José Anazagasty-Rodríguez
José Anazagasty-Rodríguez is a Professor in the Sociology program of the Department of Social Sciences of the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez. He is currently the Acting Interim Associate Director of that Department. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez. He holds a master’s degree in Sociology and a doctorate in American Studies, both from Washington State University. He is a specialist in environmental sociology, American Studies and social theory. He has conducted research and published on the U.S. imperialist rhetoric on Puerto Rico and the capitalist production of nature in Puerto Rico. He is co-editor, with Mario R. Cancel, of the books We the People: La representación americana de los puertorriqueños 1898–1926 (2008) and Porto Rico: Hecho en Estados Unidos (2011).
To fully grasp the current state, and the issue of water in general, we need to ponder the history of the waterscape in Puerto Rico and the changing social circumstances that have influenced its making, without losing sight of the role that both capitalism and colonialism have played in this process.