This artifact may only be a battery light but it has more story than you think. This battery light was bought in Puerto Rico. The artifact is capable of charging other electronic devices like a phone or a tablet. It also had a big light bulb that couldn’t illuminate much, but enough to be useful in the dark to see. Best of all, the artifact only needs the sun to recharge. 

The need for this artifact was due to Hurricane Maria that hit Puerto Rico in 2017. This natural disaster was a deadly category 5 hurricane that also devastated Dominica and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The battery light helped us with a lot during and after the hurricane. My dad was the one using it most of the time because he was always doing stuff like looking for tools or repairing the generator that gave us light throughout the night. We had other items like small flashlights and a radio, but the battery light was the most useful of them all. 

When my family moved to Maryland in the United States 7 months ago due to the lack of money and for better opportunities, we brought that artifact with us. We didn’t really need the artifact but it seems that my mom was a little bit traumatized by the hurricane. That’s why it was her idea to bring the battery light even though we haven’t used it since 2017. Every time I see the artifact it always reminds me of the hurricane. The reminders are not always bad ones, but on the contrary, it reminds me that we made history by surviving that hurricane and we can take more if we have to.

– Abnel

Relationship:  Im/migrant Im/migrant