Categoría Cinco [Category Five], a journal of politics and culture in Puerto Rico, has just served up Volume 5, Number 2 (Autumn 2025/Winter 2026). This special edition— coordinated by Agnes Lugo-Ortiz and Jorge Lefevre-Tavárez— is the tenth issue of the journal, which celebrates its fifth anniversary. Cover art by Coralís Cruz González features her photo “Campanas.” [To read about the journal’s raison d’être, go to “¿Por qué Categoría Cinco?”]
This issue includes an introduction by the journal’s Editorial Board; “ruinas/ruins,” a section on videographic projects by Alicia Díaz, Patricia Herrera, Eduardo Lalo, John Rivera-Pico, Edna Román, Hery Colón Zayas, José Luis “Chema” Baerga, and Coralís Cruz González; “Ruinas de la Sagrada Familia Puertorriqueña” [Ruins of the Puerto Rican Sacred Family] presenting photo essays by Eduardo Lalo and John Rivera-Pico; and essays by Ruth, “Tata”, Santiago, Beatriz Llenín Figueroa, Sofía Cardona, and Dennis Alicea, compiled in the section “Vigilia de las ruinas” [Vigil of the Ruins]. An additional essay by Francisco Font Acevedo in the final section— “Diásporicas, o del beber de otras ruinas” [Diasporic, or of drinking from other ruins]— examines related issues in a diasporic setting.
In the introduction, “Destellos del progreso. Puerto Rico y las ruinas del desarrollismo,” the Editorial Board explains, “Since the 1990s, the theme of ruins has been used to interpret the collapse of the Cuban revolutionary utopia, ignoring the deterioration of the Puerto Rican colonial development model, previously presented as its exemplary counterpart. Today, however, the ruin of that project in our country is undeniable. This issue of Categoría Cinco brings together community and aesthetic projects that work with and from that ruin, demonstrating the power of solidarity and art to imagine and materialize other possible worlds.” [Read full essay at https://categoria5.org/destellos-del-progreso-puerto-rico-y-las-ruinas-del-desarrollismo/]
Description and introductory content edited and translated by Ivette Romero. Access the issue at https://categoria5.org/ruinas-i-categoria-cinco-volumen-5-numero-2-otono-2025-invierno-2026/