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This week marks the second anniversary of Hurricane Maria’s landfall in Puerto Rico. As many Puerto Ricans, I see my life as BM and AM – Before Maria and After Maria. The hurricane taught me to live more sustainably and work harder for my community and the planet. It changed me and I wondered how it changed others. So, I asked social leaders both in Puerto Rico and the diaspora: “What did Hurricane Maria teach you?”. Their answers reveal lessons in empathy, solidarity and vulnerability.

Every Moment is an Opportunity

Hurricane Maria – an exercise in learning. I learned that I was capable of surviving in situations I would have thought impossible. Every moment is an opportunity. In strife, you see the value in those around you. I value more what I have and share with those less fortunate. I look at nature differently. I breathe, feel and observe everything I can, since I may not have that opportunity in the future. Maria made us live like human beings instead of machines, trapped in a routine.

Vanessa Rodríguez
Coaching and Training Facilitator
New York Foundling

Exposed Poverty and Solidarity

The hurricane exposed the poverty in our country and confirmed our sense of solidarity as a people.

Brenda Liz Santos Hernández
Executive Director
CREARTE

We Learned to Give Each Other a Hand

The aftermath of Hurricane Maria taught us to show greater solidarity to one another. We learned to give each other a hand, cooperate and communicate more with our neighbors. Regardless of socioeconomic status, we were one. It was amazing. Unfortunately, there are still people living under blue tarps. We returned to our regular monotony.

Evelyn González
Mother of Special Needs Child and Secretary
Centro de Ayuda y Terapia al Niño con Impedimento,Inc.

Cooperative, Grateful and Entrepreneurial People

Hurricane Maria exposed the poverty that has always existed on our island. Our team at the Puerto Rico Healthy Families Program found it hard to witness so much loss. Our capacity for recovery was fueled by the resilience training we had done at the Program before the storm. Our team was made up of empowered women, taking action in the communities they served. They even volunteered for other organizations during the weekends. We realized that, while no one was prepared for this hurricane, Puerto Ricans are a cooperative, grateful and entrepreneurial people. In the aftermath, we see that we must work more intelligently for our island.

Nilsa Camareno García
Coordinator/Operations Director
Puerto Rico Healthy Families Program/Outcome Project

We are all Vulnerable

The hurricane taught us that we are all vulnerable to natural disasters. We must educate everyone to protect both people and property.

Sonia Auz
Founder
CAF Foundation

Keep Calm to Work Through Adverse Situations

I learned to always be prepared at the beginning of hurricane season. Always have an emergency plan and keep calm to work through adverse situations when they arise.

Lily Vélez
Administrative Assistant
Santa Ana Institute

We Have to Think of Others

We are not alone, on an island. We have to help prepare our families, our communities, our country, our elderly and our youth with special needs. We have to think of others always, not just today.

Serafín Soto Cabán
Coordinator, Technology Dependent Youth Registry
Puerto Rico Department of Health

Tight-Knit Neighborhoods Took Care of their Own

We cannot let the government be in charge during an emergency. As communities, we need to learn how to create community emergency funds and resource centers, even if they are in someone’s home. During the hurricane, tight-knit neighborhoods took care of many of their own needs. We need to be prepared with family emergency plans regardless, since we live on a tropical island in the Atlantic hurricane corridor. We should organize coordinated community response teams and conduct a census in each of our communities.

Jenniffer Berríos Rubert
Director
Casa Pensamiento de Mujer del Centro

We Must Transform our Institutions for the Common Good

Power is in the collective. Our institutions are in shambles and we must transform them for the common good, not to benefit individuals or private corporations.

Every act, however small, can either contribute to our planet’s well-being or its destruction. Regardless your location or resources, inaction over humanity’s negative impacts on the planet WILL knock on your door and cause you pain.

Life force will survive, even if humanity destroys itself.

There are communities, more or less organized, that show us that another Puerto Rico is possible and urgent.

Lissette Rolón Collazo
Professor
University of Puerto Rico, RUM

Being Forced from your Homeland Hurts

Maria showed me how sad it is when people have to leave their country against their will. Being forced from your homeland hurts. The fact that Puerto Ricans are US citizens does not make adjustment to the mainland any easier. We take our strong cultural identity with us wherever we go. We sleep in another latitude and longitude, but our heart remains in Puerto Rico. We are the ones who hop over and never quit.

Liliana Pickens
Resident of FL, Co-Host
Brincando el Charco Podcast

Adversity is a harsh, but effective, teacher. Its lessons, as its impacts, take years to process. For more information on Hurricane Maria’s legacy in Puerto Rico, please see research by The Center for Puerto Rican Studies and the Youth Development Institute.

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