Ten days after Hurricane Fiona first made landfall, Puerto Rico still does not have power in many areas of the island. The laborious process of cleaning up and attempting to salvage what islanders—many of whom had already lost so much five years ago in Hurricane Maria—lost in the devastating storm is disheartening.
The complicated and oppressive colonial relationship between the United States, its agencies, and Puerto Rico has been a roadblock to recovery in the past, illustrated clearly by the open neglect under the Trump regime. Many Puerto Ricans are wary about what the performance of the current Biden administration will be, and are taking a wait-and-see attitude.
Others continue to protest the presence of LUMA Energy, the Canadian-American corporation that took over power distribution on the island under the mandate of a U.S. government-appointed oversight board. Advocates for decolonization, like Alberto Medina, continue to make their case. Alternative energy solutions are available, which Daily Kos’ Meteor Blades recently argued for.
Caribbean Matters is a weekly series from Daily Kos. If you are unfamiliar with the region, check out Caribbean Matters: Getting to know the countries of the Caribbean.
When the initial list of Puerto Rican municipalities eligible for U.S. disaster aid was announced on Sept. 21, there was an outcry when Loíza was the one spot on the map left out in an area where all others seemed to have been included. For context: Loíza is the small white area found in the top right of the sea of red in the map below.
Fingers were pointed at both the Biden Administration and Puerto Rican Gov. Pedro Pierluisi.
Amid outcry, the omissions were addressed, and three days later, more of Puerto Rico’s municipalities were included.
Yet it was another three days of advocacy before the entirety of Puerto Rico was eligible for disaster relief. The outcry speaks to an awareness of past problems and issues that have never been resolved.
For those of you who don’t know the history of Loíza, it is one of the poorest areas of the island, and it is also one of the predominantly Black areas—a center of Afro-Boricua culture. There is a direct correlation between Loíza’s poverty and its Blackness. For a deeper dive, I’ve written about Loíza here in the past.
RELATED: Black History Month: The vejigante masks and bomba music of Puerto Rico
RELATED: Black History Month: Loiza—the African heart of Puerto Rico and the arts that portray it
Only two weeks before Fiona, Lola Rosario Aponte wrote a feature on Loíza for Latino Rebels.
For outsiders to understand the issues regarding Loíza, a recent visit made to Loíza by Carlos Berríos Polanco, who can be found on Twitter as Vaquero2XL, may help. Polanco is a freelance Journalist and video essayist whose tweets always tell a story. Importantly, he gets the word out to people who don’t speak or read Spanish.
Here’s Polanco’s Sept. 25 Twitter thread depicting the aftermath, which you can also access via Threadreader.
Taller Salud, mentioned in Polanco’s story, is one of the many community-based organizations doing the work in Loíza. They have an English-language website to help convey the work they do to a larger audience on the mainland.
With that, I’ll let Polanco’s journalism end things this week. Look for even more updates on Puerto Rico in the comments, as well as the weekly Caribbean News Roundup.
The complicated and oppressive colonial relationship between the United States, its agencies, and Puerto Rico has been a roadblock to recovery in the past, illustrated clearly by the open neglect under the Trump regime. Many Puerto Ricans are wary about what the performance of the current Biden administration will be, and are taking a wait-and-see attitude.
Others continue to protest the presence of LUMA Energy, the Canadian-American corporation that took over power distribution on the island under the mandate of a U.S. government-appointed oversight board. Advocates for decolonization, like Alberto Medina, continue to make their case. Alternative energy solutions are available, which Daily Kos’ Meteor Blades recently argued for.
Caribbean Matters is a weekly series from Daily Kos. If you are unfamiliar with the region, check out Caribbean Matters: Getting to know the countries of the Caribbean.
When the initial list of Puerto Rican municipalities eligible for U.S. disaster aid was announced on Sept. 21, there was an outcry when Loíza was the one spot on the map left out in an area where all others seemed to have been included. For context: Loíza is the small white area found in the top right of the sea of red in the map below.
Fingers were pointed at both the Biden Administration and Puerto Rican Gov. Pedro Pierluisi.
Amid outcry, the omissions were addressed, and three days later, more of Puerto Rico’s municipalities were included.
Yet it was another three days of advocacy before the entirety of Puerto Rico was eligible for disaster relief. The outcry speaks to an awareness of past problems and issues that have never been resolved.
For those of you who don’t know the history of Loíza, it is one of the poorest areas of the island, and it is also one of the predominantly Black areas—a center of Afro-Boricua culture. There is a direct correlation between Loíza’s poverty and its Blackness. For a deeper dive, I’ve written about Loíza here in the past.
RELATED: Black History Month: The vejigante masks and bomba music of Puerto Rico
RELATED: Black History Month: Loiza—the African heart of Puerto Rico and the arts that portray it
Only two weeks before Fiona, Lola Rosario Aponte wrote a feature on Loíza for Latino Rebels.
For outsiders to understand the issues regarding Loíza, a recent visit made to Loíza by Carlos Berríos Polanco, who can be found on Twitter as Vaquero2XL, may help. Polanco is a freelance Journalist and video essayist whose tweets always tell a story. Importantly, he gets the word out to people who don’t speak or read Spanish.
Here’s Polanco’s Sept. 25 Twitter thread depicting the aftermath, which you can also access via Threadreader.
Taller Salud, mentioned in Polanco’s story, is one of the many community-based organizations doing the work in Loíza. They have an English-language website to help convey the work they do to a larger audience on the mainland.
With that, I’ll let Polanco’s journalism end things this week. Look for even more updates on Puerto Rico in the comments, as well as the weekly Caribbean News Roundup.