About
Dr. Marisol LeBrón is an Associate Professor of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Prior to arriving at UCSC, Dr. LeBrón held appointments at the University of Texas at Austin, Dickinson College, and Duke University. Dr. LeBrón received her PhD in American Studies from New York University and her bachelor's degree in Comparative American Studies and Latin American Studies from Oberlin College.
An interdisciplinary scholar, Dr. LeBrón’s research and teaching focus on social inequality, policing, violence, and protest. She is the author of Policed: A Latinx History of State Violence (University of California Press, 2027), Against Muerto Rico: Lessons from the Verano Boricua (Editora Educación Emergente, 2021), and Policing Life and Death: Race, Violence, and Resistance in Puerto Rico (University of California Press, 2019) and . Along with Yarimar Bonilla, Dr. LeBrón is the co-editor of Aftershocks of Disaster: Puerto Rico Before and After the Storm (Haymarket Books, 2019). Dr. LeBrón has published her research in a variety of venues including Centro Journal, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, Modern American History, Radical History Review, Journal of Urban History, Souls: A Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society, Women & Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory, NACLA Report on the Americas, and the edited volume Policing the Planet: Why the Policing Crisis Led to Black Lives Matter.
Dr. LeBrón is an active contributor to popular conversations about policing as well as Puerto Rico and its diaspora. She has published op-eds in The Washington Post, The Guardian and Truthout and has been interviewed by a number of news outlets. Dr. LeBrón is one of the co-creators and project leaders for the Puerto Rico Syllabus (#PRsyllabus), a digital resource for understanding the Puerto Rican debt crisis. She is also one of the editors for The Abusable Past, a digital project that features unique and original content related to the praxis of radical history in this social and political moment.
Writing
BOOks
Policed: A Latinx History of State Violence ( University of California Press, 2027).
Edited Volumes
Translation: Las replicas del desastre, co-edited with Yarimar Bonilla (Ediciones Callejón, 2021) and (Haymarket Books, 2021)
Edited Special Issues and Forums
Journal Articles
“Instruments of Colonialism: Historicizing Corruption and Abuse in the Puerto Rico Police,” co-written with Mónica A. Jiménez, Centro: Journal of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies (2022).
“Abolish,” 2020 Keywords Symposium, in Theory & Event (2022).
“Policing Coraje in the Colony: Towards a Decolonial Feminist Politics of Rage in Puerto Rico,” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society (2021).
"They Don't Care If We Die: The Violence of Urban Policing in Puerto Rico,” Journal of Urban History (2020).
“Puerto Rico, Colonialism, and the U.S. Carceral State,” Modern American History (2019).
"Carpeteo Redux: Surveillance and Subversion Against the Puerto Rican Student Movement, Radical History Review (2017).
“Policing Solidarity: State Violence, Blackness, and the University of Puerto Rico Strikes” Souls: A Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society (2015).
“‘Con un Flow Natural’: Sonic Affinities and Reggaeton Nationalism,” Women & Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory (2011).
Book Chapters
“How We Come to Know the Most Important Place in the World: Centering Puerto Rico in American Studies,” in Interrogating the Future of Puerto Rican Studies: A Reader (2026).
“Policing Solidarity: Race, Violence, and the University of Puerto Rico,” in Colonial Racial Capitalism (2022).
"Mano Dura Contra El Crimen and Premature Death in Puerto Rico," in Policing the Planet: Why the Policing Crisis Led to Black Lives Matter (2016).
Other writing
“Governance,” exhibition catalog essay in Designs for Different Futures (2019).
“Policing is the Crisis” in 80 Grados (published online on May 10, 2019).
“Puerto Rico and the Colonial Circuits of Policing” NACLA Report on the Americas (2016).
“Neocolonial Policing in Puerto Rico,” NACLA Report on the Americas (2012).
"The Reggaetón Factor in the U.S. Elections," NACLA Blog (published online on October 21, 2008).
Policed: A Latinx History of State Violence
ABOUT THE BOOK
How policing has fundamentally shaped the Latinx experience.
The history of Latinx groups in the United States has been marked, from the beginning, by experiences of criminalization and violence at the hands of law enforcement. Marisol LeBrón argues that policing has left an indelible mark on Latinx communities across the country and has come to shape our understanding of what it means to be Latinx.
Spanning the nineteenth century to the present, Policed examines how policing became a key component in the formation of Latinx identity and political consciousness, and still lies at the heart of many pressing issues confronting Latinx communities today, including immigration, employment, health, and housing. More than simply telling a story of police brutality and harassment, LeBrón powerfully shows that Latinx people have continually resisted state violence and worked to build a more liberated future.
