Video: Margaret Power discusses how Puerto Ricans are responding politically to the U.S. hurricane cleanup efforts

Still reeling from the devastation of Hurricane Maria, some Puerto Ricans are calling for statehood while other are relocating to Florida or other parts of the mainland. Illinois Tech Department of Humanities Chair and Professor of History Margaret Power explains how these responses are changing the political landscape of Puerto Rico and beyond.

Power's work focuses on Latin America, women, and gender. Her earlier research explored why a large number of Chilean women opposed the socialist government of Salvador Allende (1970-73) and supported the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990). She also explored various expressions of the global and transnational Right.

Currently, Power is working on two projects. One focuses on Norvelt, a New Deal community in southwest Pennsylvania named for Eleanor Roosevelt. The other examines the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, the political organization that led the struggle for independence from the 1920s to the 1950s.