Icon from a picrew by grgikau. Call me Tir or Julian. 37. He/They. Queer. Twitter: @tirlaeyn. ao3: tirlaeyn. 18+ Only. Star Trek. Sandman. IwtV. OMFD. Definitionless in this Strict Atmosphere.
this is fantastic now children in Puerto Rico wont be able to receive the education they deserve thanks to their messed up government
Its even worse than that. I’m living through it. Not only are schools closing, hospitals are collapsing. Only around 9% of the island has electricity and it comes and goes at times.
People are dying in hospitals because of lack of diesel for the generators, a lot of the water is now infected, there are disease outbreaks and scareceness of food. I am safe, but many are not.
Some have water, others don’t. We need help. Sending money would be helpful but what would help even more would be sending water filters, filtering water bottles, food, medicine, if somehow possible diesel.
All of you reblogging this news helps, but what we need is physical help. If you can’t, then spread the word, but God if you can send supplies… Please… PLEASE do. We are dying. Help us, help us save ourselves. Help us save our people. Help us save out ISLAND.
If you’re not in a position to ship or transport useful items to the island (which is sure as heck the case for me in New Zealand) then the best thing you can do is give money to a reputable relief organisation operating in the area.
“The way music comes out of … every molecule of the place [is] something we share,” playwright says of track featuring Jennifer Lopez and Luis Fonsi
It’s been two weeks since Hurricane Maria first raged across the island of Puerto Rico, and the crisis has only grown more complex. What first seemed like a natural disaster has also proven to be a long-standing infrastructural one; most of the island remains without electricity and water, putting its residents at a heightened risk of disease and famine. Yet with Puerto Ricans’ pleas meeting inadequate responses from the White House, Tony-winning Hamilton playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda has taken matters into his own hands – and with the help of many friends. Recorded alongside an all-star cast of Latin artists, including Jennifer Lopez, Gina Rodriguez, Fat Joe, Gloria Esterfan, Camila Cabello and Marc Anthony, Miranda’s new song “Almost Like Praying” is a love song to Puerto Rico as much as it is a fight song. The song’s proceeds will benefit the Hispanic Federation’s UNIDOS Disaster Relief Fund.
“You know how we always tell artists ‘stay in your lane’ anytime they say something remotely political? I’m trying to use what I do in service of this challenge,” Miranda tells Rolling Stone. “We’re facing a humanitarian crisis right now. And the response from our federal government is not commensurate with the previous two hurricanes, much less up to the unprecedented danger of this disaster itself.”
Miranda began work on the song, an adaptation of “Maria” from 1961 musical West Side Story, two days after the hurricane first made landfall. “I knew the name Maria was forever going to have a destructive connotation to this island,” says Miranda. “It’s also the name of my favorite song from West Side Story. So my brain was already looking for a sample to flip … And that’s what we do in hip-hop, right? We take a sample, we flip it and change the meaning. And so the hook of the song is, ‘Say it soft, and it’s almost like praying.’”
But first, he sought clearance from Stephen Sondheim and the estate of Leonard Bernstein. “They gave their blessing within a day,” says Miranda. “When there’s a crisis, you call in all the favors – call the gods of musical theater! I have the great fortune to count Sondheim as a mentor and a friend. I worked with him and Bernstein on the 2009 revival of West Side Story and its Spanish translations. Sondheim wrote back immediately and said ‘Yes – and what else can I do?’”
Miranda infused the number with a warm blend of dancehall, reggaeton and steel drum sounds; the result is an incendiary and highly danceable clarion call. (“If you’re gonna write a song for Puerto Rico and you can’t dance to it,” says Miranda, “you fucked up.”) Most moving is how many of Miranda’s childhood heroes, including original West Side Story cast member Rita Moreno, take turns shouting out each of the island’s 78 towns – a move Miranda says was inspired by Puerto Ricans’ heartbreaking calls across social media to find their relatives in the wake of the storm.
“There was a terrible silence,” says Miranda. “For some people days, for some people weeks. My Twitter and my Facebook were filled with friends and family listing the names of their towns. ‘My grandmother is in Vega Alta, my father lives in San Juan, has anyone heard from Isabela?’ I began thinking about the towns as lyrics. What unites us in this tiny island that is 100 miles across and 35 miles north to south … Is that we’re from these towns. We ask, ‘Where are you from?’ It is our link to our roots and our families.”
