Colectiva Feminista en Construcción
Women and gender nonconforming people of Puerto Rico live at the intersections of gender-based, racial, and colonial violence. But at the grassroots and in the streets, Colectiva Feminista en Construcción is organizing, leveraging those intersections, and building power.
Colectiva Feminista en Construcción is a grassroots feminist movement that both opposes the racist and heteropatriarchal colonial system and works towards achieving structural change. It is made up of working-class women and LGBTQIA+ peoples of different ages and social groups who came together in various resistance struggles in Puerto Rico – including student, anti-colonial, and LGBTQIA+ organizing.
The movement recognizes that different manifestations of oppression – including sexism, racism, xenophobia, and capitalism – are interrelated and need to be opposed collectively. Many of their efforts in the last 5 years have focused on direct action and the creation of a collective political consciousness. La Colectiva also helped lead a recent uprising against the Ricardo Rosselló government and secured the declaration of a public emergency against gender violence.
In Puerto Rico, the heteropatriarchy is a pillar of the extractive, colonial economy. The women and LGBTQIA+ people of la Colectiva are leading the charge towards liberation.
