Beyond the Pen: Of Arrivals, Tricky Encounters, and Activism in Vieques, PR

Abstract

In “Beyond the Pen: Of Arrivals, Tricky Encounters, and Activism in Vieques, PR,” Dr. Torres-Vélez presents an ethnographic account of the United States Navy’s activities in Vieques, Puerto Rico, and the resulting environmental degradation and health crisis experienced by the island’s inhabitants. The author argues that the US Navy’s military occupation of Vieques for over 60 years, and the subsequent contamination of the island’s landscapes, represents a modernity that endangers human lives and health through “conspiracies of invisibilities.” These conspiracies obscure the links between environmental damage and human disease. The ethnography provides in-depth analyses of Viequenses’ struggles against the conspiracy of invisibilities that has created and maintained the conditions under which military and economic interests supersede the values of human life and health. However, the transformation of individual suffering into a potent transnational anti-militarization movement is a redemptive one. Dr. Torres-Vélez contextualizes Vieques within the broader historical and sociopolitical landscape of Puerto Rico’s colonial relationship with the United States, highlighting how late-stage colonialism continues to affect individual lives. The author reflects on his experiences and challenges in conducting research in Vieques as an Afro-Puerto Rican medical anthropologist trained in the United States, weaving together biographical and historiographical elements to explain the tensions and motivations that led him to go “beyond the pen.”