While enlisting collaborators for the track, Miranda says he made new friends in the process. “I broke my Rolodex and called every Latino artist I know,” he says. “And when I didn’t know them, I got on Twitter. I caused a minor uproar with Camila Cabello’s fans when I tweeted her, ‘Hey I have an idea!’ I also sent a private message to Luis Fonsi, who I never met before. I cold-called and every single person said yes, without even hearing the song.”
Within a dizzying72 hours, Miranda flew from New York to Miami and Los Angeles to be present while the artistsrecordedtheir respective verses. Yet some were still recovering in the Caribbean, where resources were scarce and internet access was spotty. “The rapper PJ Sin Suela recorded at home,” says Miranda. “But he didn’t have the bandwidth to email his verse. So he gave a memory stick to Estefan, who was there on a relief mission – she then flew it back to us. When I say ‘all hands on deck,’ I’m really not fucking around!”
Riggs Morales, the executive producer behind the Hamilton Mixtape, mixed and mastered the song in the days that followed. Meanwhile, Miranda harvested stories of Puerto Rico from his collaborators, evoking tears and laughter inside the studios.This behind-the-scenes footage will air as part of a televised benefit, airing commercial-free on Telemundo Saturday, October 7th.
“I asked everyone, ‘What are your favorite memories from Puerto Rico?’” says Miranda. “I will never forget seeing Rubén Blades breaking down about meeting Hector LaVoe for the first time. I’ll never forget Marc Anthony talking about wearing suits before getting on a plane [to the United States] so they’d look white when they landed … And Gilberto Santa Rosa, who sang at my wedding. He was a salsero, but grew up in the same part of town as Daddy Yankee. They could not make two more different genres, but music saved their lives.
“The way music comes out of every frog, every tree, every molecule of the place,” reflects Miranda, “That’s something we share.”
Composer and playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda has written and recorded a new song to help raise money for hurricane recovery efforts in Puerto Rico. Sales of the track, “Almost Like Praying,” will go to the Hispanic Federation’s Hurricane Relief Fund. It features an all-star cast of Latinx artists, including Jenifer Lopez, Marc Anthony, Gloria Estefan, Fat Joe, Ruben Blades, Luis Fonsi, Rita Moreno and many others.
In a conversation with NPR Music’s Felix Contreras, Miranda explains why he chose to sing the song in Spanish, how he assembled the vast cast of contributors and why he borrowed the song’s title and instantly recognizable hook from a line in the West Side Story classic, “Maria.”
I’ve had many people in the US ask me how they can help, and I’ll be honest that I haven’t had the time to sit down and properly think about it (doesn’t help that I have access to information on the internet for approx 15 minutes every day), but now I’m going to throw this out there. It’s going to be long.
Firstly, you need to understand the situation. Our infrastructure is destroyed. We have no power, in fact, the 4% of San Juan that managed to get electricity back lost it again. Last I read only 45% of the island had clean water services. This isn’t just a lack of food and water. In case you hadn’t heard, we’re also approximately $72 billion in debt, and this hurricane is estimated to have cost over $30 billion in damages.
You can send all the food and bottled water you want, and by all means please continue to do so because we are short on those, but there’s also a huge distribution problem. Many supermarkets have not been able to open again because of structural damage. People are making lines for hours to be able to get into the few that are operational again. Gas stations? 80% were supposed to open again by Tuesday, September 26, yet people are still making literally 8+ hour lines (this is not an exaggeration) in the HOPES that they will be allowed to get some fuel. Many banks are only dispensing cash, which is vital because the vast majority of establishments can only accept cash at the moment, and the lines for the atms also can take hours. People have 5am to 7pm to be able to do all these things in one day because of curfew. Some hospitals are running out of diesel already, meaning that their back up generators are shutting down, so all those patients are being transferred to government hospitals that were already understaffed and understocked BEFORE Maria.
To recap, in San Juan, where conditions are better, people are wholly dependent on cash to buy basic necessities, people have no power, in many cases no water, no communication with the outside world or the rest of Puerto Rico, no gasoline to get around, barely any places to get food, and entire hospitals are being evacuated. Literal boatloads of supplies are sitting in ports because the government can’t distribute them, and some ships are just sitting there with their cargo.
