La Isla Del Encanto

Climate Resilience in Puerto Rico

“Puerto Rico está bien cabrón.”  

I had heard this phrase several times before attending the DRCLAS Puerto Rico Winter Institute this January, through the chart-topping song “El Apagón” (the Blackout) by Puerto Rican award-winning artist Bad Bunny. During my 15 days in Puerto Rico, this phrase was repeated proudly everywhere I went.

In Puerto Rican slang, it refers to the island as awesome, amazing; a statement of resistance and pride, in between lyrics that refer to the constant blackouts in Puerto Rico as a direct consequence of Hurricane María and the radical changes in their power grid that followed.

I start this article by referencing a song about Puerto Rico because, to me, this is what embodied my experience in Puerto Rico over winter break: art, music and self-expression as a form of resilience on an island with such a complex history of colonialism, occupation and inequality. I learned that in Puerto Rico, art is a tool for social transformation.

As one of the four Harvard students selected to join this DRCLAS program, I had the amazing opportunity to connect with this Caribbean island on a deeper level than many who visit.

This year’s program, with the theme “Entre La Tierra y el Mar: Agriculture, Fishing and Climate Change.” combined theater classes, cultural experiences and academic lectures to help us grasp the challenges on the island – challenges exacerbated by multiple environmental disasters over the last few decades.

Through field trips to farms and beaches all over the island, graduate-level classes at the University of Puerto Rico in Rio Piedras and a rich social exchange with Puerto Rican students, I got to see not only beautiful landscapes on the island, but learn about land regulations, food security, environmental racism and geographical discrimination – just a few of the hot topics that impact the lives of residents.

Field Trips

The program started in Aguadilla, a city on the northwestern tip of Puerto Rico, about two hours by car from San Juan, and ended in the capital. We spoke with farmers at Proyecto Veredas in Cabo Rojo and heard directly from those working with the land about the richness of food and biodiversity on the island, as well as the impacts of environmental disasters on their land, and thus, their everyday lives.

Photo in farm with child, at Proyecto Veredas.

We also spent a day in the city of Loíza, one of the poorest municipalities of the island, with a vibrant African history, and learned from a powerful community leader, Modesta Irizzary, about environmental racism – how poorer communities (and usually the areas where more Black people live in) in Puerto Rico are disproportionately affected by climate change. The erosion and destruction in Loíza that we saw made this concept all the more evident.

Protest the Culture photo, of a destroyed community center, by the hurricane, in Loíza

Despite the many challenges of these communities, their empowerment and resilience inspired me. Through a workshop in Loíza, led by Sheila Osorio of Taller N’Zambi, our group took a chance at dancing to Bomba, a music genre that has its origin in West African slaves in Puerto Rico who worked in sugar plantations.

La IUPI

We also attended graduate-level classes at la IUPI, the popular name of the University of Puerto Rico – Rio Pedras (UPR) campus.

Puerto Rican experts in climate justice, property rights, Caribbean ecopoems, urban design and landscapes, coastlines and beaches opened their classes to us for a week. Renowned professors and practitioners from all over the island came to speak to us, including Maritza Barreto, Geological Oceanography and Coastal Expert, Érika Fontánez-Torres, Law Professor with a focus on property rights and social justice, and Pedro Cardona, architect and creator of the platform El Urbanista.

The time at the IUPI was intense, but it provided me with the academic theories that I needed to really grasp the experiences on the ground in Puerto Rico.

The social aspect

Finally, the Puerto Rico Winter Institute included a deep social exchange with Puerto Ricans; we spent the entire two weeks traveling and staying with seven Puerto Rican students, who are specializing in cultural management, law and architecture at la IUPI. Besides getting to practice Spanish full-time (a unique opportunity for a Brazilian like me, fluent in Portuñol), we got to see another part of the island through these students.

I especially enjoyed Three Kings Day, Día de los Reyes, an important religious holiday in Puerto Rico, that showed me the significance of the Christmas season there (one of the longest-running celebrations of Christmas in the world!). Decorations of the three kings, los Reyes Magos, were everywhere. On the actual holiday, many locals in San Juan get together to celebrate with food and music, which we were fortunate enough to take part in as a group, observing the celebration at a community church in San Juan.

A sign in San Juan for Dia de Los Reyes.

Another aspect of the trip, which I am positive I would not have gotten to experience if it wasn’t for the social exchange aspect of this program, were the parrandas. A Puerto Rican Christmas tradition, a parranda is the act of going to someone’s house (it can be someone you know, or someone you’ve never met) late at night, and surprising them by singing traditional songs with a group of people. Whoever is in the household is then awakened, and must let the group into their home, offering them whatever they are able to—whether it is a cup of water or some food.

This immersion into Puerto Rican culture and traditions reinforced what I already suspected defined the population best: hospitality, generosity, compassion and friendliness.

As I look forward to my graduation date as a Master of Public Policy Student at the Harvard Kennedy School, I am beyond grateful I got to experience such a rich Harvard program, with the support of DRCLAS and the University of Puerto Rico. Learning about Puerto Rico in all its multitudes, as I work on my Masters’ thesis on climate adaptation in the Caribbean, could not have been a more magical, and timely, experience.

Photo with Puerto Rico’s flag in the city of Loíza