Yarimar Bonilla
Tell us about you and your work
I was born in Puerto Rico in the 70s & shortly thereafter moved to Kansas and became a Kansa-Rican. After that, I’ve lived in over a dozen states and Puerto Rico, so I’m well versed in the colorful richness and diversity of the Puerto Rican diaspora & Puerto Ricans on the island. My lived experiences have culminated in becoming a leading voice on Caribbean & Latinx politics, blurring the lines between political & historical anthropology.
I teach and write about questions of sovereignty, citizenship, and race across the Americas; I’ve pursued these issues across a broad range of sites & practices like anti-colonial labor activism in the French Caribbean, a topic discussed in length in my first book, Non-Sovereign Futures: French Caribbean Politics in the Wake of Disenchantment. My current research is on the political & social aftermath of Hurricane Maria, culminating at one point in my most recent book Aftershocks of Disaster: Puerto Rico Before and After the Storm (Haymarket Press, 2019), which takes an in-depth look at Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria and the preexisting crisis that conditioned this historic disaster. My next book, for which I’ve been named a 2018 Carnegie Fellow, examines the politics of recovery in Puerto Rico after hurricane Maria. Additionally, I maintain a monthly column in the Puerto Rican newspaper, El Nuevo Dia, titled “En Vaivén” & regularly contribute to publications such as the Washington Post, The Nation, and The New Yorker.
I am the first female director for the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College. Additionally, I’m a professor in the Department of Africana, Puerto Rican, and Latino Studies at Hunter College and in the Ph.D. Program in Anthropology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. I am also a principal collaborator in the #PuertoRicoSyllabus project, an online syllabus that contextualizes the current debt crisis impacting Puerto Rico.
What inspires you?
Inspiration can come from anywhere: a ride on the subway, a bad bunny lyric, or a salty tweet.
What does community mean to you?
Healing, comfort, but also accountability.
Favorite film
Cocolos y Rockeros by Ana Maria Garcia
Favorite song
Salimos de Aqui, Fiel a la Vega
Favorite place
My grandmother's balcón.