It’s much worse outside of San Juan. Entire towns have no working gas stations, no hospitals, no running water, and no operational supermarkets (on top of no power or communication). Maria destroyed the vast majority of our crops. Many of these towns were also hit the hardest by the hurricane and saw thousands of families completely lose their homes. Now back to the distribution problem: you can send tons of food and articles of basic necessity, but if the government is having a hard time distributing them in the metropolitan area, it’s literally downright impossible to get them to some of these towns.
But what about the aid that has already been sent? Not enough. We need more resources, personnel, money, everything. Many of the rescue personnel and federal authorities already here came weeks ago because of Irma’s devastation in other Caribbean islands and can’t focus entirely on the disaster in Puerto Rico. Like I said earlier, distribution and mobilization is one of the key problems. I go around San Juan and don’t see any of the people that came to help. Entire towns elsewhere in the island have not seen a single paramedic, soldier, or FEMA worker. The only places I’ve seen them are in the hotels they’re staying at, so there’s clearly a massive problem with mobilization.
American politicians? I’ve seen some pay lip service to the plight of Puerto Rico, but not a single package or proposal. Local officials had to beg Congress to notice what was happening. President Trump was kind enough to give $1 million of his vast fortune to efforts in Houston (notice the sarcasm), yet he hasn’t offered a single penny to efforts to rebuild Puerto Rico. He thought that criticizing NFL players exercising their right of free speech was more important.
So what can you, member of the diaspora or concerned non-Puerto Rican do?
1. Call your Congressmen and Congresswomen. Flood them with phone calls, go to their town halls, DEMAND that the crisis in Puerto Rico receive the attention and action it needs. Organize. Reach out to all Puerto Rican and Latinx organizations, come up with a coordinated strategy to make. Sure. We. Are. Heard. Live in Florida? You’re in a swing state. Use that leverage. Pledge to note vote for any politician that doesn’t do everything to help us.
Btw, Trump originally refused to lift the Jones Act for Puerto Rico (which he did for Texas and Florida after Irma), meaning we literally couldn’t receive foreign aid by ship. Now there’s a 10 day waiver, but that’s nothing, and it’s clearly being done to make critics shut up. He cares so little about us and making sure we receive the foreign aid we need that he said he didn’t want to suspend the Jones Act because the shipping industry was against it. The Jones Act has historically crippled the Puerto Rican economy ever since it was imposed on us in 1917. We need, at the very least, a months long suspension, and many are calling for a permanent repeal. Put pressure for that. Make him pay. Make everybody that’s against suspending the Jones Act pay in the voting polls.
Update: Trump is too busy playing in his golf courses to care about Puerto Rico, and he’s lording our $72 billion debt (Florida’s is $180 billion and Texas’s is $272 billion) against us in this time of humanitarian crisis.
2. Look for donation efforts and charities that are focusing on more than just food and water. We need to rebuild everything. We need the materials to rebuild, at the very least: - houses - roads - communication networks (i.e. cell service towers) - power lines and infrastructure - water infrastructure
3. We shouldn’t have to rely on just gas and diesel. We need other sources of energy (solar works very well in a tropical island) so that hospitals don’t have to literally shut down if the diesel runs out. If you have the knowledge of how to get those alternate sources quickly and efficiently to the island, please let it be known.
4. Do you work or have any connections to companies that would be willing to donate materials? I’m talking generators, materials for construction, hospital supplies, fuel, i.e. not just food and water.
5. There’s hysteria in the airports because flights are limited. People are making lines for hours, literally staying overnight, in the hopes of getting a ticket out. We need more flights and ships that can transport elderly, children, injured, sick, etc. out. Very importantly, these have to be AFFORDABLE, not the thousands of dollars that were being charged a few days ago. Pressure airlines and cruise companies to join current efforts.
6. If you work in a hospital, see if you have the capacity and personnel to take in patients from the island. The situation for those in need of hospital care and even basic medical services is dire.
There’s a lot more that can be done, and maybe some of my ideas aren’t even that good or feasible to begin with, but I wanted to get this out there before my service left.
Mayor Carmen Cruz made an emotional call for help, amid the difficulties and bureaucratic red tape that has hamstrung the distribution of aid for Puerto Rico.
(snips of the article) “Cruz indicated she was losing patience with the US government…People are drinking off a creek. So I am done being polite. I am done being politically correct. I am mad as hell….So I am asking the members of the press, to send a mayday call all over the world. We are dying here. And if it doesn’t stop, and if we don’t get the food and the water into people’s hands, what we are going to see is something close to a genocide.“
I know it’s hard to believe this, and some of you may think I’m making this up, but Puerto Ricans are as American as you and I are (except that they don’t have meaningful representation in Congress, but I’m not going to pretend that you care about that, anyway).
