On plantains and pancit: Perspectives and parallelisms between Puerto Rico and the Philippines
Prior to this article taking its shape, I have been struggling to craft an interestingly catchy preface to my experience as a Professional Fellow of the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) under the Sustainable Development and the Environment theme. As many good and insightful things have already been written about the fellowship in general and what it has offered to those who have partaken in this program, I wanted to touch on something different, or endeavor to capture unique viewpoints and insights in whatever ways possible. Perhaps capturing my experiences as they have happened, and what I have distilled from them, could be a more interesting take.
With pent-up anticipation and growing anxiety, I was one of the last YSEALI fellows who got notified for their specific placement assignments. Upon first learning I will be deployed in the island territory of Puerto Rico, it was a mixed bag of reactions for me. Puerto Rico was kinda far off. Puerto Rico seemed to be an unusual placement. Puerto Rico seemed so detached in the mainland US and quite under the radar. Puerto Rico — well, I don’t really know much about Puerto Rico… I know that I come from a place of gross scarcity of information and certainty, and I gladly welcomed my placement with nothing but curiosity and yearning for things that are yet to come. I have to wholly trust that the committee of the Program decided for the best and fittest assignment for me wherein my professional goals would be met satisfactorily.
Stormy Weather
Days before my departure, I received a word from our program head to closely watch out for the weather updates — as an intense hurricane named Fiona was brewing in the Carribean, and Puerto Rico will be in its direct hit path. Needless to say, my flight got rescheduled, twice, given how uncertain the circumstances were and how drastic the anticipated destruction to the island was. As the hurricane rampaged, the entirety of the island was plunged into a power blackout never seen before. The dire situation over there affected the logistics of my planned travel, with issues in my accommodation cropping up, my placement getting delayed, and my hosts possibly not being able to accommodate me. Almost a week later, I received a greenlight to take my flight to San Juan, Puerto Rico — but not without more hiccups along the way.
A somewhat somber environment greeted me and persisted during my arrival to the island, with subdued smiles and lingering sighs becoming quite pronounced, even when the typical touristy ambiance tries to re-establish itself for the newcomers. Perfectly understandable, I made a note to myself — I just landed on the heels of a major crisis. Midway through my first Puerto Rican meal, the restaurant we were in ran out of power, the growing darkness guiltlessly exposing the immediate concerns being faced by everyone.
Race to recovery
I believe it was very apt and opportune that my particular work placement was in the Institute for Building Technology and Safety, a 501-©(3) nonprofit organization that is committed to helping communities through delivering quality services that minimize risk, improve public safety, and improve quality of life. IBTS is based in Ashburn, Virginia with satellite offices located across the US including San Juan in Puerto Rico.
The principal work of IBTS in Puerto Rico covers post-disaster services to support the holistic recovery of the island from Hurricanes Irma and Maria, two destructive weather events that happened in a cataclysmic two-week timeline. Presently, IBTS is spearheading the Municipal Resilience Planning (MRP) Program together with six municipalities on the island to develop their own set of resilience plans. As pathway to a more sustained recovery and planning for the future, these MRPs will pave the way to identify critical priorities and particular interventions that can be supported wholly by the local and national governments, and committed partners from the civil society. The Puerto Rico office of IBTS is directed by Agnes Crespo-Quintana, a lawyer and community worker who is providing a safe pair of hands to its technical team of planners, architects, engineers, and economists.
Aside from its MRP engagement, IBTS in Puerto Rico is also doing equally important work in the provision of smart solar solutions, technical workforce training, enforcement of building codes and FEMA guidelines, and improvement of civic facilities such as correctional facilities, among others.
The lay of the land
Part of my work with IBTS was aiding their core planning team in several field deployments and inspections that entailed thorough investigation of the characteristics of the land and community profiles of the partner municipalities that have signed contracts for the development of their own MRPs. Engaging with key persons who have stake in these plans is also a requisite activity in the planning process— and touching base with the local authorities and community leaders are of the essence.
These periodic site investigations will dovetail or will inform the bulk of the GIS planning being undertaken by the planners within IBTS. Needless to say, I was lucky enough to visit the reefs and the ridges of La Isla del Encanto — coasting along the Atlantic side of Puerto Rico’s glistening beaches in San Juan and Carolinas, surveying the verdant floodplains in Loíza, passing through the highlands and forested heartlands where the high-altitude villages of Utuado, Adjuntas, Villalba and Jayuya are nestled in unperturbed rustic quiet, and driving through the rolling terrain down south to the highly urbanized city of Ponce marked by its contrasting climate and dry landscape. All in all, the variegated Puerto Rican landscape gives away a throbbing tropical biodiversity that is full of life, and a weather system that is influenced by the island-wide urbanization and the movement of its people.
Rising with Resilience
As a requisite for completion of the YSEALI program, we have to prepare and accomplish a competitive action plan that will be co-developed with a designated counterpart from our work placement. The final title of my proposal that I pitched was RISING WITH RESILIENCE: Co-creating a Whole Community Resilience Plan for a Disaster-Affected Community. I intend to draw concepts from the Whole Community Resilience Plan (a version of the MRP process that is more focused on communities) and the Equitable Climate Resilience framework (with its preset indicators) that were developed by IBTS. One of the major goals of the Action Plan is to introduce community resilience planning as a tool to increase disaster resilience and build community strength, stability and self-reliance within the pilot community. The identified site was in one of the partner communities of Habitat for Humanity Philippines in the Municipality of Sogod, Leyte Province, a coastal community which have been ravaged by Typhoon Odette in December 2021. This proposal progressed very well thanks to the help of the planning team and inputs coming from Chris Fennell and Patrick Howell, the Chief Development Officer and Program Manager — Community Resilience, of IBTS.
