How a Puerto Rican community found relief in Maria’s wake through solidarity and self-management
By: Ishbel Cora Rodríguez
In the Las Carolinas community there are those who, after Hurricane María, learned to understand their country from solidarity and self-management. That is the story of Carmen Lydia Texidor and Rosario González; two women who, when aware of the damage caused by the atmospheric phenomenon, had the initiative of transforming an abandoned school into the second Mutual Support Center of Caguas.
"One of the things that motivated us was that we did not have electricity. We thought about the people who could not keep their food in the fridge and we saw that first as a priority," said Rosario González.
Since Sept. 20, 2017, Carmen Lydia asked her neighbor Rosario every day when they were going to enter the school. They had the interest to clean it and start distributing food. Thus, it was not until Nov. 6, 2017, they cooked their first lunch, thanks to the initial donation made to them by the Center for Political, Educational and Cultural Development (CDPEC).
The idea of rescuing an abandoned structure for the benefit of her community arose from Carmen Lydia's experience working as a volunteer at the Mutual Support Center in the town of Caguas, an initiative that also emerged from CDPEC, a non-profit organization that works with the development of social lunchrooms.
Not everything has been easy. On one occasion, some people tried to get rid of the project. The people who arrived at what was once the María Montañez Gomez school said that "they had already bought it, that it had been assigned to them," Rosario explained. However, the people of the community decided to collect signatures and take them to the Capitol so that the Mutual Support Center could stay in that space. So far, they have not received more visits from the people who tried to expel them from the place.
'Tati' Rodríguez and Rosario González, both retired women, feel the need to work for the benefit of their community. (Photo/ Esteban Morales Neris)
"They were already here, I arrived to support them in their movement and here I have stayed," expressed 'Tati' Rodríguez, who is part of the team of women who voluntarily prepare the food.
'Tati', like Rosario, is a retired woman, but seeing the needs of the people around her, she did not want to stay at home.
María Montañez Gomez School was closed since May 2017. (Photo/Esteban Morales Neris)
At the beginning, they cooked for around 200 people a day. There were those who could get to the center, but the project took charge and delivered food to seniors and bedridden at home.
"Before Maria I did not know many people. After the event - and this project - it was then I began to see their needs. There is a great need to work with the mental health of the people; Maria's situation was very traumatizing to people," said Carmen Lydia.
"And the children... they also feel affected, but nobody asks them," added the manager.
Carmen Lydia Texidor runs all the bases of the project, from planning to cleaning; He also cooks when they leave it. He works on Tuesdays and Thursdays in a doctor's office. (Esteban Morales Neris)
The origin of a necessary camp
Despite the fact that after Hurricane Maria the volunteer of the first Mutual Support Center (CAM) of Caguas focused on covering the need for hunger, they later saw there were emotional and health needs that were not being met.
Among those needs was paying attention to the feelings of the girls and boys who benefited from the project.
That is how, among the members of the CDPEC, they decided to create a one-week camp. However, what its members and volunteers did not imagine was that the project would emulate the community of Las Carolinas.
All the collaborators of the Mutual Development Center work voluntarily. (Photo/Esteban Morales Neris)
"The camp was an excuse to talk with children about issues that are complicated, because if we, as adults, find it difficult to understand what we are going through, imagine the children," said community leader Adriana Santana Cotto.
The reason was always to engage the children with concrete activities that reinforced two fundamental values: solidarity and self-management. At the same time, they promoted a vegetarian diet.
"The first thing that was explained to the children was that they went through a crisis and that they ate a lot of canned food. It was explained to them that they were going to sow under the ground because, if another hurricane arrived, that way it would not take anything," the leader shared.
"The seed is in them... little by little they were understanding. They started eating beans and vegetables, because they planted them, they saw the process and became aware," she added with a smile drawn on her face.
