Last year, Ritha contacted our foreclosure prevention program, Derecho a tu Casa, and gave us the opportunity to accompany her. After receiving free and accessible legal education, she was able to rescue her house by confronting a major financial institution in the courts. When Ritha won, we all won. We celebrate her story as a success story, looking forward to it being replicated wherever a family needs to defend their home. Thanks Ritha for sharing your story. To those who support ALPR us, we are here to accompany you and others.
Ritha's story helps us explain the kind of legal work we do. The community legal work promoted by Ayuda Legal Puerto Rico seeks to build power: for people to be - and acknowledge that they are- in a better position to claim their rights to housing and a dignified life. Legal frameworks are often unfair. The system benefits from inequality and vulnerability, from lack of access to justice and discrimination. Legal representation, while important, cannot be a precondition or requirement for exercising rights. If we want to seek social transformation, we need to acknowledge and foster people's power. That is why we promote self-defense and real access to justice as fundamental human rights.
We don't want this story to become an exception or a rarity. When disasters - earthquakes, hurricanes, pandemics, austerity- hit, we need to amplify the spaces and resources for legal empowerment to happen. It may be the sole condition that guarantees the adequate defense of basic rights.
