In post-Maria Puerto Rico, the necessity of rebuilding homes and streets, providing essentials and medication to the elderly, and helping each other overcome the trauma led to the creation of the Mutual Aid network. The need for communal spaces, internet access, activities for children in abandoned rural areas, and support for local agriculture and small traders solidified this grassroots solidarity, transforming it into established organisations that continue to operate beyond immediate relief efforts. The grassroots organisations participating in the network agreed on the principles of mutual aid, solidarity, community sovereignty, sustainability, and justice. At the forefront of the network were the Centros de Ayuda Mutua (CAM, Centre for Mutual Aid). The first CAM was born in Caguas days after Maria, when activists of the university collective Comedores Sociales and community members decided to occupy and rescue an abandoned building, first organising meals for the residents, then evolving into a centre with physical and mental health services, a food cooperative, summer camps and community-based events. Based on this experience, many other CAMs were formed throughout the island, often occupying rescued schools that were abandoned because of privatisation.
The network included and collaborated with pre-existing and/or different organisations from the CAMs, such as transfeminist and queer collectives like Taller Salud, agroecological initiatives, community-based sustainable development projects such as IDEBAJO, and groups more oriented to institutional politics. Caminando la Utopía is a project born after Hurricane Maria that practices community healing to treat trauma response through acutherapy and other methodologies. Even though the Network is not as active as it was during its first years, more organisations are emerging following its same principles, such as Apoyo Mutuo Agricola PR, that provides agroecological support to small farmers, organises health care labs, and investigates the policies that hinder agricultural development in Puerto Rico. As happened after Maria, after Fiona too, groups such as the Brigada Solidaria del Oeste, and Taller Salud organised direct economic aid, volunteer home reconstruction groups and workshops, as well as emergency kits distributions.
Read the rest at the Transnational Insititute
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