“País en Fuga: la masiva emigración está vaciando la isla a pasos agigantados y es el principal desafío de Puerto Rico. ¿Cuáles son sus implicaciones económicas, sociales y políticas”?(1) This statement headlined El Nuevo Dia’s special edition on September 29, 2013. Perhaps one of the main newspapers on the Island – if not the main– El Nuevo Día is just one of the forums in which the current emigration has been highlighted(2). País en Fuga illustrates 18 pages worth of economic, social, and political causes and effects of Puerto Ricans leaving the island. Given the loss of income(3) the Island is suffering, Governor Alejandro García Padilla’s administration has been obliged to take action on what has been described as a crisis(4).
On August 21st, 2013 the Department of Economic Development & Commerce (DEDC) launched The Star Island campaign seeking to position Puerto Rico as one of the best investment destinies of the world. The $2 million campaign consisted of a commercial, videos, and a website(5). Due to the Government’s need of creating and maintaining capital, the campaign’s discourse revolves around investing and residing on the Island. The call toward Puerto Rico is one that is selective, industrialized, and touristic. One that seems Americanized.
The focus of this paper analyzes how The Star Island campaign asserts (non)value and worth to subjects and objects in ways that (in)directly create hauntings of who or what is positioned as deviant. I examine how the current Administration inserts itself into a neoliberal discourse based on more than an economic lens (Cacho, 2013; Jun, 2011; Melamed, 2011; Reddy, 2011; Rosas, 2012). It chooses to portray the island’s “stars” – or rather the exceptional people – in conflictual representations of race, gender, class, and language, and in doing so, erases the reality of others. By reflecting on value (Cacho, 2012; Dávila, 2008) and hauntings (Gordon, 2008) caused by implicit absences/deaths (Holland, 2000), I demonstrate how the campaign cannot/does not tell the stories of disenfranchised Puerto Ricans who do not seem to be “in line” with neoliberal projects. It must not do so at the expense of implicitly calling for a civility that does not produce knowledge that disrupts, imagines, and creates changes.
(1)A country on flight: The massive emigration is emptying the island by leaps and bounds and is the main challenge of Puerto Rico. What are the economic, social and political implications?
(2)As of now, I have accumulated 51 newspaper articles, 2 reports, and videos ranging from 2011-2015. Of the newspaper articles, 22 have been published this year.
(3)“During this decade, Puerto Rico will stop accruing $1,896 million in salaries as a consequence of workers leaving the island” (El Nuevo Día).
(4)Several newspaper articles have referenced the migration pattern as a crisis. More specifically, El Nuevo Día uses large fonts in bold that read Un pueblo desangrado por la emigración. It can be interpreted that the country is losing blood, dying because of the displacement of its people.
(5)As of Fall 2013. Website URL: http://ddec.pr.gov/.
Cultural Studies , Film/Television/Media , Gender Studies , Social Science--Quantitative , Transnational , Puerto Rican
