ABSTRACT
In 2018 the scholar, writer and artist Frances Negrón-Muntaner conceived the award-winning art installation Valor y Cambio to explore what people in Puerto Rico, a colony of the United States currently subject to severe austerity measures, valued. The project also sought to introduce the concept of community currency and provide an opportunity to experience a non-extractive economy. From the first day, Valor y Cambio exceeded all expectations by attracting thousands of participants and inspiring the creation of community currencies in Puerto Rico and the United States. In this chapter, Negrón-Muntaner reflects on Valor y Cambio’s origins and impact, the power of art to foster cultures of equality, and a new concept stemming from the project: decolonial joy. This is a specific form of joy that arises when individuals and communities feel the possibility of a different present, one where neither colonialism nor coloniality rules over their lives.
