Puerto Rico and Fearless Speech

A Discursive Analysis of the Mini-Documentary “El apagón – Aquí vive gente”

Abstract

Puerto Rico is considered an unincorporated territory of the United States of America, and Puerto Ricans are, by law, its natural citizens. However, not all civil rights granted to U.S.A. citizens are extended to Puerto Ricans, and the population of the archipelago often suffers from various forms of exploitation and the absence of public policies. Based on this issue, the main objective of this article is to analyze, from a discursive perspective, the denunciatory character of the short documentary El apagón – Aquí vive gente (2022). The theoretical and methodological approach is grounded in French Discourse Analysis, drawing on the discursive perspective of Michel Foucault’s works (2010, 2011, 2017, 2018) and his commentators. The analyses and reflections undertaken point to the documentary’s role as a work of resistance and denunciation against the socioeconomic exploitation of Puerto Rico by the United States. Some of the findings indicate that the testimonies featured in the documentary express what Foucault (2017) calls the fearless speech — the use of frankness even in the face of danger, the exercise of freedom to share one’s accounts with the aim of helping a given group, and the confrontation of interests between economically privileged and disadvantaged groups.