Rainy day at Península de Cantera.

Photo: The estuary at Penninsula de Cantera

On Tuesday, we took a trip to the community of the Peninsula de Cantera. This is a waterfront town which had a lot of economic and environmental challenges, particularly with trash and landfill contamination. After Hurricane Hugo devastated the area in 1989, some community members started to organize and created what would be a revolutionary initiative, resulting in a new law, Law 20, which allows the community to work together with government to make decisions about their own community. From there, they created Centro Comunitario Península de Cantera, including a massive trash cleanup effort, revitalization of the waterfront, relocation for those in need, and the creation of many community programs, as well as protection of the waterfront lands as an estuary and the creation of ecotourism for the area. The best thing about La Cantera is that all of neighbors are encouraged to give input and participate, including the children and teenagers, as they see them as the future leaders of their community. Law 20 has now been in effect since 1992 (and was renewed in 2012 for another 20 years) and is being studied by other communities and scholars for its success. 

As for our visiting group, being that it was raining quite hard (which is a good thing, since there's been a drought going on recently in Puerto Rico) we were unable to get the full tour of the estuary. We did however, get to see some of the waterfront, as well as walk though the town of La Cantera. 

A day in Loiza and Piñones

Photo: Sculpture and paintings in Samuel Lind's home studio

What an extraordinary day we had, traveling to the towns of Loiza and Piñones today. This is an area of Puerto Rico which is primarily populated by people of African descent, and maintains much of the culture and traditions within, such as bomba and plena music and dance. 

First we were welcomed into the home studio of artist, Samuel Lind. As a part of this community, Samuel highlight so much of the beauty in Loiza by way of documenting the people and their traditions. His work spans from painting to sculpture and silkscreen and every corner of his two- story home studio is covered in artwork. 

From there, we went across the street for a quick visit to the artisan shop of Castor Ayala, who's famous for making the masks used in Puerto Rican festivals. Next we went for a "quick" bite at a beachside cuchifrito spot called Kiosco Boriqua (which took forever, but was well worth the wait). We wanted to make a detour to the beach, but ran out of time as we had an appointment in Piñones. 

We went to the Cooperativa Piñones se Integra (COPI) and met with the founder, Maricruz Rivera Clemente. She spoke with us about her activism through art and how COPI strengthens the community through sustainable development, offers ecotourism and is also a center for bomba and plena performance and classes. 

(For more photos, go to my Instagram @whippedhoney)