[1]Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for Congress



I just got back from an amazing trip visiting organizers in Puerto Rico.

Our hope for this trip was to learn about the efforts of, and build
community with, the grassroots organizers working for justice across the
island. So many challenges that Puerto Ricans face on a daily basis — lack
of affordable housing, food insecurity, dangers of the climate emergency —
are identical to the struggles that we face on the mainland. Organizers
from VAMOS PR helped us connect with those working on the island so we can
learn from each other and build a better world together.

Here are some highlights from the trip…

We met with regenerative agriculture practitioners and educators fighting
to end food insecurity in Puerto Rico. Local farming was once a mainstay
of the island’s economy, but today 85% of Puerto Rico’s food is imported.
Grocery store prices are higher than ever — and one third of Puerto Ricans
live with food insecurity. We visited two farms trying to change that by
restoring a robust local agriculture system.

[1]Finca El Josco Bravo

Ecological educators at Finca El Josco Bravo share free lessons on climate
adaptation practices, like using compost to increase the water capacity of
soil, so local farmers can adapt to increasingly intense hurricanes and
extreme heat driven by the climate crisis.

At Finca Flor de Aji, organizers use regenerative agriculture techniques
based in indigenous culture — like rotating crops and integrating
livestock and forestry to reduce the need for pesticides on farms — to
provide fresh produce across the island, and are advocating to retool the
upcoming Farm Bill to support Puerto Rico's farmers so residents can buy
nutritious food grown locally.

We learned a lot about housing justice organizing. All over Puerto Rico,
local people are being displaced by outside developers who raise area
prices. In Rio Piedras, organizers reclaimed an abandoned, 100-yr-old
building as a space for the community before developers could get to it —
using it as a recycling center, shared art studio, and temporary housing
for displaced people, all while restoring the building. Now, Paseo 13 is a
neighborhood hub. Radical, direct actions like this are happening more and
more, as locals come together against opportunistic investors and urban
blight.

[2]Paseo 13 in Rio Piedras

We were invited into La Perla, one of PR’s most famous historically closed
communities, by organizers working to improve living conditions there. To
be invited into La Perla by locals is an honor, and we are eager to
support their work to improve the lives of local families. La Perla is
also home to many small businesses and a vibrant history of local art and
music — it even has a music production studio for youth in the area to use
for free. Organizers are fighting for federal funding to improve La
Perla’s infrastructure, reopen a cultural center that served the community
for years, restore services in the local clinical center, and rebuild
waterfront areas.

[3]La Perla

We have so much to learn from our movement’s counterparts in Puerto Rico.
My hope is that we can continue to share insights into how to build the
world we’re fighting for, together.

Pa'lante,

Alexandria

 



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