Summary of Interview

The interview is in Spanish. But you don’t need to understand the language to hear the agony and extreme distress in the woman. She is ashamed to be a police woman, she says, and seeing people starving, entire towns without the basic needs for survival and the politicians procrastinating in delivering the emergency help until they can get the press to cover their appearance. As a police woman, she is mobilized to different regions, so this is not the limited view of one desperate, isolated person. For an officer trained to deal with emergency, the level of anguish in this woman reveals the overwhelming extent of the damage. This woman is struggling to even breathe as she narrates the situation. She says that the island is basically isolated, that they don’t know what is going on. Sometimes news reach them that artists are holding fundraisers and some countries are gathering supplies; but very little is reaching the people. She says that hospitals are overwhelmed and cannot treat the amount of people struggling to get in. It is a nightmare.

Puerto Ricans are fighting heroically!

My people are generous, brave and resilient. Nuyorican poet Prisionera Jamas just came from the island and gave a beautiful testimony of the true spirit of the Puerto Ricans. In the fundraiser organized by Mariposa (another Nuyorican poet) Prisionera Jamas that our people are sharing the little they have. They are helping the elders, children and disabled. The town mayors and local government workers are working non-stop to address extreme situations and bring their towns back to order. Cell phones have begun to work, but for very limited time and in limited places. The common folks are doing heroic actions.

What you can do

But we need every bit of help. We specially need public pressure to expedite the traffic jam in the ports and get the emergency help into the island. We need help distributing it in the island; even if planes must drop it in designated areas. See below what you can do.

Turning Emergency into Emergence

And as we move from emergency into reconstruction, I invite experts, companies, organizations and funders who focus on preventing and addressing Global Warming, who have developed structures for extreme situations, to contact me. If you have expertise, links to or contacts with experts, alternative financial advisors, ecological funding, and reconstruction for the new climate, please contact me personally and I will reply. I’m creating a Reconstruction Resources and Ideas Folder to share with local leaders once the emergency is addressed.

Puerto Rico has been robbed for centuries and needs to recover financially. Trapped into a restrictive colonial financial structure on one hand and plagued by political corruption on the other, Puerto Rican families have had to migrate by the thousands just to survive. If we do not focus on reconstruction that will prevent disasters like this one in the near and far future while bringing jobs and financial stability for the island, then thousands of Puerto Ricans from the island will have no recourse but to leave. Help me access the resources that may help our people reconstruct a better Puerto Rico. Leave me a message and I will reply.

Scroll down to see

What you can do