End The Debt! Decolonize! Liberate! Scroll Project

by JakeSAttention: This post is over 3 years old and the information may be out of date.December 11, 2018

The End the Debt! Decolonize! Liberate! scroll project is a participatory cultural response to Hurricane María that tells the story of U.S. imperialism through the lens of the current economic and environmental state of Puerto Rico and its diaspora. The scroll was developed between AgitArte and collaborators in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, and is part of the Arts and Culture tour of the recently released book,"When We Fight, We Win!: Twenty-First Century Social Movements and the Activists That Are Transforming Our World.

To view the whole scroll, go to this link, and click on the image on the top. You will then see a screen pop up with a black background and a thin strip of color in the middle. Click on the leftmost part of that strip, and the image will zoom in. Keep clicking on that section of the scroll until the image is as large as you want it. From there, you can use the right and left arrows to view the rest of the scroll (right to go forward, left to go back). In the top right corner of the window you can see your position in relation to the rest of the scroll. There is a small red box that moves along as you do, so you can track your progress as you move through the scroll.

Here are a few powerful images from the scroll as it recounts Puerto Rico's history:

A depiction of Grito de Lares in 1868. It was the first major revolt against Spanish rule in Puerto Rico. The flag shown here is known as the First Flag of Puerto Rico

Depiction of the result of the Spanish American War; the transfer from Spanish rule to American rule

A depiction of the Sugar Cane Strike in 1934

No_more_ashes — Depiction of pollution happening in Puerto Rico, with a sign that says " Basta, Ya No Cenizas," which means, "Stop, no more ashes."

Vivimos El Calentamiento Que El Imperio Creo — The words translate to "We live the warming that the empire created."

Here_comes_the_storm — The words translate to "There comes the storm."

hurricane_maria — Depiction of Hurricane Maria

tweets_toilet_paper_maria — This image shows cell phones with images of President Trump throwing toilet paper rolls in the crowd after Hurricane Maria. It also shows a tweet from the President that says "Sixteen versus literally thousands of people."

maria_death_toll — This image is of dead bodies in a morgue, and skulls on the ground. It says "4645+" in reference to the number of people who died from Hurricane Maria in Puerto RIco

Digitized by the Boston Public Library for Digital Commonwealth as part of the Library for the Commonwealth program. Read more about digitization at the BPL.