“Serán las dueñas de la Tierra” – Screening and Conversation

Despite Puerto Rico’s fertile land and year-round tropical climate, the archipelago has poor conditions for farming. Beginning with the displacement of farmers and destruction of farmland to make way for a wave of industrialization coupled with natural disasters that are growing in intensity as a result of climate change, it’s easy to see how we’ve arrived at this point. The crisis reaches a new height when one considers that over 80% of the food is imported from the United States and a third of the residents suffer food insecurity.

In the face of this grim reality, there is a growing wave of young Puerto Ricans who want to turn the tides and reclaim the land for farming. “Serán las dueñas de la tierra” (Stewards of the Land) follows the experience of three land cultivators on the archipelago as they work on their farms, advocate for food sovereignty and security, and attempt to build up their country.

In the aim of highlighting this issue and to provoke conversations amongst our diaspora, CENTRO has partnered with Taller Puertorriqueño in Philadelphia and Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción (IBA) in Boston, to promote a screening tour on the East Coast. For the New York presentation join CENTRO and Sierra Club for a screening and a conversation with the film’s director, JuanMa Pagán Teitelbaum, and Ramón Cruz, President of the Sierra Club.

This event is part of the CENTRO 50th Anniversary Celebration! Join us all of 2023 in celebrating 50 years of CENTRO’s work to strengthen, diversify, and reimagine the field of Puerto Rican Studies!

Support our 50th Anniversary here!