Largely due to the damage wrought by Hurricanes Irma and Maria, Puerto Rico has been frequently featured in the news this year — in fact, according to the data that Google Trends has collected since 2004, searches about Puerto Rico peaked this October by a wide margin. However, hurricanes are not the only crisis that are affecting Puerto Ricans on the island and throughout the diaspora; Puerto Rico has a high unemployment rate and debt that has been increasing throughout a decade-long recession. These economic and humanitarian conditions inspired the creation of the Chicago Boricua Resistance, a group of individuals and organizations that came together last August to advocate for Puerto Ricans and their diaspora. Two...

Hurricane Maria wrought destruction on Puerto Rico last week in the most disastrous storm the island has encountered in more than 80 years, leaving 3.5 million people without power. Large swathes of the country continue to lack sufficient drinking water and food in what is becoming an increasingly severe humanitarian crisis. At a time when the world should have been coming to Puerto Rico’s aid, the Jones Act, a nearly century-old shipping law in the United States, prevented Puerto Ricans from receiving additional foreign assistance to tackle the post-Maria destruction. The act was passed in 1920, ostensibly to ensure that the U.S. could maintain a robust shipbuilding and shipping industry following th...