Alum Jorell Meléndez-Badillo Interviewed by The Abusable Past

Recent UConn History PhD graduate, Jorell Meléndez-Badillo, details the intricacies of the labor movement in Puerto Rico alongside questions of race, gender, and knowledge production in an interview with the online collective, The Abusable Past.

The interview is based on his his first book, The Lettered Barriada: Workers, Archival Power, and the Politics of Knowledge in Puerto Rico (2021), which chronicles how a group of self-educated workers theorized liberation in the wake of U.S. occupation and amidst the changing conditions and terms of exploitation. This interview is an insightful foray into the cultural landscape of labor politics in Puerto Rico. Congratulations on a groundbreaking book and fantastic interview!

Interview is here:

Knowledge Produced in the Margins