For Adriana Santana Cotto, creating a social change is not a dream, but something that is done at the Mutual Support Center every day. ( Photo/Esteban Morales Neris)
In order for the girls and boys of the camp to understand solidarity and self-management, first they had to learn to pronounce each word.
Although at the beginning it was difficult for them to assimilate these concepts, they began to understand their meaning through concrete activities. They took art workshops, recycling techniques, dancing, poetry and leadership classes.
In addition, there was a sowing workshop called "Rescuing common spaces," an engineering workshop in which they learned to create an irrigation system. They also took a journalism workshop called "La voz del pueblo" and one on how to create screens with fabrics, called "Self-management of beauty."
The Las Carolinas camp ended about two months ago. However, there were those who, in the learning process, managed to germinate their own seeds.
That is the case of Alondra Conde, Mardelis Pagán and Analiz Conde, some girls of 12 and 15 years old who have set out to establish a food tent in their own community to buy what mom and dad cannot afford for them.
For Mardelis Pagán, Analiz and Alondra Conde, self-management is to find the solution to their own problems. The word they learned in the camp. (Esteban Morales Neris)
"What we want is self-management to help our parents while we have free time and have fun in the process," explained Pagán.
"And learn to survive ourselves, without having to depend all on our parents' lives," added one of the Conde sisters.
When asked what their best experience in the camp was, the girls agreed in a conversation they had the first day with one of the community leaders.
"Adriana asked us what we would like to do when we were big and what worried us," explained Pagán. "We are worried about our future, the country and the government ... if [something] is going to change from here until I graduate, I hope [the situation] is better... but if it's worse, it would be worrying for me," added the girl.
Paola Ortiz Castro offered the workshop "Self-management of beauty". She e also works with the social dining room located at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus. (Photo/Esteban Morales Neris)
"Seeing that there is a
(group) of people who are responsible for young people and children growing up and forming in solidarity, it fills me a lot," said the student from the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus, Paola Ortíz Castro.
For the student of sociology, who worked as a volunteer in the camp offering the workshop "Self-management of beauty," projects like the CAM not only help to build a more united country, but also function as a healing space for society.
'Kique' Cubero García works with the CDPEC. He is also a founding member of the Documentary Association of Puerto Rico. (Photo/Esteban Morales Neris)
In an empty classroom, located inside the school of María Montañez Gomez, 'Kique' Cubero García teaches a journalism workshop for the girls and boys of the camp. It teaches them how to ask questions and then go out into the street and learn about the experiences and emotions of the people affected by Hurricane Maria.
"Things are not black and white only," said Cubero García, explaining how important it is to understand diversity.
"Or yes," protested a child.
"No," replied the workshop, "you have colors... you have many colors," emphasized the community leader.
"Children receive a bombardment of values contrary to solidarity and self-management every day. So, if that is what they receive, we have to continue sowing that seed of solidarity every day," said Cubero García.
Although the camp ended at the end of June, Carmen Lydia's vision is that the CAM of the Carolinas continue to serve the community.
She would like a different workshop every day for the benefit of children, youth, adults and the elderly.
Two girls know the experience of a neighbor after the passage of Hurricane Maria. (Photo/Esteban Morales Neris)
"I would like to continue with this work, especially with what we have done with the children. I want to repeat what little they have felt. We have to follow up on that teaching. We had a different camp and they learned to see the reality of the country," said the manager.
Those who have worked in the Mutual Support Center, would like the project to continue to be filled with voluntary hands. We need people willing to collaborate, whether with food donations, teaching or volunteer work.
There is also a need for health professionals to guide the community on disease prevention and drug addiction. Likewise, they look for people willing to offer any workshop that continues to favor the community.
A mural made by the girls and children of the camp. For them, the image represents the Las Carolinas community. (Photo/Esteban Morales Neris)
"It is a task that helps you spiritually and physically as well, because you feel useful, you feel good. Puerto Rico needs help. We are sinking in the mud and we are not realizing it. There are still those who cling to things that are not reality," Rosario criticized, referring to the current situation of the country.
