One Year After Hurricane Maria, Puerto Ricans March In South End

SOUTH END, MA — Dozens of people took to the streets Thursday, near Villa Victoria on Tremont Street, marching to mourn those who died when Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico one year ago.

A year after the hurricane hit the US territory, many Puerto Ricans still lack access to reliable utilities; hundreds of schools have been closed on the islands; the University of Puerto Rico's budget has been slashed; pensions for public employees have been cut; houses on the islands are being foreclosed on and bought up by investors; electricity, the beach, and other resources are being privatized; and, so many other austerity measures are still being enacted, said organizers from Mijente, a grassroots activist group.

Besides mourning those who were lost and remembering that there is still much to recover from, organizers said they wanted to hold those accountable for the manmade disaster before, during, and after Maria.

“When the government didn’t help us, our own people, did,” Marta Rodriguez, a local Puerto Rican elder who was displaced following Hurricane Maria told the crowd, according to a press release.

Bryana Cueto, a local Puerto Rican high-schooler shared a poem entitled "4,654," referring to the death toll from the disaster. Although in the days after the hurricane hit, less than 20 deaths were reported, the official number ticked up toward 3,000 by August this year. The New York Times recently reported it could be closer to 4,500.

“4,654 minus 64 is 4,581," Cueto said. "How the hell did you forget 4,581 of my brothers and sisters?...So where the hell were you when we needed you? Where were you when my people, “Your people,” were living with no electricity? No food or water? Begging for your help? We were dying. We are still dying. And you turned your back on us."

A Puerto Rican chiropractor who was displaced by Hurricane Maria and who helped organize the event, shared what it was like to lose everything she had, according to the release.

“I lost my house, my community, my practice… I came to Boston with my children and husband often sleeping on couches but not being able to bear sleeping in separate rooms even when we had space. We were still afraid from what had happened, from losing everything we had and from realizing how little the government cared about us," said Darlene Flores during the event according to a release.

Organizers from Mijente say the hurricane fallout points to a systemic issue - "the revolving door between government, banks and hedge funds that continues the cycle of colonization and devastation," according to their Facebook post.

"Our demands include: Repeal the Jones Act now! Repeal PROMESA and dissolve the Fiscal Control Board now! Cancel the debt and pay reparations now! No privatization of education! No privatization of public resources! The Decolonization process must begin now!," they wrote.

The evening ended with live music and the opening of St. Stephen's Church on Shawmut Ave as a healing space.

Mijente is a grassroots hub for Latinx and Chicanx movement building and organizing that seeks to increase the profile of policy issues that matter to the communities and increase the participation of Latinx and Chicanx people in the broader movements for racial, economic, climate and gender justice, according to a release.

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