Reviews
“This book is sorely needed, and Marisol LeBrón is the person to write it. For too long, the public has believed that the police and ICE are separate entities, each with its own goals, enforcement tactics, and equipment. As Policed shows, the work of these organizations frequently overlaps, resulting in the oppression of Black and Latino communities alike.”—William Lopez, author of Raiding the Heartland
“A powerful, sweeping examination of how the 'continuum of policing'—the ways policing is embedded in Latinx life—has come to shape our understanding of Latinx people's place in U.S. society. Clearly argued, well evidenced, and maddeningly timely, Policed is excellent in virtually every way.”—Simon Balto, award-winning author of Occupied Territory
buying options
Against Muerto Rico
About the book
The series reVolucionA offers here the bilingual publication Against Muerto Rico: Lessons from the Verano Boricua /Contra Muerto Rico: lecciones del Verano Boricua. The book approaches the Verano Boricua 2019 from a sociological standpoint, highlighting what its author, Marisol LeBrón, considers the six most significant political lessons to be garnered from the rebellion for the ongoing struggle against the forces of death in Puerto Rico. These lessons are: (1) the struggle must be intersectional; (2) the criollo elite are a murderous class; (3) debt is death, protest is life; (4) protests are sites of pleasure; (5) la policía ≠ el pueblo; and (6) the diaspora must be a part of the struggle for Puerto Rico’s future.
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Listen to this interview with Karma Chavez for the LatinXperts podcast where we discuss Against Muerto Rico and the legacies of the Verano Boricua.
Policing Life and Death
About the Book
In her exciting new book, Marisol LeBrón traces the rise of punitive governance in Puerto Rico over the course of the twentieth century to the present moment. Punitive governance emerged as a way for the Puerto Rican state to manage the deep and ongoing crises stemming from the archipelago’s incorporation into the United States as a colonial territory. Experienced as a structuring component of everyday life for many Puerto Ricans, police power has reinforced social inequality and worsened conditions of vulnerability in marginalized communities.
Far from a totalizing narrative of state violence, this book provides powerful examples of how Puerto Ricans negotiate and resist their subjection to increased levels of segregation, criminalization, discrimination, and harm. Policing Life and Death shows how Puerto Ricans are actively rejecting punitive solutions and working toward alternative understandings of safety and a more just future.
Preview the book on Google Books.
Awards
Honorable Mention, Outstanding Book Award 2021, LASA Latino Studies Section
Honorable Mention, Lora Romero First Book Prize 2020, American Studies Association
Juan E. Méndez Book Award 2019 Shortlist, Duke Human Rights Center
Reviews
"In this extraordinary book, Marisol LeBrón does a brilliant job of helping us see the everyday activism and cultural inventiveness of Puerto Ricans figuring out how to respond to state repression and colonial capitalism. It’s a genuinely thrilling read."—Laura Briggs, author of How All Politics Became Reproductive Politics: From Welfare Reform to Foreclosure to Trump
"Policing Life and Death deftly illuminates the long historical presence of 'punitive governance' in Puerto Rico, demonstrating the depth to which gendered, racist state violence defines the US colonial/neocolonial relationship with the island and its people. This indispensable study not only focuses on the normalized, cross-generational violence generated by the policing and criminological regimes, but also pays rigorous attention to the ways Puerto Rican activists, artists, community leaders, and others respond to—and potentially transform—this punitive condition."—Dylan Rodríguez, author of Forced Passages: Imprisoned Radical Intellectuals and the US Prison Regime
"LeBrón's rigorously researched, trenchant examination of how everyday life is sectioned, monitored, and controlled is an essential read for understanding modern-day Puerto Rico and all communities and societies negotiating and defending themselves from the layered execution of power."—Zaire Dinzey-Flores, author of Locked In, Locked Out: Gated Communities in a Puerto Rican City
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Included in the Prison Abolition Syllabus 2.0, compiled by Dan Berger, Garrett Felber, Kali Gross, Elizabeth Hinton, and Anyabwile Love for the African American Intellectual History Society’s Black Perspectives Blog.
Selected as a Progressive Pick by Truthout. Read “Puerto Ricans are Resisting Policing as a Solution to Crisis” an interview with Anton Woronczuk and read an excerpt of Policing Life and Death here.
Selected as one of The Best Latino and Latin American History Books of 2019 by Remezcla.
Included in the Disciplining The City Review Essay 2019 compiled by Matt Guariglia and Charlotte Rosen for Urban History Association’s The Metropole Blog.
Included in the Histories Of Police, Policing, And Police Unions In The United States reading list compiled by Matt Guariglia and Charlotte Rosen for Urban History Association’s The Metropole Blog.
Reviewed alongside Naomi Klein’s The Battle for Paradise: Puerto Rico Takes on the Disaster Capitalists in “Confronting Colonial Capitalism” by Alex Standen for New Labor Forum.
Reviewed in “Policing Life and Death: The Perverse Consequences of an Iron Fist Policy Against Crime” by José Caraballo-Cueto for Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books.
Reviewed by Sheilla Rodríguez‑Madera for Latino Studies.
Book Review Forum with contributions by Joaquín Villanueva, Micol Seigel, Jordan Camp, Stuart Schrader, Beverley Mullings, Jenna M. Loyd in the AAG Review of Books.
Reviewed by Alberto Ortiz Díaz for H-LatAm.
Selected as one of The Best Histories of U.S. Policing, According to Experts compiled by New York Magazine.
Reviewed by Angel Rodriguez Rivera for Lateral.
Reviewed by Don S. Polite Jr. for Black Perspectives.
