Rescate

1.15.19

It rained in the night, which left our laundry dripping (still? again? always?) and left a bit of a chill in the air again when we got up.  The tent people (currently 9 of us) managed to stay warm and dry.  

We have hard and fast agreements about a couple of morning-related things: 1) sleep is sacred and 2) we must awaken each other gently.  The first one should be quite obvious, but in situations where a whole lot of people are dependent on a whole lot of other people to make it possible to get any sleep at all, it’s important to discuss what it means.  We take it to mean that we must protect the possibility of getting a legitimate night’s sleep every night.  What constitutes legitimate sleep can be quite variable and whether college students get legitimate sleep every night is questionable.  But still, we try to make it possible for people to get eight hours of sleep, though we are clear that most of us will choose to forego sleep just to get to hang out more with each other.  We try to get quiet at night even if our team is up making a video or finishing the house cleaning chores for the day.  And we move around as quietly as we can if we get up in the night or wake up before everyone else.  

On that second point above – the one about awakening gently – every DIRTy who has ever traveled with us is laughing either silently or out loud right now because they know exactly what that means.  In short, we have a wake-up ritual that means we each meet the morning with total clarity about where we are, what we are doing, and what the morning will bring. We’ll leave it at that for now. 

We try to get to bed at a reasonable hour but we really have trouble walking away from each other and going toward a pillow. We talk and talk, giggle and laugh, and tell each other stories long after our nightly evening meetings end.  The video team for the day is almost always the last set of people who are awake, meaning that our world premiers mostly happen in the mornings when we all come back together again after breakfast.  

This morning we got our punctuality back but our bus driver didn’t.  We weren’t too far off each other’s schedules, though, so we moved on toward our worksites and got productive pretty early.  We are only working at these houses for the rest of this week, so a lot needs to happen.  Two of the houses are very clear on their schedules and the tasks to be completed but the other one needs some specialized concrete work around the perimeter of the roof that none of us can help do.  The contractor who will complete the work is coming on Thursday, so that house is on a bit of a lull for Wednesday.  We have decided to split that house’s team in two and send those folks to the other two houses for the day.  They were ready to put a second topcoat on the entire exterior of the house, but the concrete work should happen first and then the last coat of paint should be able to make everything just perfect.  The other two houses welcome the extra hands for the day and everyone will be happy to learn a bit more about each other’s work.  

We hurried off from our worksites at the end of the day because we had an appointment with another professor, this time a sociologist who studies social movements, including the one called “Rescate” (a variation of “rescue”) in which lots of poor people claimed government-owned land (often occupied by grazing cattle) and established homes there that were passed down through generations.  The community where we will work after this week, San Isidro, is one of these communities.  

The complexities between the mainland of the U.S. and the island of Puerto Rico are many.  The culture clashes that come along with the relationship between the two are something that we are just now beginning to get our heads around.  We’ve done a lot of reading about the unique status of Puerto Rico as related to the U.S., but tonight’s presentation taught us quite a few things we didn’t already know. 

For one thing, we heard about the cultural differences in property law between the prior Spanish governors of Puerto Rico and current U.S. perceptions.  That is, some norms of Spanish land law – including the expectation that if a person is making significant use of land, that land should be considered to belong to that person – have survived in some pockets of Puerto Rico.  Of course, the U.S. has very different perceptions of private property, all of which involve purchases, deeds, titles, taxes, and other paperwork.  The clash between these two inherited cultural perceptions of how property should be governed is at the root of many people’s horrible post-Maria experiences, as entire areas of the city are occupied by families who established their homesteads over generations without any paperwork to prove their ownership.  

Secondly, we learned about the huge numbers of military veterans that are from Puerto Rico and about the difficulties they had capitalizing (literally) on things like the G.I. Bill and FHA loans.  Third, we heard about how the U.S. reduced the agricultural footprint of Puerto Rico and boosted industrialization (briefly).  Finally, we heard about numerous Puerto Ricans who had immigrated to the mainland once Puerto Rico began its affiliation with the U.S. but who had returned to Puerto Rico in need of a place to call home.  According to our speaker (whose most recent book about Rescate communities will be released as a feature length film this month), all of these issues contribute to the establishment of communities like San Isidro. 

We asked numerous questions while the speaker was still in our midst, but then we came home and talked and talked and talked some more about all we had learned.  We are very eager to understand the context into which we are next immersing ourselves, and these conversations will help us to get where we need to be.  

We also inducted a new member into the Order of the Purple Bike: Angel.  For the last several days, Angel’s name has circulated as a top nominee, but today was her day.  Jesse pointed out that a particular song occurs to him every time he thinks of her (the song is from his time in Africa; it references angels and therefore makes sense) and also pointed out how responsible Angel is as a team member, a social leader, and a quiet intellectual. Shawny added that Angel is particularly full of awe and wonder.  Today, Angel sent Shawny an “emergency” text when they were parted at one point.  The “emergency” turned out to be that Angel eagerly wanted to nail down a few specific topics for her group to cover in its final projects. Though Shawny first freaked out a bit once that “emergency” text hit, it later became clear that Angel operates with that level of intellectual engagement in all of the parts of her life.  Throughout our fall retreats, she was the most into the idea of reading multiple books in a range of areas (PR history, politics, economics, sociology, visual anthropology, and more).  She sees connections between all of the books/readings and all that we are doing. Yay, Angel!

Grayson and Chispa take a rest break.

Ana (homeowner) tends to a wound on Maddie’s foot.

Maddie getting ready for work!

Tom and Scott hold up a trim tile while Angle nails it in.

The group gets informed about the Rescates population in Puerto Rico.

Madison painting white primer with lazer focus.

Team work makes the dream work!

Alex and Jiandi playing a quite game of basketball.

View from the bus as we drive home after a long day of work.

An aerial photo of Loiza long after the sun went down!

Lindsay painting away!

Everyone at our seminar today!

Kitty trying to keep out of the sun!

Molly painting the exterior walls!

Alex painting the bathroom!