy Marxuach searches for another type of governance that isn’t anthropocentric.
Waters
Anayra Santory Jorge on water that can’t be seen, water that is always there, and the water that we come out of.
Ecological Calendar
by Para la Naturaleza
Selected Bibliography
by Monique A. Lorenzo Pérez
