In Puerto Rico, the Moriviví — which in Spanish means “to die and live” — is one of the land’s natural marvels. Upon touch, the leaves of this perennial plant species close, appearing lifeless. Moments later, they reopen, almost as if the flora had been born again.

Like the samsaric plant, Colectivo Moriviví — an art collective of young women on the island — hopes to breathe a new fighting spirit into a people and country fatigued by economic, political, and natural disasters, by using paint and brushes to make murals.

The group came together in 2013, when Chachi González, 23, Joy Díaz Marty, 23, and Raysa Raquel Rodríguez García, 23, were high school students at San Juan’s Escuela Especializada Central de Artes Visuales. The young women united to participate in Santurce Es Ley 4, a popular urban arts festival in Puerto Rico, and they became Colectivo Moriviví after an organizer, who was fond of what he saw, asked them to come up with a name. Ever since, the collective has grown into a popular artistic front known for creating bold, anticolonial feminist public art across the archipelago.

After Hurricane Maria ravaged the island, two members were forced to continue their college studies elsewhere, bringing their political art to Puerto Rican neighborhoods in the contiguous U.S. Joy remains in Massachusetts, but the group, believing in the curative power of art, has since returned to making murals on the island, which its members hope will help their compatriots heal from the trauma dealt by the storm.

A mural by Colectivo Moriviví.

With community support and participation, the young women have addressed timely issues in their work, such as gender-based violence, reproductive and sexual liberation, climate change, anti-Black racism, colonialism, and U.S. neoliberalism. They view their art as one component of a larger revolutionary women’s movement taking hold in Puerto Rico.

“Like in many countries, the women here are treated as minorities, and right now the barrios are resisting against that, and we are a part of that movement. We work in solidarity with other women, teaming up to do art that uplifts the activist efforts they are leading,” Chachi tells Teen Vogue at the Academia Bautista Puerto Nuevo, where the group is working on an education mural. “I think this is the solution to our country’s problems: uniting,” Raysa adds.

The painting they were working on includes themes of nature, youth, and womanhood, with a tree representing the knowledge passed down to students by a beloved teacher who has instructed at the school for 40 years. With Afro-descendant members, the collective also addresses the topic of race, particularly Black womanhood.