Defiant Joy and Care-Based Solidarity in Puerto Rican Theatre

Abstract

On 7 September 2017, Hurricane Irma made landfall on Puerto Rico. Two weeks later, Hurricane Maria devastated the island. Recovery efforts and repairs were still underway by the time the island was rocked by a series of earthquakes in early 2020. By 15 March 2020, a lockdown was instituted due to the COVID-19 global pandemic. Mass migration, austerity measures, neoliberal privatization and a perpetual battle against colonialism have exacerbated these traumas. Repeated disaster, both natural and unnatural, leave Puerto Rican communities in a continuous loop of preparing and recovering. In the wake of disaster, the San Juan-based theatre collective Y no había luz (f. 2005), has functioned as both survivor and witness, enduring traumatic events themselves even as they assemble to assist those in need. In this article, I draw upon fieldwork I conducted in San Juan, Puerto Rico, as well as Imani Perry’s concept of defiant joy to argue that Y no había luz forms a legacy of solidarity that persists through the mobilization of defiant joy in disaster response. Moreover, in collaborating with each other and with intergenerational communities, Y no había luz creates multidisciplinary performances of care that are characterized by joy, whimsy, and celebration. In multiple iterations of familiar narratives, the collective activates afterlives for stories that extend beyond performance to give community participants access to reenact, reshape, and re-remember events. These collective experiences produce a solidarity model of care and a shared understanding among and between artists and communities. Through acts of defiant joy, Y no había luz produces mutually beneficial and sustainable expressions of care-based solidarity in virtual and in-person spaces.