{"id":105425,"date":"2025-05-16T07:00:34","date_gmt":"2025-05-16T12:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=105425"},"modified":"2026-01-01T16:05:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T22:05:26","slug":"puerto-ricans-use-culture-and-community-to-combat-environmental-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/puerto-ricans-use-culture-and-community-to-combat-environmental-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"Puerto Ricans use culture and community to combat environmental issues"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Autumn Coleman<br \/>\n<\/strong><em>Medill Reports<\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">San Juan, Puerto Rico \u2014 Walking into one of the many forests, beaches or towns of Puerto Rico, it\u2019s impossible to tell how much work is put into preserving its natural beauty.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">With Puerto Rico\u2019s national debt being more than tens of billions of dollars, very little government money goes to causes \u2013 like the environment \u2013 important to Puerto Ricans. All over the archipelago, Puerto Ricans fight to maintain what is theirs in several ways. Using culture to preserve natural resources is a common tool in the face of lack of investment.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In a mountainside town, one group has taken on the task of protecting their ecosystem perpetually. Since 1980, Casa Pueblo has been fighting to preserve \u201cla naturaleza\u201d\u00a0 of Adjuntas, Puerto Rico and beyond. After an anti-mining rally in its early stages where only one person came, Casa Pueblo began implementing culture to engage the community on their projects protecting the environment.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cWe use culture as a form of resistance,\u201d says Claudia Irizarry, an interpretive guide for Casa Pueblo. The group hosts events with traditional Puerto Rican dance and music to entice locals into caring about issues closest to them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Amid economic and personal problems, some Puerto Ricans said they feel they don\u2019t have time for environmental problems. Casa Pueblo\u2019s community programming suggests otherwise.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Casa Pueblo uses outdoor spaces to educate. The forest surrounding a nearby river has its Bosque Escuela, or forest school. The river itself provides water to more than 1 million people on the island. Irizarry says if they hadn\u2019t stopped the mining, the area would have turned into a crater.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Casa Pueblo functions without any funding from the government, opting instead to generate revenue through its artisanal store, cafe and donations. Many of the biggest donations come from international celebrities, but the group is adamant about rejecting photo opportunities with donors.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The group\u2019s latest project is the Energy Independence Square, which is within walking distance of Casa Pueblo. It will provide \u201celectricity with a new microgrid, drinking water and food from a garden, while its public art invites recreation and contemplation,\u201d according to Casa Pueblo\u2019s newsletter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The solar panels attached to the top of the square will generate electricity while the ground below is available for community use. The art incorporated in the square is the work of Antonio Martorelli, a famous Puerto Rican painter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_105426\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-105426\" style=\"width: 225px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-105426 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/wp-media-folder-medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/05\/IMG_7222-min1-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/wp-media-folder-medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/05\/IMG_7222-min1-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/wp-media-folder-medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/05\/IMG_7222-min1-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/wp-media-folder-medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/05\/IMG_7222-min1-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/wp-media-folder-medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/05\/IMG_7222-min1-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/wp-media-folder-medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/05\/IMG_7222-min1.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-105426\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Energy Independence Square in Adjuntas, Puerto Rico. (Autumn Coleman\/MEDILL)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Casa Pueblo\u2019s work is a trend among Puerto Ricans on the island who want to enact change.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In a township between the historic cities of San Juan and Loiza lies Pi\u00f1ones, a neighborhood known for beautiful beaches and flavorful foods. In 1999, the Afro-Latino community started Corporacion Pi\u00f1ones Se Integra (COPI). In addition to protecting the mangrove forests on the nearby estuary, the group also educates the local community on their Black heritage.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cIf we don\u2019t have identity, we don\u2019t have anything,\u201d COPI founder Maricruz Rivera Clemente said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">To engage the community, COPI started teaching local girls the art of Bomba, a Puerto Rican style of music and dance created by enslaved Africans. Through dance, the children have traveled internationally to perform and gained pride in themselves as Afro-Boricuas.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cThis has helped the children to dream again,\u201d Clemente said. \u201cThey dream about education and wanting more for their life. It has slowed down the violence and helped their behavior in the schools. It\u2019s had a big impact.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cWe don\u2019t want to teach resistance all the time, but we have to, so we make it fun,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Despite Clemente\u2019s efforts, her students experienced a hit to their community through the closure of their schools. In 2016, then-President Barack Obama signed into law the Puerto Rico Oversight and Management Economic Stability Act, or PROMESA, to bring down Puerto Rico\u2019s then-$72 billion national debt. The law mandated drastic spending cuts, driving Puerto Rico to close down more than 400 schools in order to shrink a debt that was declared unpayable in 2015 by then-Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_105428\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-105428\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-105428\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/wp-media-folder-medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/05\/PR_pics-min1-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/wp-media-folder-medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/05\/PR_pics-min1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/wp-media-folder-medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/05\/PR_pics-min1-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/wp-media-folder-medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/05\/PR_pics-min1-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/wp-media-folder-medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/05\/PR_pics-min1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/wp-media-folder-medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/05\/PR_pics-min1.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-105428\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Afro-Puerto Ricans perform the traditional Bomba dance and music.