We need to focus on Puerto Rico, and it starts with power
Why I’m starting a newsletter about Puerto Rico, energy, infrastructure, and sustainability
I had no plans to start a newsletter.
When I applied to the EJCP in August, I knew I wanted to serve Puerto Ricans outside of Puerto Rico, the diaspora.
Why this group? First, because I am one. I’m a second-generation NuYorican. For the uninitiated, that means I’m Puerto Rican, born in New York, as were both my parents. But being raised and educated in NJ, FL, and now IL, and moving a lot, has left me feeling disconnected — from a community, from my roots.
A lot of folks know there are big Puerto Rican communities in New York and Florida. I was pleasantly surprised to find one here in Chicago as well. There’s also a big community in Philly. And I have family and friends from PR who in recent years have moved to Texas. So this is one way of connecting and networking all those communities, and keeping up with news that affects PR.
News to inform. Community to empower.
Why a newsletter? Because after years of family trips to Isabela, it took Hurricane Maria for me to start learning about the struggles Puerto Rico has been left to face. Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico triggered the longest blackout in U.S. history, lasting over 11 months. Around 3,000 people died due to complications and after-effects of the storm. More than 200,000 people were forced to move away from their homes.
Hurricanes and other extreme weather events are increasing in frequency and intensity. But the issues with Puerto Rico’s grid and governance started long before Maria.
How does this happen? One big reason is because Puerto Ricans have been disenfranchised by U.S. government. Puerto Rico lacks impactful representation in Congress, and those living in Puerto Rico are unable to vote for president. Puerto Ricans don’t have a seat at the table when it comes to the policies and practices that affect them. The effects of this disinvestment have been seen in the financial crisis and the ongoing brain drain, leaving the archipelago and its residents a legacy of exploitation and vulnerability to climate change.
Puerto Rico is in need of investment — mental, emotional, economic, and political investment. Puerto Rico needs people who care. Puerto Rico needs people who can make a difference.
The most urgent issue Puerto Rico faces right now is modernizing the power grid. This includes investing in infrastructure, as well as sustainable, renewable energy. And it needs to be done in a way that benefits Puerto Ricans and strengthens Puerto Rico.
Post Maria, media coverage and conversations in the U.S. were marked by stories salivating over the potential in Puerto Rico. The idea was to rebuild it with smart grids and renewables, and make it a city of the future.
I went to Puerto Rico in 2019 to see how recovery efforts were going. I wanted to see if Elon Musk and Tesla had fixed things with solar panels, batteries, and microgrids.
I embedded with INESI (Instituto Nacional de Energía y Sostenibilidad Isleña / The National Institute of Island Energy and Sustainability), and with them, spoke to utilities and philanthropic groups doing work in PR.
During a meeting with the Clinton Global Initiative and the PR Manufacturers Association, I learned about the lack of infrastructure and workforce training needed to incorporate renewables and sustainable practices in Puerto Rico.
In Puerto Rico, and over 10 years of community reporting, I often hear about the lack of coordinated effort between groups parachuting in to aid, and local community groups with first-hand, accumulated knowledge.
Another issue I often hear about from groups working in Puerto Rico is how difficult it is to express the scope of the challenges they are facing to groups outside of Puerto Rico.
So that’s what this is about: pooling community knowledge and experience. Coming together to help inform policies and practices to build a sustainable, self-reliant Puerto Rico that benefits Puerto Ricans.
Simple, right?
The only thing missing is you
I’ve been wrapping my head around the best way to do this. Definitely not alone.
Who are the people who can make a difference? Who are the people who know the best way to move forward? Who are the people with the most at stake? How do you get all these people to come together? My answer, for now, is the “if you build it, they will come” approach.
So I’m starting with a newsletter, like my icebreaker, to talk about issues and ideas. I can show folks what I’m seeing in the policy, economy, and energy spaces for Puerto Rico. They can tell me what they want to see. And we can go from there.
I can start the conversation, but it can’t be one-sided. I’m hoping this newsletter serves as an invitation for those conversations to happen. And for bigger things to come from them. Maybe it’s a message in a bottle.
Thinking about who my audience might be and what they might need, I reached out to a few different people for interviews. One is an environmental sociologist, Marla Perez Lugo, who has testified before Congress about Puerto Rico’s power situation, another is a fellow entrepreneur with their own Puerto Rico-based community and investigative news startup.
When I spoke with Lugo, she noted that a newsletter like this could also serve as a valuable platform for Puerto Rican academics to share their research and lived experience. That opened up the idea of connecting with Puerto Rican academics as contributors, analysts, op-ed writers, etc. That offers another dimension of context and accessibility to everything that’s going on. This sounds pretty perfect for me, because I love learning from other people.
I would love to work with and help connect an active network of Puerto Rican experts, academics, community leaders, business creators, policymakers, people who know what’s going on, people who get things done.
Connect with me
As I continue to work toward launch day, there are two main things I’m thinking about: coverage and collaborators.
I’m surveying folks to find out what news people are following about Puerto Rico, and what news they’d like to see. And I’m looking for potential collaborators.
If you’d like to weigh in or get involved, you can take the survey here. (No, you don’t have to be Puerto Rican to be an ally or supporter).
I’d love for folks to become active contributors and to share their knowledge, experience, and work. To help answer peoples’ questions. To inspire big ideas. To galvanize action for a strong Puerto Rico and prosperity for Puerto Ricans.
If this all sounds like something you want to get behind, let’s start here and now.
Connect: Connect Puerto Rico
Link up: Jillian Melero on LinkedIn
