🌻 Puerto Rico in Our Hearts 🌻

Dear Community,

As we were putting together this newsletter dedicated to #NYCClimateJustice week & preparing to talk on panels about local solutions and push against false ones like green hydrogen, our phones lit up with news of Hurricane Fiona in Puerto Rico - we also lift other climate related devastation in Jackson , Mississippi, Alaska and Pakistan. As climate justice activists, the news landed hard on our hearts and minds and while mainstream media coverage of Queen Elizabeth's imperialist reign dominated, the photos and footage of the rising water and violent wind flooded our devices and like all solutions, they came from the frontline of the climate crises.

Today is the 5th Anniversary of Hurricane Maria and over 1 million Puerto Ricans have no electricity, hospitals are operating on generators , there are flash floods all over this US controlled colony and little if any access to potable water.

Many ask what happened in 5 years with a smug smile, blaming the inability to put people who had already been enduring a legacy of austerity and neglect on a path to restoration on government corruption. We know Hurricane Maria was followed by a tsunami of US corporate interests, speculators , colonizers and even US based non-profits, who swept in to take advantage of the disaster. The deepened colonization was so granular that US born anglo's purchased beachfront properties and attempted to kick Puerto Ricans from using their own beaches- they did this to the very people who had, just days after Hurricane Maria buried their loved ones in their own back yards with their own hands and then with limited support began to create hubs of resistance that incorporated wellness, food sovereignty and renewable energy

And now here we all are - fully ensconced in climate change fighting on all fronts for our survival and a future free of the racist, capitalist patriarchal system that got us here .

We are truly in it.

What is happening in Puerto Rico is a climate crisis fueled by a long legacy of colonization and extraction. Many Puerto Ricans are still struggling for survival and fighting to remain, reclaim, and rebuild.

In 2017, the Climate Justice Alliance launched #OurPowerPR - check out #JustRecovery report. The concept of a Just Recovery was born in Houston, Texas after Hurricane Andrew and further developed by CJA Members. In NYC, UPROSE anchored the work of the NYC Puerto Rican diaspora and together with grassroots leaders launched the #OurPowerPRnyc campaign to ensure that recovery efforts are informed by a set of principles that will prevent oppressive systems from being replicated on the island.

Today, we look to these organizations doing critical work we ask you to support:

Brigada Solidaria Oeste

Centro de Apoyo Mutuo

Ayuda Legal Puerto Rico

Institute Para La Agroecología

Casa Tallaboeña (Campamiento contra las Cenizas de Peñuelas)

In Solidarity with Our Peoples Everywhere,

Elizabeth and the UPROSE team

Sadly the information we provided 5 years ago is still necessary today.

🌻 #OURPowerPR🌻

OurPowerPR is a Climate Justice Alliance campaign launched in response to requests from our members on the island after Hurricane Maria. The campaign is aimed at transforming how we respond to climate change and its impacts and to respect the right of Puerto Ricans to rebuild for Puerto Ricans. We stand in solidarity with the people of the island and provide support in direct response to the agenda formulated by leadership on the ground there.

#OurPowerPR created in 2017 to address the needs of Puerto Rico after Maria, is a coalition of organizations and individuals committed to continuing the important work of ensuring that the NYC Puerto Rican Diaspora works strategically to support local efforts in Puerto Rico. OurPowerPR is made up of: UPROSE, Muevete, Queer Kitchen Brigade, Mothers on the Move, May Day Space, The New York City Environmental Justice Alliance, CHULO Underwear, Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute, Staten Island Urban Center, The Ruckus Society, Good Old Lower East Side, Defend Puerto Rico, The Point, People's Climate Movement, PRdream, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, Capicu Culture, Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, Climate Justice Alliance, Grassroots International, PR on the Map, Center for Constitutional Rights, Dealmas Women's Institute, and BombaYo.