Reviewed by Miranda Martinez for Contemporary Sociology.
Reviewed by Bárbara I. Abadía-Rexach for New West Indian Guide.
Buying Options
Aftershocks of Disaster
About the Book
An in-depth look at Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria and the preexisting crisis that conditioned this historic disaster.
The concept of "aftershocks" is used in the context of earthquakes to describe the jolts felt after the initial quake, but no disaster is a singular event. Aftershocks of Disaster examines the lasting effects of hurricane Maria, not just the effects of the wind or the rain, but delving into what followed: state failure, social abandonment, capitalization on human misery, and the collective trauma produced by the botched response.
Reviews
"In this gripping collection of essays, poems and photos, Aftershocks of Disaster captures both the roots of Puerto Rico's current crisis in its continuing colonial status and the determination of the island's people to persevere and forge a better future." —Juan González, author of Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America, and co-host of Democracy Now!
"Broad in scope, passionate, and urgent, Aftershocks is a necessary anthology of Puerto Ricans telling the story not just of Maria but of resistance to colonialism, austerity and disaster capitalism." —Molly Crabapple, author of Drawing Blood
"Hurricane Maria was a major disaster. It is also, potentially, a transformative event. The contributors to this powerful volume explain how big structural forces - climate change, colonialism, corruption, and capitalism - contributed to the devastation, but they also chart a radical path forward, towards a more just and sustainable world." —Eric Klinenberg, author of Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life
“For those of us who were forced out of Puerto Rico and who watched the hurricane from outside, this book provides beautiful and painful clarity about how we got here and the struggles behind our survival.” —Rossana Rodríguez Sánchez, Boricua Activist, artist and Chicago Council member
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Reviewed by Laura Hiatt in “Puerto Rico Past and Present” for Library Journal
Reviewed alongside Ed Morales’ Fantasy Island: Colonialism, Exploitation, and the Betrayal of Puerto Rico for Antipode by Joaquín Villanueva.
Selected as one of The Best Latino and Latin American History Books of 2019 by Remezcla.
Selected as a Favorite Book From 2019 by LibrarianShipwreck.
Reviewed by Pedro J. Rolón Machado for E3W Review of Books.
Listen to this episode of Piragua Podcast that reflects on the third anniversary of Hurricane Maria through a discussion of Aftershocks of Disaster.
Reviewed by Jorell Meléndez-Badillo for The Americas.
Buying Options
Panel conversation between Aftershocks of Disaster contributors Rima Brusi, Sarah Molinari, and Natasha Lycia Ora Bannan, moderated by Yarimar Bonilla and Marisol LeBrón.
Media
Alex Vitale interviews Marisol LeBrón of the University of Texas about her book "Policing Life and Death: Race, Violence, and Resistance in Puerto Rico."
“Aftershocks of Disaster: Puerto Rico Before and After the Storm,” interviewed with Yarimar Bonilla by Jonathan Cortez for New Books in Latino Studies, October 4, 2019.
“DJ Sessions: The Music that Helped Oust Puerto Rico’s Governor,” Verónica Dávila and I were interviewed by Jeremy Hobson for WBUR’s Here and Now, August 7, 2019.
“Policing Life and Death: Race, Violence, and Resistance in Puerto Rico,” interview with Jesse Zarley for New Books in Latin American Studies, June 18, 2019.
“The lines between race, capital and state violence in Puerto Rico,” interview with Chuck Mertz for WNUR’s This Is Hell, April 27, 2019.
“Marisol LeBrón on Anti-colonial Abolitionist Praxis,” interview with Cathy Hannabach for the Imagine Otherwise Podcast, March 14, 2019.
Interviewed by Scott LaMar about the impact of Hurricane Maria and the Puerto Rican debt crisis for WITF’s Smart Talk, April 2, 2018.
Interviewed by Doug Henwood about how Puerto Rico’s debt crisis is shaping hurricane recovery efforts for KPFA’s Behind the News, October 5, 2017.
“Policing and Recovery in Puerto Rico,” interview with Helen Hazelwood Isaac for the NACLA Podcast, October 2, 2017.
“Austerian Disaster,” interview with Daniel Denvir for The Dig (Jacobin Podcast), September 29, 2017.
“What To Do About The Disaster In Puerto Rico,” interview with Esty Dinur for WORT Community Radio’s Public Affairs, September 29, 2017.
Interviewed by Joe Donahue about effects of Hurricane Maria on Puerto Rico for WAMC Northeast Public Radio’s The Roundtable, September 28, 2017.
“Trump Sees Devastated Puerto Rico as Captive Market,” interview with Aaron Maté for The Real News Network, September 28, 2017.
Refusing to waive shipping restrictions and stressing Wall Street debt obligations, President Trump continues a colonial legacy that hampers Puerto Rico's recovery, says scholar Marisol LeBrón Visit http://therealnews.com for more stories and help support our work by donating at http://therealnews.com/donate.
Interviewed by Frank Stasio for WUNC North Carolina Public Radio's The State of Things, October 10, 2016.
Upcoming Talks & Events
Stay tuned here for upcoming talks!