Yesterday, for the first time the town of San Juan was hosting a clear path for runners and walkers in Hato Rey, the financial district. It wasn’t a long path, but free of cars. I had to go around the path five or six times to finish my five miles for today but I liked running a new path. My only suggestion would be to make the path a little longer and maybe add a few trash cans to throw out the water and Gatorade cups after we’re done with them, but apart from that, I hope more people join next month.

Later I attended a demonstration in Viejo San Juan to put an end to Esencia, an exclusive residential and tourism complex proposed to be built in Cabo Rojo. This huge project will have devastating economic, residential, territorial, historic, and natural effects, among others, on the island. It would displace communities in this beautiful southwest municipality of Puerto Rico, which is not only home to residents of the island, but species, some near extinction, taking over the beautiful beaches and other territories that they call home. 

This millions dollar project will be another step into selling off our island to foreign millionaires, who will not be living among us, but in their own community, apart from the rest of us. This will not boost our economy as some say it will, since they plan to have everything in there, from supermarkets to hospitals and they won’t be spending any money outside of Esencia.

There are already similar projects to this in the island, like the one in Rio Grande, but smaller. There are only a very small number of Puerto Ricans that could afford to live in this project. 

The demonstration yesterday was a success, showing that people do care and are opposed to this. It was peaceful from beginning to end. I was very happy to see the amount of people there taking part in this demonstration, and the wide range I saw, young and old, from all over the island, all united under one goal, to put an end to this horrible project. 

I hope we made an impact and showed the creators and promoters of this that we will not stand for this, they have to shut this down. People in the government need to be scared because we know who is backing this project and we will remember who they are in the next elections. 

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Published by mariacristinasanfeliu

I’m an aspiring writer still looking for exactly what I want to write about, with a lot of creativity, imagination and desire to write. I studied Writing and Rhetoric at Syracuse University where I explored many different sides of writing through my classes and extracurricular activities in order to narrow my search for an identity as a writer. I have written for Citrus TV Noticias and La Voz magazine, both of which gave me the chance to explore different mediums in which to write in. Through Citrus TV Noticias I also gained experience in translating from English to Spanish and vice versa, which is also something that I would be interested in working on since I am fluent in both of these languages. I was also an intern at Syracuse University Press where I got hands on experience in what goes into actually editing and publishing a book. Through out the last four years I have faced a lot of challenges, which helped chape the person I am today. After being in a tragic car accident, being in comma, having a Traumatic Brain Injury, and being in therapy for over a year, I am a new me, willing to face challenges and knowing how to deal with them. I want to write about my accident and life after it to help others, show them it can be done and help in any way I can.

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