By Cynthia Burgos Lopez | Executive Director
Dear all,
This past months have been very exciting for the team. After 2 years of pandemic we were able to go full blast on community visits, workshops, and site-based projects- for us this is life. Physical contact is fundamental for generating confidence, trust and relationships with the communities that we work with.
The Laboratorio de Diseño Participativo (LDP) process has given us the space to go back where we belong, accompanying our communities to pursue their collective dreams of a just recovery using participatory design as our main tool. Through a call for proposals via social media we invited communities to present themselves and tell us about the projects they are invested in and that needed support from us. 6 community groups solicited and 4 of them were selected. The 4 communities represent different environmental and socio-economic contexts throughout the Puerto Rican archipelago. (1) Los Usubales in Canóvanas- nestled in the luscious Northeastern part of the island, near El Yunque Rainforest- this community is product of a relocation process of 141 families from around the island after hurricane Georges in 2006. The government never finished the project, leaving the recreational areas unfinished. We are collaborating in the design of the future community park- La Reina de los Usubales. (2) Villa Pesquera del Ojo, Aguadilla is a community of fisherman located in the Crash Boat beach in the westernmost part of the main island. After hurricane Maria in 2019, the Villa Pesquera was completely destroyed, nonetheless the fisherman has been resisting political, economical and environmental pressure since then. Our objective is to accompany them in the reconstruction of their Villa Pesquera (3) Urbe A Pie is a non-profit organized in 2015 by a group of neighbors preoccupied by the rising abandonment and the lack of places to gather and develop spaces for local economic development in the urban context of the municipality of Caguas. The main goal of our collaboration is to revitalized a the Plaza Feliz- scenario for the monthly community market and the Huerto Feliz- a collective orchard. (4) Mujeres de Islas is founded by a group of women in Culebra to work with the abandoned schools around the municipality. They have been strongly developing projects that has an objetive food sovereignty, local economic development and sustainability of the island. They reached out to us to work together on the rehabilitation of a small public space located near the main port.
Workshops on justice narrative, community mapping, design thinking, urban research and community planning among others are part of the tools we are currently offering to our partners. We have been testing the kits and tools developed for la Cartuchera Comunitaria (visit us here to see what this is about!) throughout the LDP process in order to have a broader input and ensure a product that will be useful for self-managed community organizing and planning processes.
With lots of love,
La Maraña
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