Decolonizing Puerto Rico Tour 2014 & Caribbean Institute of Social Movements September 19 – 26
Universidad Sin Fronteras announces the second edition of the Decolonizing Puerto Rico Tour. This tour was developed to make a connection between numerous liberation movements through the US with the colonial struggle of Puerto Rico. Collaborating with local people, organizations and institutions, the tour participants will create conscience about the colonial situation of Puerto Rico based on their own interaction and experience in the island.
TOUR OBJECTIVES:
International solidarity and networking among organizers.
Be exposed to Puerto Rico’s political and socio-economic reality.
Have a sense of the social interaction in the island colonial context.
Visit different community based projects to get to know their work.
Get to know the history of the Puerto Rican liberation movement and the people involved in the island and the United States.
TOUR SITES:
San Juan / Old San Juan (Local Community Organizations / Historical Sites)
- Welcome presentation by Puerto Rico campus
- Caño Martin Peña Community
- Presentation by Ex political prisioner Dylcia Pagán
- Historical Walking Tour Old San Juan
Vieques (Struggle against US Navy / Military toxic waste)
- Local communities
- Beaches
- Interaction with local people
Yunque (Tropical Rain Forest)
- Hiking
Adjuntas -Casa Pueblo (Environmental and ecological movement)
- Presentation by the local organizarion Casa Pueblo
- Reforestation process
Lares (Commemoration of the Grito de Lares revolution in 1868)
- Political activities
- Interaction with local people
Hormigueros (Commemoration of Filiberto Ojeda Rios assassination)
- Political activities
- Interaction with local people
Cabo Rojo / Mayagüez / San Germán (Local Community Organizations / Historical Sites)
- Political activities
- Interaction with local people
- Historical Walking Tour Old Town San Germán
- Beaches
- Agro-ecological workshop
COST:
Everyone is responsible for their travel ticket (round trip)
Local transportation, food and lodging: Covered by UNSIF
TUITION: $999.00 (Scholarship available)
This edition of the Tour will include a one day Seminar on Caribbean Social Movements and their struggles in actuality. The Caribbean Institute of Social Movements (CISM) was developed to generate an autonomous cooperation network among organizations, institutions and individuals of the Caribbean region. It is our purpose to collectivize the experience and strategic actions developed in the Social Movements, also to bring out the knowledge of it in a common way. In context with the Caribbean region and their people, we seek to reunite various liberation movements, discourses and ideologies to bring back the interconnection between action, knowledge and organization.
Our purpose is to create a series of seminars, classes and workshops that integrates the popular knowledge created and gathered in multiple social movements within the Caribbean. We are very proud to invite you to join us in this first organizing effort at regional level.
-Reynaldo Padilla
MAIN GOALS:
- Create a Universal knowledge of the Caribbean as the cradle of European colonialism, imperialism and slavery (and capital) on a historical perspective.
- Articulate the actual situation of the Caribbean Social Movements
- Build nexus, connections and shared knowledge on decolonization and liberation
- Expose US activists and organizers to the Caribbean reality
Seminar Date: Saturday September 20, 2014
8-10 AM Registration/breakfast/ packets/welcome
10-12 Decolonizing the Caribbean: Historical and Contemporary Struggles
12-2 PM Puerto Rico’s Independence: an international politics issue
2-3 PM Lunch (Roundtable on Caribbean Cooperation and Solidarity)
3-4 PM Actuality of the Caribbean Social Movements
4-4:30 PM Snacks
4:30-6:30 PM Migration and Gender struggle: Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico
7:30-9:00 PM Dinner (Roundtable on Haiti)