Hurricane Maria cast a spotlight on the structural violence Puerto Ricans experience daily.

Once the hurricane passed, people came out of their houses and saw their neighborhoods destroyed. Without electricity or cell phone service, people had no way to contact loved ones. Some still experience lasting effects. The teachers observed that their once-happy students now had emotional difficulties in the classroom. The island’s suicide rate spiked. One man described feeling helpless as he offered support to someone who had lost everything. Hurricane Maria also broke up families, as people fled the island to the mainland. Hurricane Maria also reminded the people of Puerto Rico that they lack rights other Americans enjoy. The concept of structural violence is worth understanding here. Structural violence is inequity and harm caused by social structures. Puerto Rico being a commonwealth and not a state, is unique from other regions in the United States hit by natural disasters, a disparity reflected in the slow federal recovery efforts after Maria. A large part of the recovery was aided by locals and donations. Even before the hurricane, Puerto Rico was deep in debt. The island’s poverty rate exceeds that of our poorest state, Mississippi. Residents of Puerto Rico cannot vote in mid-term or Presidential elections unless they have a permanent address within the United States. This has rendered Puerto Rico invisible to the rest of the world. Hurricane Maria exposed the colonial structures that have led to these inequalities. The suffering of the people of Puerto Rico was aggravated when their pain was minimized. When the actual death toll from Hurricane Maria was revealed to be 2,975 and not 64 as previously reported, President Trump dismissed this as a smear tactic against his presidency.