I spoke with Zoán Dávila-Roldán, a spokeswoman for Colectiva Feminista (which is nonhierarchical but has a few selected representatives), to discuss the ways these protests are the product of years of feminist activist efforts and what Mr. Rosselló’s resignation means for Puerto Rico.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

What has it been like to see so many people in the streets, to see this movement, which has been building for years?

It has been amazing, and it’s the result of all the work that’s been done. We didn’t see ourselves as a movement. Our mission was to create a movement, with an awareness of the paradigm shifts in the country. It’s seeing the fruits of our labor over the last few years become a reality.

How do you think the chats reflected the culture of the government?

When we protested in November, one of the things that was evident was that one of the ways to eradicate gender-based violence and deal with that problem in an effective way was to introduce education that considered gender. The state’s mission has been to work with survivors of domestic violence, but they don’t have any kind of public policy to prevent the violence. In the conversations that we had with the governor’s aides, there was a resistance to the topic of gender studies. The comments in the chat reflect that there is no real awareness of how gender-based violence affects women, of the violence we experience. If anything, the chat reflects how necessary gender studies is, because even government officials who say they’re conscious of these things aren’t actually aware.

I saw a lot of protesters reclaiming some of the sexist words used in the chat, like “puta” and “gatita,” on their signs. For those of you who have been in this fight for so long, what was it like to see people reclaiming those words?