A Push for Food Sovereignty Is Evolving Puerto Ricans’ Relationship with the Land

Since Hurricane Maria, many Puerto Ricans have begun cultivating the island’s native crops—and reclaiming their food narrative in the process.

It isn't a long drive from the hangar-cum-airport in Vieques, a tropical speck of an island off the east coast of Puerto Rico surrounded by teals, turquoises, and blues, to the stylish guesthouses at Finca Victoria. But wild horses often cross the narrow hillside road, and I had to stop several times to let them pass. By the time I arrived, I had missed breakfast. Luckily, Sylvia De Marco, Finca Victoria's friendly owner, had set a place for me in the alfresco vegan kitchen: Inside a Taíno bowl, a carved wooden vessel named after Puerto Rico's original Indigenous inhabitants, who were known for cultivating a variety of root vegetables, I found mashed pumpkin and malanga topped with caviar lentils cooked in cinnamon broth, avocado wedges, and cilantro grown on the property.

From the rustic poolside table where I ate, I lost myself in the lush surroundings: Dragon flower bushes, palms, hibiscus, and trumpet trees seemed to burst from the ground below the hotel's wooden deck. It was hard to believe that less than five years ago, this island had barely survived a Category 5 hurricane. Sylvia has spent that time bringing this hideaway back to life, reintroducing endemic plants, fruits, and vegetables to the fertile soil. “When I bought this land in 2018, it was almost barren,” she told me. “There were a few small damaged trees standing, and it took a while for them to come back.”

What Sylvia is doing at Finca Victoria—reconnecting the land to its fertility—is happening across Puerto Rico. Hurricane Maria, which ripped through the island in September 2017, laid bare numerous long-standing ills: a grossly outdated power grid, a tangle of corruption among local officials (which led to mass protests and the 2019 resignation of then governor Ricardo Rosselló), and a perilous dependence on the mainland for sustenance. Close to 90 percent of Puerto Rico's food, including grains, meats, fruits, and vegetables, comes from the continental United States, which has ruled the island since the Spanish-American War of 1898.