Mi María: Surviving the Storm—Voices from Puerto Rico

by Ricia Anne Chansky (Editor), Marci Denesiuk (Editor)

When Hurricane María made landfall in Puerto Rico in September 2017, it left no part of the archipelago unscathed. The hurricane triggered floods and mudslides, washed out roads, destroyed tens of thousands of homes, farms, and businesses, caused the largest blackout in US history, knocked out communications, led to widespread food, drinking water, and gasoline shortages, and caused thousands of deaths.

The seventeen oral histories collected in Mi Marí Surviving the Storm share stories of the hurricane and its long aftermath as people waited for relief and aid that rarely arrived and communities collectively organized to support one another in recovery. Zaira and her husband floated on a patched air mattress for sixteen hours while floodwaters rose around them. The road washed out in front of Emmanuel as he desperately tried to drive his pregnant wife who had begun labor to the hospital. Luis and his father anxiously counted the days that the dialysis clinic remained closed and lifesaving treatment was unavailable, while Miliana’s mother was sent home from the hospital —undiagnosed— only to fall critically ill in her own home.

Weaving together long-form oral histories and shorter testimonios, the book offers a multivocal peoples’ history of disaster that fosters a greater understanding of the failures of governmental disaster response and the correlating perseverance of the people impacted by these failures, highlighting the colonial relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States. Ultimately, the ways in which these oral histories demonstrate the strength of community response to disaster in Puerto Rico are pertinent to other parts of the world that are being impacted by our current climate emergency. Note to Corresponding free lesson plans are available for download on the Voice of Witness website.

Genres: Oral History

325 pages, Paperback

Published September 4, 2021

Reviews

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a well written book of narratives. Hurricane Maria was just awful to PR and this book, a part of Voice of Witness series, did such a good job sharing all of the stories. The first hand narratives were hard to read but captured so much of the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.

[Mary Dent · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stories told by survivors of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. Voice of Witness taught college students to use their interviewing techniques to collect and retell these very personal accounts, which read like a novel. I am very impressed.

[Arsenio Reyes · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s a book that should be read by all of us puertorriqueños who lived and suffered Maria’s impact on our island.

It’s a book hard to read without shedding tears, chapter after chapter.

Every one of us here in Puerto Rico has a “Mi Maria” experience!! These are only a few of them!!

[Josiah Cedeño · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was alot more uplifting than i thought it would be. I wish it was a mini documentary because I was wishing I could witness the farms and houses of the people as they described them 😭