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.
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.
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.
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
 |
 |
 |
Email us: [email protected]
This email was sent to [email protected]. Email is the most important way we keep in touch with people like you, so thank you for reading to the end. Small donors like you keep us going. To contribute via check, please address to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for Congress, PO Box 680080, Corona, NY 11368.
Paid for by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for Congress