Puerto Rican elected officials and organizers held a press conference at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture on September 28 to call on New York City to stand up against the financial, political, and environmental pressures displacing Puerto Ricans and weakening public services throughout the archipelago.
Councilmember Alexa Avilés hosted the “NYC Stands with Puerto Rico” press conference, which brought Puerto Rican diaspora advocates and community organizations together just before the start of a field hearing by the City Council’s Committee on Cultural Affairs, Libraries, and International Relations. The committee had come to the Schomburg for “Telling Our Stories: Examining the Research Collections of New York City’s Public Libraries.”
Many of the speakers at the press conference pointed out how important it was that councilmembers were meeting in a place like the Schomburg –– a site that honors the famous Afro Puerto Rican Arturo Alfonso Schomburg –– to talk about how libraries preserve history. “For those of you who may not know,” Avilés said, “Arturo Alfonso Schomburg was a Black Puerto Rican activist who fought for the liberation of our island and Cuba. We –– as a side note –– must stand in solidarity with the people of Cuba and demand an end to the blockade and condemn the U.S.’s starvation of the Cuban people that is happening right now. Sadly, both countries continue, to this very day, to fight for their survival and sovereignty, so it is only fitting that we gather at this place, at this time, at this exceptional institution to say presente and to continue that fight!”
While at the Schomburg, advocates urged councilmembers to also consider resolutions that could help preserve Puerto Rico’s future.
The press conference called on the City Council to pass resolutions, or position statements, about the situation in Puerto Rico. Resolution 27 urges Albany to pass a law limiting how corporations and collection agencies buy and aggressively collect sovereign debt. It would stop so-called vulture funds from buying distressed debt at low prices and then suing for full payment plus interest.
Resolution 28 calls on Congress to set an end date for Puerto Rico’s Financial Oversight and Management Board, created by the 2016 PROMESA law. Critics refer to the unelected board as “La Junta” and say its spending cuts have favored bondholders over schools, pensions, utilities, and local self-government. Resolution 494 is a formal stance against the $2 billion Project Esencia, a proposed luxury development covering about 2,000 acres in Cabo Rojo. It urges Puerto Rican authorities to stop approvals for the project and protect public access, water, and sensitive coastal land.
“It’s well past time that the NYC Council stands in solidarity with the working class of Puerto Rico,” Avilés said. She said the three resolutions would show the power that diaspora Puerto Ricans could flex from New York. “My community suffers from the active colonial control of our homeland. It is the very same real estate developers and vulture funds gentrifying and exploiting NYC that are causing all that harm back home.”
The Puerto Rican government authorized the development of Project Esencia in July, but many people on the island are against its construction. The plan includes luxury residences, hotels, and golf courses. Developers are promising that most of the property will remain green space and the project will have its own renewable power and water, but environmental advocates say that Cabo Rojo is one of Puerto Rico’s driest regions and that groundwater extraction, desalination, and large-scale construction will threaten residents and coastal ecosystems.
“Puerto Ricans are confronting the consequences of drought and a strained water supply, with reliable access to water becoming a source of uncertainty for families and communities,” said City Council Deputy Speaker Dr. Nantasha Williams at the press conference. “At the same time, a housing market that is increasingly out of reach for many Puerto Ricans –– very similar to here in New York –– is being met with proposals for massive luxury development built around a standard of living that many of the people who actually live there cannot afford. When Puerto Ricans ask who this development is for, the question deserves an answer. When land becomes more valuable, housing becomes more expensive and natural resources face greater demands.”
“Puerto Rico and New York City are inextricably linked for generations,” Erica González, the director of the Power for Puerto Rico coalition, added. “New York City has been shaped by Puerto Rican leaders, organizers, parents, and workers.” That’s one reason New Yorkers should take a stand about what is happening on the island: the fiscal control board, which has been in place for 10 years, is anti-worker and has pushed for the privatization of public services, González asserted. “This board has had labor protections overturned. It doles out millions of Puerto Rico’s public dollars to firms like McKinsey as it financially wounds our prized and public University of Puerto Rico.
“This board went all the way to the Supreme Court to withhold records from the public …. Years ago, Power4PuertoRico successfully advocated for a transparency measure that passed into law to check the board’s conflicts of interest. Earlier this year, we also advocated for the introduction of the Puerto Rican People’s Power Act or HR 7833 — congressional legislation that would put an end date to this control board, because if we keep talking about the harm that this board causes from year to year and not taking action, we will be here [again] in another 10 years.”
Loíza: “We have had to carry water”
Modesta Irizarry Ortiz, a community leader in Loíza, Puerto Rico, said the water crisis began in her area long before the islandwide rationing that started with this summer’s drought. Residents in Loíza and parts of San Juan had already faced months of unreliable service. Pump failures, broken pipelines, sediment buildup in reservoirs, and leaks showed that the island’s system had been weakened by decades of poor maintenance. In August, the dryness in the reservoirs forced more than 500,000 people in seven cities to go through rotating 48-hour water shutoffs.
“It was a very difficult time [from] the summer to now,” Irizarry Ortiz said. “Physically, personally, I have to tell you that I have been very hurt in my shoulders because we have had to carry water.” She said volunteers have made sure that older adults, bedridden residents, and people with limited mobility get water, while churches and mutual-aid groups delivered bottled water, food, and supplies. Even after rain improved service, she said the physical and financial burden was still too much. “We are still standing, though — thanks to the creator.”
The Schomburg Center press conference came eight days after the ninth anniversary of Hurricane Maria’s September 20, 2017 landfall, which devastated Puerto Rico’s electrical and water systems. Today’s water shortage is not only because of Maria’s aftermath: Puerto Rico rationed water way before the hurricane, and the 2026 drought only intensified infrastructure failures, but the anniversary of Hurricane Maria was another point that press conference speakers focused on.
“Luxury resorts are not needed,” said Power Malu of El Grito Boricua. “What the people need is access to clean water, healthcare, education, affordable housing, and lower food prices.”
