ABOUT MEMORIA DECOLONIAL
(Re)thinking (patri)mony to (de)colonize our collective memory through a critical and (anti)racist lens.
VISION
We envision a society with a critical and reflective understanding of national narratives, where communities actively participate in constructing their own histories through decolonial and antiracist perspectives.
MISSION
Memoria (De)colonial is an educational project that critically examines the colonial legacies embedded in Puerto Rico’s cultural heritage. We work to disrupt the coloniality of historical memory through public humanities initiatives. We develop critical participatory projects that transform the way history is told, remembered, and experienced—embodying history, rooting memory in place, and democratizing the production of public knowledge.
PROGRAMS
We share the findings of our archival and literary research through two core programs:
Our journey
Memoria (De)colonial was founded in 2020 as a digital humanities platform created by Dr. Rafael V. Capó García to map commemorative spaces in Puerto Rico that reinforce or challenge colonial hierarchies of race, gender, spirituality, and citizenship. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the project emerged as a way to break through isolation and activate critical conversations about cultural heritage.
In 2022, with support from the Mellon Foundation through the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College, and a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities administered by Humanidades Puerto Rico, we launched our main public humanities initiative: (de)tour. These walking workshops were collaboratively developed with an interdisciplinary team of educators, researchers, and cultural workers, and are offered free of charge to public schools in the Department of Education.
Today, Memoria (De)colonial continues to grow as a collective, expanding its routes, archives, and participatory methodologies to accompany more communities through critical memory and transformative education.