Frances Negron-Muntaner, co-director of the CSSD working group Unpayable Debt and Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia, along with artist Sarabel Santos Negron, has implemented a community currency program in towns across Puerto Rico. The project, named Valor y Cambio, is part of an initiative to recognize work and services that go unacknowledged or unpaid. Individuals can get bills or pesos from ATM machines by telling a story, and these bills can in turn be used to pay for goods at participating businesses.

The bills, which come in seven denominations, feature important Puerto Rican historical figures. As the educational system in Puerto Rico does not prominently feature its own history as part of the curriculum, the initiative is also attempting to connect people to the past. The full feature on the project can be read here in The Manhattan TImes.