Blog #1

1. What is your personal connection to Puerto Rico and how does their struggle relate to you personally and connect to your service?

To say my experiences in the Bonner Program have been entirely too intimate would be an understatement. We serve in the very city that raised me and tomorrow we head to the island that my grandmother immigrated from in 1977. Thus the struggle to reconstruct a new Puerto Rico post Hurricane Maria is a matter that means much to me.

As a Puerto Rican from the mainland returning to the island that birthed my cultural roots I am left with the unwavering question of what it means to be Puerto Rican. I am also left to wonder how to construct a Puerto Rican identity while being cognizant of the different lived experiences between a second generation Puerto Rican in the mainland U.S and a Puerto Rican on the island. This process of questioning, reimagining and reconstructing a Puerto Rican identity is one that is a personal struggle of mine but also a current struggle of the island at large.

2. Based on your reading of the Battle For Paradise, what were 1 or 2 key issues or policies that resonate with you and why?

A key issue from our assigned readings that resonated with me is the stark differences in economic benefits potential investors and native islanders would experience if foreign investment takes hold on the island. This issue resonated with me so much because it is

rooted in the larger concepts of equity and mobility. As we think of how post Hurricane Maria makes the island particularly vulnerable to disaster capitalism, we must also reflect and question what impact inequitable investment would have on native islanders, the island's socio-political climate, and the islands domestic and foreign identity.

3. This trip to Puerto Rico has been inspired to help the island recover after the disaster of Hurricane Maria. Puerto Rico is an American Territory making its residents American Citizens like us, but they do not have the same rights and privileges. What do you hope to learn from this trip?

I hope to understand how long-term sustainable energy sources can help Puerto Ricans in the wake of Hurricane Maria recovery. I hope to learn what is being done on the ground to restore energy sources and how the general public is being educated (if any) on what is being done to restore the island.