While the path of a hurricane is unpredictable, a government's response to it should not be. In the chaos that followed Hurricane María in Puerto Rico, Jo Cosme created a deck of tarot cards that appears to predict the human disaster that followed the storm. What if, she suggests, Puerto Ricans could have foreseen their ill treatment by the United States government, which owns the island? The tarot deck features President Trump callously tossing paper towels at storm victims, along with the inadequacy of the tarps and prepackaged meals that FEMA distributed haphazardly. Cosme's cards point out the precarity many Puerto Ricans face as U.S. citizens who do not enjoy the same benefits, including disaster relief, as their mainland constituents. Her work implies that the island's colonial status determines the unequal effects of the storm on colonial subjects.
Learn more about Jo Cosme.
