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https://reasonstobecheerful.world/tiny-island-big-dreams-culebra-puerto-rico-fishing-cooperative/>
"At the end of a short road that spreads out into a paved spit of working
waterfront on the tiny island of Culebra sits a small building with
hurricane-proof windows, a sunflower yellow trim and two rows of solar panels
on its roof. A calm canal borders the wharf, with boats docking or passing
through from a protected lagoon out into the Atlantic.
Until recently, the structure was boarded up, a relic of the Puerto Rican
island’s once thriving fishing community. But in 2024, drivers passing by to
fill up their tanks at the island’s only gas station next door began noticing
renewed signs of life — workers putting up new siding and adding coats of
paint, and the occasional group of fishers sitting outside shucking oysters.
What they and other Culebra residents would soon learn was that the modest
white building was, in fact, being put back together, one brush stroke at a
time, returning it to its former status as the beating heart of the local
community.
“We took on the task of reclaiming the building for the fishing community,”
explains Nicolás (Nico) Gómez-Andújar, a fisherman who grew up on the island.
Gómez-Andújar, whose father was also a fisherman, recalls the building was once
a thriving communal space for the island’s fishers, a piece of public
infrastructure set up by the local government called a
villa pesquera.
At its peak in the 1970s, the
villa was quite literally a village — including
a market and a meeting space, ramps, docks and gear storage for local fishers —
and was the headquarters of the
Asociación de Pescadores de Culebra, Inc.
(Fishermen’s Association of Culebra), an organized cooperative of people making
a living fishing off the island’s coastal waters.
Small-scale commercial fishing operations prospered under these circumstances
in which fishers benefited from access to infrastructure while also receiving
the social support of the
Asociación, a member-led advocacy group. For
generations, this kind of small-operation fishing sustained large portions of
the Culebran population."
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