<br \/>(Autumn Coleman\/Medill Reports)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Many Puerto Ricans said they feel their existence on the island is interconnected with the environment. COPI maintains a partnership with the Department of Natural Resources and has organized local cleanups of the mangroves that protect residents against natural disasters.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">When hurricanes arrive on Puerto Rico\u2019s shores, natural foliage like the mangroves provides an important buffer against brutal waves that can erode the land and destroy homes. COPI cultivates mangroves in a nursery and replants them in the estuary.\u00a0 \u201cWe do it because it\u2019s part of our culture. We do it because we love our community,\u201d Clemente said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Despite the Department of Natural Resources partnership, the government has little to do with what COPI accomplishes. The first of their mangrove clean-ups came from after federal resources never arrived. The group took matters into its own hands.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Puerto Ricans have been dealing with natural disasters for decades, but Hurricane Maria in 2017, which killed about 3,000 people, left many in distress and without electricity for weeks or months. During their time of need, many wanted to help but had no idea where to begin.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Y No Habia Luz, an acting company in downtown San Juan, set out to help the broader island community recover after the hurricane. While the members weren\u2019t rebuilding homes or generating electricity, they aimed to offer hope to many who felt hopeless.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_105429\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-105429\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-105429 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/wp-media-folder-medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/05\/habia_luz-min1-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/wp-media-folder-medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/05\/habia_luz-min1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/wp-media-folder-medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/05\/habia_luz-min1-1024x684.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/wp-media-folder-medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/05\/habia_luz-min1-768x513.jpg 768w, https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/wp-media-folder-medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/05\/habia_luz-min1-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/wp-media-folder-medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/05\/habia_luz-min1.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-105429\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Not all plants in the shop are flowers for sale as bushels of ivy hang from the ceiling.<br \/>(Autumn Coleman\/MEDILL)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cWe didn\u2019t know if what we were doing was really needed, but it was all we knew how to do,\u201d said Yari Helfeld, a founding member of the company. The group performed their acting routine with puppets and wore costumes. They allowed those in attendance to forget their troubles, even if only for a moment.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Due to all the challenges on the island, many Puerto Ricans have opted for the mainland. Today, Puerto Ricans are 41.6% living below the poverty line, while the national average is 12.4%. Data USA translates this to 1.34 million people out of 3.23 million impoverished people.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This makes organizing increasingly important as it caters to the ever-growing needs of the Puerto Rican population still on the island. For these people, keeping the land alive is done through keeping themselves and their culture alive.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i>Autumn Coleman is a magazine graduate student at Medill.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Autumn Coleman Medill Reports San Juan, Puerto Rico \u2014 Walking into one of the many forests, beaches or towns of Puerto Rico, it\u2019s impossible to tell how much work is put into preserving its natural beauty.\u00a0 With Puerto Rico\u2019s national debt being more than tens of billions of dollars, very little government money goes [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1000,"featured_media":105427,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5542,5491,675,5493],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-msj25","category-puerto-rico-2025","category-social-justice","category-spring-2025"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Puerto Ricans use culture and community to combat environmental issues - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Walking into one of the many forests, beaches or towns of Puerto Rico, it\u2019s impossible to tell how much work is put into preserving its natural beauty. 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With Puerto Rico\u2019s national debt being more than tens of billions of dollars, very little government money goes to causes \u2013 like the environment \u2013 important to Puerto Ricans.","og_url":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/puerto-ricans-use-culture-and-community-to-combat-environmental-issues\/","og_site_name":"Medill Reports Chicago","article_published_time":"2025-05-16T12:00:34+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-01-01T22:05:26+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1600,"height":1067,"url":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/wp-media-folder-medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/05\/Untitled_picture-min1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"autumncoleman2025","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"autumncoleman2025","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/puerto-ricans-use-culture-and-community-to-combat-environmental-issues\/","url":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/puerto-ricans-use-culture-and-community-to-combat-environmental-issues\/","name":"Puerto Ricans use culture and community to combat environmental issues - Medill Reports Chicago","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/puerto-ricans-use-culture-and-community-to-combat-environmental-issues\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/puerto-ricans-use-culture-and-community-to-combat-environmental-issues\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/wp-media-folder-medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/05\/Untitled_picture-min1.jpg","datePublished":"2025-05-16T12:00:34+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-01T22:05:26+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/0d10c6ceda7802f4291aa7e9655f509f"},"description":"Walking into one of the many forests, beaches or towns of Puerto Rico, it\u2019s impossible to tell how much work is put into preserving its natural beauty. With Puerto Rico\u2019s national debt being more than tens of billions of dollars, very little government money goes to causes \u2013 like the environment \u2013 important to Puerto Ricans.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/puerto-ricans-use-culture-and-community-to-combat-environmental-issues\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/puerto-ricans-use-culture-and-community-to-combat-environmental-issues\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/puerto-ricans-use-culture-and-community-to-combat-environmental-issues\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/wp-media-folder-medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/05\/Untitled_picture-min1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/wp-media-folder-medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/05\/Untitled_picture-min1.jpg","width":1600,"height":1067,"caption":"The forest Casa Pueblo uses for their Bosque Escuela to teach natural life preservation. 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