A Day with an Anthropologist
Perhaps one of my fondest memories out of my entire placement was a sojourn with Laura Gorbea, an anthropologist. She was my host for a day and I have to shadow her in a disaster relief effort that brought me to the verdant heartlands of Puerto Rico where the sparse households in the mountains can be found and have remained unassisted after the hurricane. Her deep knowledge on almost every subject matter made my trip highly informative and educational, as she explained at length the process of urbanization in Puerto Rico, the geological history of the island, the scarification of the mountain forests, the pattern of informal building and rebuilding in the island, the latest scientific findings on the genetic mix of Puerto Ricans (suggesting the lopsided absence of the male Taíno imprint in their modern day DNA), the role of one’s language in uplifting the identity and carving the psyche of a nation, the condition of homelessness in the island territory, and much more.
Perspectives
Owing to its administrative structure and political makeup as an unincorporated, organized territory, Puerto Rico has somehow remained inferior to established and recognized US states. Layers of bureaucracy have been stratified in its system, and perception on the dire effects of corruption has remained high among the locals I’ve spoken to. Pockets of poverty are distinguishable and homelessness is observable in the minority of the population, but the presence of a strong civil society and charitable instutions keep further social inequality at bay.
The built environment and architecture in Puerto Rico are informed by the local climate, its deep colonial identity, and continued outlook to the American suburbia. Vividly ornate architecture, massive fortifications, transplanted planning models, the urbanizaciónes, Art Deco gems, and skylines of hurricane-proofed hotels and condominiums define the urban fabric of the island. Puerto Rico is heavily car-centric, with its cobweb of freeways enveloping the island’s major urban nodes. Within the metropolitan center, a mass transit called Tren Urbano, touted as the first rapid transit system in the Carribean Region, is already in a visible state of disrepair and is presently being frowned upon by locals because “it will take you nowhere.” Despite meaning well, the train has remained critically unpatronized, and travelling via car has remained extremely popular and preferable for everyone.
The Puerto Rican cuisine is highly reflective of its historical past and colonial occupations, harking back to its strategic foothold as the portal between the Old World and the New World, and being a pivotal transshipment point during the Atlantic Slave Trade. Its strong food identity differs significantly than that of the mainland US, with food that I can describe as homey, spice-laden, savory, and localized — making use of the fresh catch from the seas, the plump and creamy aguacates, the versatile guayabas that always add sweet texture to pastries and fritters, and the starchy yet filling plátanos grown from the island’s rich, well-drained soil.
Parallelisms
The Philippines and Puerto Rico are more than 16,000 kilometers (+900 miles) apart from each other. Separated by the American continent and the Mare Pacificum in its shortest distance, striking similarities are just hard to miss and are worth noting, in my own opinion. Through and through, Puerto Rico’s characterization can be strongly likened to the Philippines — its contours, climate, and communities have the same colorful stories to tell.
Having served the very same colonial masters — the Philippines and Puerto Rico have gone through intense colonizations by the Spanish and the American regimes. Although the Philippines have already gained its independence after the ruthless Second World War, Puerto Rico was one of the few imperial possessions of the Spanish Crown that have not advanced in reclaiming a full-fledged autonomy. The Philippines, through disposition, and Puerto Rico, through cession, (among the other prized Spanish colonies) have been handed over to the US after Spain lost in the long drawn-out Spanish-American War. (See the Treaty of Paris for the juicier details.)
With the Hispanic identity embedded in the Filipino and Puerto Rican cultures, there are shared cultural and customary facets that are displayed by its people — warmth and vitality (perhaps from too much sun,) humor and laughter, religious faithfulness, love of appetizing food, refreshing beer, family-orientedness, sense of community, fondness for gatherings, celebrations, and abundance of feasts, among others. The American influence is also very strongly imparted on the Filipino way of life, with a strong preference on whatever it is that is state-side. We are the ‘little brown brothers’ of Uncle Sam who can conveniently speak with an American accent, and have high admiration to the US dollars. In fact, we really are more American than Asian in many aspects.
Not really a fact worth celebrating, but both the Philippines and Puerto Rico share intense risk and vulnerability to disasters, as the worsening weather conditions and climate change continue to endanger lives, properties, and economies. The Global Climate Risk Index from 2000–2019 (released in 2019 by the German Watch) placed Puerto Rico on the top spot, suggesting tumultuous social and economic damages from the irreparable effects of extreme weather events, with the Philippines running very closely by on the 4th spot.
Attaining long-term resilience as carried out by the civil sector, government actors, and community champions in the Philippines and Puerto Rico reflect a commitment to increase the capacity of communities to bounce back from the cycle of disasters. As we see further evidence of environmental destruction and the more intensified disasters they bring, planning for recovery and building the potential to achieve the conditions of resilience, are positive ways forward we need to sustain and advocate for.
Upon checking in and boarding for my return flight to Washington, D.C., a blanket of foreboding, ominous clouds concealing the distant mountains can be seen from the scenic glass window in the airport’s boarding area. The waiting passengers (and that included me) found the unfolding scene quite dramatic, if not lovely, and took snaps of the fleeting moment. Definitely, it was a nice keepsake.
