Creating a Just Recovery for Puerto Rico

Hola,

These past months have been full of new challenges and multiple adaptations. Nonetheless the team is fine and in good health. We have been quite handful with our response to Hurricane Fiona. Fiona arrived on September 18, 2022, passing through the archipelago as a tropical storm where it strengthened and left the island through the west as a category 1 hurricane. This atmospheric phenomenon had the peculiarity of leaving behind massive amounts of precipitation- leaving Puerto Rico with a record rainfall of 30 inches (OMME, 2022). Thousands of houses in different points were flooded and once again the agricultural landscape was fatally devastated. Faced with this panorama and practicing the learnings from the just recovery model worked for María, we created the Fondo de Soberanía Alimentaria (Food Sovereignty Fund). Already the week after the hurricane we had a general overview of what we should do and how we could do it- El Fondo is a project for the just recovery of the agricultural landscape. It consists of three stages: 1- Rapid action- For this stage, we searched for and interviewed food production projects that had suffered losses due to Fiona and selected 13. Our support in this stage included a cash stipend of $1,200 given to each food production project- (including farmers and fishers), work tools, bottled water and water filters. | 2- Support for the reconstruction of the infrastructure- Through work brigades with volunteers,  donated materials and tools- our goal was to rebuild a specific component of the farm. In this process we have rebuild fences, chicken coops, raise planting benches, among others on 6 agricultural projects- 3 more are on calendar to end by the end of the year. | 3- A Just Recovery of the agricultural landscape- We aim at an agricultural future that is collectively build from the intersection of the design and construction of best practices for managing resources (air, soil, water) on farms and regenerative economic development practices. For this stage we have teamed up with VisitRico a local organization whose missions is to strengthen the agricultural economy in the island. It is also important for us to say that this support was possible due to donations received diligently through GlobalGiving in response to the hurricane- for that we are grateful. 

At the same time, the Participatory Design Laboratory is going strong. We have had multiple design workshops, site visits, conversations in the different communities and with different stakeholders. With the three communities we currently are at different stages, this is one of the interesting things of working with models, we must always have the flexibility to adapt the plan to the specific conditions of the people and the place. With Los Usubales, Cánovanas we still are at a stage of building trust, we have made walking tours of the community and have introduced ourselves to neighbors and local collaborators. We are in continuous dialogue with the community board and collectively designing a census to understand the population and develop specific strategies for participatory design workshops. This workshops are the initial phases of designing the future community park. In this process we are helping to make possible a cleaning of the drainage areas of the community that brings concern to the neighbors since it is a flood zone. In Urbe Apie, Caguas, after several workshops and visits to the site, we delivered Phase 1 of the design of the Plaza and the Huerto Feliz - where we compiled the products of the timeline, narrative justice and design workshops. We continue to develop together - the next stages as we will integrate expert consultants on issues of structure and vegetation. This process is interesting and dynamic since conversation is generated in a collaborative manner where the community brings the local wisdom of space and the expert consultants bring the technical component dialoguing to generate functional solutions to a common problem. As for the Aguadilla Fishers, for Phase 1 we delivered a Master Plan for the Ecological Restoration of the Crash Boat Beach and Fishing Villa. The strategies for this project has been very political since the pressure for displacement is strong and evident. Private developments gradually take over the space that has belonged to fishermen for centuries and it is becoming more and more difficult for them to carry out their work. We continue to support them from different fronts, one of them is to support them in telling their story. Through a series of videos, the fishermen have been able to amplify their voice to reach decision-making places and generate public opinion. 

Until next time,

Links:

• Launch video | Fondo de Soberania Alimentaria
• From the Fishers at Crash Boat | Storytelling Villa del Ojo
• A day in Agronat, San Lorenzo

• Design development Plaza Feliz (PDF)
  

Dear all, 

This past months have been very exciting for the team. After 2 years of pandemic we were able to go full blast on community visits, workshops, and site-based projects- for us this is life. Physical contact is fundamental for generating confidence, trust and relationships with the communities that we work with. 

The Laboratorio de Diseño Participativo (LDP) process has given us the space to go back where we belong, accompanying our communities to pursue their collective dreams of a just recovery using participatory design as our main tool. Through a call for proposals via social media we invited communities to present themselves and tell us about the projects they are invested in and that needed support from us. 6 community groups solicited and 4 of them were selected. The 4 communities represent different environmental and socio-economic contexts throughout the Puerto Rican archipelago. (1) Los Usubales in Canóvanas- nestled in the luscious Northeastern part of the island, near El Yunque Rainforest- this community is product of a relocation process of 141 families from around the island after hurricane Georges in 2006. The government never finished the project, leaving the recreational areas unfinished. We are collaborating in the design of the future community park- La Reina de los Usubales. (2) Villa Pesquera del Ojo, Aguadilla is a community of fisherman located in the Crash Boat beach in the westernmost part of the main island. After hurricane Maria in 2019, the Villa Pesquera was completely destroyed, nonetheless the fisherman has been resisting political, economical and environmental pressure since then. Our objective is to accompany them in the reconstruction of their Villa Pesquera (3) Urbe A Pie is a non-profit organized in 2015 by a group of neighbors preoccupied by the rising abandonment and the lack of places to gather and develop spaces for local economic development in the urban context of the municipality of Caguas. The main goal of our collaboration is to revitalized a the Plaza Feliz- scenario for the monthly community market and the Huerto Feliz- a collective orchard. (4) Mujeres de Islas is founded by a group of women in Culebra to work with the abandoned schools around the municipality. They have been strongly developing projects that has an objetive food sovereignty, local economic development and sustainability of the island. They reached out to us to work together on the rehabilitation of a small public space located near the main port. 

Workshops on justice narrative, community mapping, design thinking, urban research and community planning among others are part of the tools we are currently offering to our partners. We have been testing the kits and tools developed for la Cartuchera Comunitaria (visit us here to see what this is about!) throughout the LDP process in order to have a broader input and ensure a product that will be useful for self-managed community organizing and planning processes. 

With lots of love, 

La Maraña

Links:

• Visit us on our website and social media platforms
• Aguadilla Fisherman, a story of resistance immersive video