Build Power: Community Paralegals in Puerto Rico

Creating a community paralegal program in the intersectionality of displacements and the climate crisis is a challenge. At the same time, it's the potentiality of social transformation at a glance. For six months now, we have accompanied a group of 12 community leaders from Loíza in the process of education, "concientización", and advocacy training. Based on a map of the groups' needs and wants, tenure, climate change, and the lack of corporate (developers) accountability are at the root of their concerns. During this first phase, we have shared materials, workshops, and discussions as building blocks to understand how legal systems work and their role in perpetuating inequality. 

Meaningful conversations about who owns the land and who wants it, as well as discussions about reparations grounded on racist injustice, have been fundamental for our mutual learning. Dispossession and disinvestment are intrinsically linked to unequal development. Legal empowerment in the hands of the community may help transform this relationship. People who participate in this program want to regain their lands. 

During the following weeks, the community stakeholders will engage in workshops to nurture their research skills, complaint writing, and self-representation before administrative and judicial forums. The goal is to identify a legal issue that they want to prioritize and self-define the best legal course with our accompaniment. 

Once again, we thank our partners at El Ancón in Loíza. To learn more about this place's history, group, and advocacy asks, please visit this website. https://www.elancondeloiza.com

Legal empowerment is not a race but a process. It requires a lot of conversations, discussions on principles and methodologies, connections, and needs assessments. This initial stage of interviewing community groups and leaders that will be part of the Legal Empowerment Curriculum has been powerful and rich. We are gathering the resources during this first stage, working with groups to select the community that will host this project, and start designing a collaborative curriculum.

We have learned a lot of things. First of all, is the fact that many of the impoverished communities in Puerto Rico live at the intersection of displacements and climate crisis. Speculation over the land, the lack of assistance to repair roofs after hurricane María affected more than 472,000 houses in 2017, and the 2020 earthquakes destroyed nearly 800 residential structures, outmigration because of poverty, and the high cost of rents and mortgages are common. Similarly, coastal communities live with the threat of sea-level rise, hurricanes, storm surges, and floods. During our interviews, systemic inequalities were highlighted. Racism, discrimination against female households, and elders' vulnerability are part of displacement and climate crisis violence that must be addressed as part of the curriculum. We are willing to do so. Community paralegals will be a significant contribution to these spaces.

We are happy to say that we finally met the group that will be the facilitator and community host of this project. It is El Ancón in Loíza. To learn more about this place's history, group, and advocacy asks, please visit this website. https://www.elancondeloiza.com

Our next steps include a community legal needs assessment and the curriculum's start, where storytelling and legal strategies will be combined. We, who are accustomed to moving quickly, acknowledge that this project has a different speed, one grounded on intention strategy and exchange of knowledge.

Please stay tuned. We want to have you here for the rest of the run.