Chapter 9: Restorative (RE) Creation(S): Releasing Thoughts and Perspectives Through Counter-Cartography

On September 16, 2017, Hurricane Maria unleashed 175-mph winds across the islands of Dominica, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. Widely acknowledged as the most devastating natural disaster to hit the clutch of islands, the road to recovery has been challenging on various levels. Along with the physical trauma inflicted by the superstorm on multiple non/liv-ing landscapes, residents of these islands have been forced to endure an (unnecessary) added layer of affectual/emotional anguish. Several weeks after the winds retreated and the flood waters subsided, President Trump visited Puerto Rico to survey the damage and distribute supplies. While it is common for presidents to promote a sense of activism and communal empathy by visiting devastated localities (Skidmore, 2013), the people of Puerto Rico—arguably hit the hardest by the hurricane—endured a visit by Trump fraught with mockery and jest.