If you haven’t heard, Puerto Ricans are upset about the latest insults coming from the Oval Office. San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz tweeted the following in response to the president’s recent inaccurate and insensitive statements on Hurricane Maria: “Federal response according to Trump in Puerto Rico a success? If he thinks the death of 3,000 people is a success, God help us all.”
You’d think after 150 years of abuse we’d have thicker skin. Or deaf ears. Or maybe even independence. But no, we don’t. And why? Could it be that we secretly like the way things are? That could be it. Friends with benefits is a good deal, after all. For more than half a century, this status has given Puerto Ricans the freedom to move from island to mainland at their leisure without a passport. It’s a perk we pay for by providing a testing ground for birth control, nuclear bombs and corporate off-shoring.
It makes no sense to me that the last time we officially organized for independence was September 23, 1868, 150 years ago this past Sunday. The “Grito de Lares,” when a number of Puerto Ricans revolted against Spanish rule, was the island’s first and only attempt at breaking the shackles of colonization.
Meanwhile, the federal government throws literal and metaphorical paper towels at the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, denies that 3,000 people died as a result of the storm, 260 public schools have closed, citizens can’t vote for president or have any say in the island’s fiscal future, the $72 billion in debt keeps growing, an unstable electrical grid is the new norm, and another wave of brain drain is happening as “Generation Maria” migrates to the mainland.
It’s a good thing, then, that a rising class of real-life entrepreneurs and unsung heroes are quietly managing things on Puerto Rico, independently, without the help of the government. Here are a few of them:
- Javier Camacho is a solar entrepreneur who didn’t lose his power in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria because his house already ran partly on solar power. He continued helping families with solar generators that he builds using recycled materials like laptop batteries, and funds his work through GoFundMe since government has failed so many of the people of Puerto Rico.
2. Grassroots Solar, a Vermont-based company, donated “more than 220 solar panels—an array capable of providing 46 kW—to their solar project in Puerto Rico. Grassroots Solar started the project in Caguas, a suburb of San Juan, and named it “Ponte Pilas” a Puerto Rican expression roughly meaning “pick yourself up and move forward” or “energize yourself and get it done.”
3. Christine Nieves led a band of self-described “anarchistic organizers” from the mainland to install a small solar grid, one of more than a dozen like-minded efforts across Puerto Rico, long before electric workers showed up to restore their power.
4. Barrio Solar and Paz Para La Mujer provides solar power kits and gravity lights to those still struggling in the dark after sunset. Co-founded by Puerto Rican engineer Indira Cortes and Austrian physicist Dr. Fritjof Capra, Barrio Solar has raised more than $19,000 since December 2017.
5. Jesse Levin and Steve Birnbaum bought a bunch of small satellite terminals from Focused Mission to ensure people could use EBT to purchase food.
6. The Americas for Conservation and the Arts provides volunteer opportunities to train farmers in sustainable agriculture, like irrigation systems, including rainwater collection techniques, soil regeneration, tree planting, solar energy and humanure.
These are some of the true unsung heroes of Puerto Rico who celebrate their independence on a daily basis by taking their own lives into their own hands. They rely on the skills they’ve honed and the resources in their own backyards to survive.
