This week, close to a thousand people will travel to Puerto Rico for the annual SOMOS conference. It’s the largest in more than 40 years. As chairwoman of the New York State Assembly Puerto Rican/Hispanic Task Force, it is my honor to be hosting this event this year. We will share a mission to unite the Latino community and raise awareness, advocate for social inequities and injustices that have plagued the island, and elevate social consciousness around public policy in the Latino community.
I want to be clear about our intentions: SOMOS is about legislators, allies, and organizers joining forces to support the people of the island as they fight with them for social justice and a just economic recovery.
But beyond the size of the conference, I am also proud to share that this year we are putting even greater emphasis on activating our political and grassroots power.
This is personal for me. I was born in Cataño, Puerto Rico, and began my career in public service as a community organizer, helping others fight for issues like education, health care, public safety, affordable housing and economic development. As a proud Latina and single mother to three children, I have always been an advocate for the Latino community.
Now, as I lead the efforts to plan and coordinate SOMOS, I will ensure that at the core of the conference is the opportunity for others to give back and stand in solidarity with the Latino and Puerto Rican community.
That’s why we will support a partnership between Catholic Charities and Caritas of Puerto Rico to distribute food to families in need on the island; travel to La Goyco for a day of service with a community of mostly elderly folks and low-income families who are being pushed out by vulture funds and unfettered development; and host legislative sessions around important issues that are directly impacting Puerto Rico for the past several years including holding hedge funds accountable to lay out how we here in New York can support the people of Puerto Rico in the way they are asking to be supported and empower.
The events planned for this conference are a space to not just discuss the political and policy issues at hand, but to ensure that we as New Yorkers stand by our hermanas y hermanos as they organize, rally, and protest against the injustices that they are facing. We will honor our Afro-Latino history as well as elevate not just Puerto Rican issues but Latino issues.
At SOMOS, those coming into Puerto Rico are here to listen; no one will assume they know more or know better than the people on the island. Absolutely no one coming in will overshadow the voices and perspectives of the people who live on the Island.
Puerto Rico is on the brink of a catastrophic collapse. Its people are currently experiencing a devastating increase in the cost of living exacerbated by an oversight board that continues to push to weaken labor protections, cut health care services, reduce labor benefits and pensions and increase austerity measures that are so harmful that they have caused hundreds of school and hospital closures.
What’s worse is that while the board pushes for these austerity measures, big corporations like Luma Energy and the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority have used their political power to privatize essential necessities like power and electricity at the expense of Puerto Ricans.
Just a few weeks ago, it was reported that Puerto Rico residents would see yet another increase in their electricity bill, even as thousands on the island were subjected to blackouts for several days in a row. There is no doubt, in the wake of the privatization of power distribution and transmission, that our people are the ones who suffer.
So, as we head into the SOMOS conference, our mission is clear: to bring together Latino stakeholders, representatives, legislators, local Puerto Rican organizers and allies to confront the history that has led Puerto Rico to be in such a vulnerable position.
We will leave the Island after SOMOS, united with a coalition that is even stronger than it was when entered. We will leave the Island with a clear call to action to fight La Junta and to champion self-determination for Puerto Rico. We will leave the Island with a plan that is informed by those who are most impacted and therefore who also know best how we move forward: the people of Puerto Rico.
Davila represents parts of Bushwick, Williamsburg and other Brooklyn neighborhoods in the Assembly.