I need you to look at these pictures, and understand how massively devastated Puerto Rico is right now (for example: imagine how you’d feel if the power was out in the entire state of Hawaii, or the entire city of – hey, I’ll let you pick any city in America that isn’t New York or Los Angeles).
Remember how we came together as a nation after Katrina, and we all chipped in to help the Gulf Coast recover? Remember how furious we were at George W. Bush’s incompetence and indifference to the suffering in the Superdome? Remember how we all mobilized to help our fellow Americans, because that’s what we do?
Well, we need to do that right now, White America. I know they mostly speak a different language and that they don’t have white skin like we do, but they aren’t just our fellow humans (which should be enough, but I know it isn’t because I know you, White America). The people who are suffering in Puerto Rico right now are our fellow American Citizens.
Look at all of these states that have a smaller population than Puerto Rico:
Imagine that any one of those states (or more, if you want to do the math) were destroyed by a natural disaster. They have no power. They have no clean water. They have no cell or internet service. It’s hot as hell and they have no air conditioning.
Try your best, White America, to imagine it, and reach into your heart to find the same empathy and concern and resolve to help the people of Puerto Rico, because our shitty “president” is too busy having a tantrum about athletes protesting police brutality (when he isn’t praising a Turkish dictator whose bodyguards keep beating up our fellow citizens) to do anything about it.
Thanks for listening, White America. We have a lot more to talk about.
Like a lot of Puerto Ricans, I’m currently part of the diáspora; part of millions of Puerto Rican living outside the island due to different reasons that drove us to leave our Island (temporary or permanent)
As of tonight (9/19/17), Hurricane Maria will be moving across Puerto Rico as a category 5 hurricane. The destruction it will leave on its wake is unknown.
It’s sad and frustrating not knowing how to help my people, my island, my country, during these hard times.
So, I’m gathering all the places we can donate money. Real organizations from Puerto Rico, to ensure that the money goes directly where it’s needed. I’ll be updating this list as soon as I can verify (to the best of my knowledge) the organizations where the donations are going.
If you wish to share one, feel free to submit the information (click here) to out page and we’ll verify (as best as we can). Whatever you can donate, even if it’s just $1, it would be greatly appreciate.
Here is the list so far:
1. Maria & Irma: Puerto Rico Real-time Recovery Fund:
managed by the non-profit ConPRmetidos.
All donations to this fund will exclusively support the victims of the catastrophic Hurricane María and Irma in Puerto Rico and provide relief and aid the communities affected by this disaster.
3.
Puerto Rico Hurricane Relief Fund - Puerto Ricans in Action: All funds will be withdrawn from the campaign on September 29, 2017, by our co-founder, Jorge Rivera, and donated to two nonprofits located in Puerto Rico working to rebuilding communities in Culebra and Loiza: ConPRmetidos is working to construction of long-enduring homes in Culebra that meet Safe Building Codes standards, and
Iniciativa Comunitaria is working with community leaders in Loiza to identify immediate and long-term needs. They are also working with the United Way of Puerto Rico to give the in-kind donations we receive to the best community organization.
Other organizations that would greatly benefit from additional help:
These organizations are helping from afar as well. Check their websites for more information.
1. Puerto Ricans in Action: from Los Angeles, CA. Coalition of
businesses and organizations in the greater Los Angeles Puerto Rican community coming together to offer support to family and friends.
Please share as much as you can. Thanks. Contact us with more information if you have. I’ll keep adding as we go along.
IRMA JUST LEFT AND NOW MARIA IS ON HER WAY AND SHES GOING TO SLICE RIGHT THROUGH THE CENTER OF THE ISLAND AS A CAT3/4. We haven’t even gotten over the damages with irma yet and some people STILL dont have water or power and now we’re getting hit with something thats going to be even worse for us PLEASE PLEASE pray for puerto rico and the caribbean because this shit is serious
yes hello she’s cat 5 now
OMG SOMEONE MAKING A POST FOR PR! I LOVE YOU, PERSON! But we fucked, guys! Probably will be disconnected for some time due to the fact our electrical system is not the best. We don’t have alot of ice, gasoline is already low and bottled water is already all gone. Please, PLEASE PRAY FOR PUERTO RICO! Like we have people who already lost their homes to Irma, what else they gonna lose to María?
