We here at Latino Rebels are big fans of Rosa Clemente, and when we found out that Rosa was leading an effort to “report, reimagine, and revive Puerto Rico,” we wanted to let our community know. As Rosa writes on the GoFundMe for #PRontheMap:
Puerto Rico is experiencing a devastating humanitarian crisis. However, the mainstream news media has all but neglected the story, with data from Media Cloud, a database that collects news published on the Internet every day, showing that the devastation in Puerto Rico is getting relatively little attention from digital and cable news outlets compared to its coverage on Hurricanes Irma and Harvey.
We, a group of mostly Puerto Rican journalists, videographers and media professionals aim to fill this void. We are ready and capable of providing independent reporting on the ground. Together, we’ll be heading to Puerto Rico for one week to interact with the people, investigate slow and questionable federal relief efforts and document the devastation, producing a short film, several written articles and a feature-length documentary from our trip and research.
As people with family and friends living on the island, we have direct access to those who have been impacted. As advocacy media-makers, we also have established relationships with the movers and shakers in Puerto Rico, many of whom have already agreed to work with us. Most importantly, however, as Puerto Rican people, who are personally and academically schooled in the politics, history and colonization of Puerto Rico, we will bring an important, and currently unseen, lens to our reporting.
If you believe the work Rosa and others (videographer Daniel Hernandez, video producer Kat Lazo, print reporter Raquel Reichard, videographer and photographer Eli Jacobs-Fantauzzi and communications and social media strategist Yanira Castro) are doing, please take a moment now and give what you can. No amount is too small. Just give here.
On Sunday night, Rosa shared a very powerful Facebook live video from San Juan that begins to shed the gravity of the situation:
So please help to make sure these voices are heard and follow what the team is doing at #PRontheMap.
