Local Author, Filmmaker Works on Puerto Rican Relief With Benefit
It’s been 56 years since Esmeralda Santiago moved from Puerto Rico to New York with her parents and siblings but her heart is still very much with the island territory and its people.
Perhaps never more so than now in the months following the devastation wrought by Hurricane Maria in late September that continues to leave an estimated 60 percent of the Puerto Rico without power.
With family and friends, including an aunt, still on the island, it took at least two weeks before she knew how they were doing, the type of assistance that was needed and how to try and get badly needed supplies on the ground.
“The first couple of weeks it was really hard to know how to help,” Santiago said. “It was easier to get text messages then phone calls so a lot of the conversation came in through texts where we were more able to reach them.”
This Wednesday, Nov. 29 at 7:30 p.m., Santiago, a Katonah resident, will be on hand at the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville to be part of a program called Emergency Puerto Rico Relief: Almost a Woman. The second half of that program’s title is the same as her memoir and a 2001 television movie based on the story of Santiago’s family relocating from rural Puerto Rico to Brooklyn in 1961 when she was 13 years old.
Santiago, a founding board member at the Burns and author of two other memoirs and two novels, said she approached film center representatives to see if there was a benefit program that could be scheduled. Since “Almost a Woman: won a Peabody Award for PBS Masterpiece Theatre’s “American Collection,” it was decided that any effort should include its screening.
The screening will be following by a question-and-answer session.
“We needed something that either had subtitles or was in English for an audience in Pleasantville,” said Santiago, who has owned and operated a production company with her husband for the past 40 years that produces documentaries and educational films. “They made some suggestions but ‘Almost a Woman’ had a very successful screening there when the film was first shown.”
All proceeds from the evening will benefit Paz Para La Mujer (Peace for Women), a San Juan-based nonprofit organization that employs just seven people, but with the help of a small army of volunteers operates 28 locations scattered across the island. It provides shelters and other services to women and children. Since Hurricane Maria, its efforts have expanded to shuttle some of the most pressing items that Puerto Ricans need most, including water, food and toiletries, she said.
“I’m very positive about the work that they’re doing because it’s directly affecting people who have been affected by the two hurricanes and the aftermath,” said Santiago, who added that Hurricane Irma skirted the island. “We remember the hurricanes but there are awful things still happening. Sixty percent of the island is still without electricity and FEMA has not given the blue tarps to people for their roofs.”
Fortunately, her aunt and many cousins and friends are okay, but her aunt’s house was badly damaged.
Santiago said following the hurricane her first reaction was to race to Puerto Rico, but it was nearly impossible to get a plane there. When she got in touch with friends and relatives, they urged her to stay in New York and help raise money and collect items to ship. With services and infrastructure so tenuous, an influx of well-meaning people would have likely complicated the situation, Santiago was told. She’ll likely make the trek after the holidays.
She said efforts throughout Westchester and New York by ordinary people have been extraordinarily generous and helpful to Puerto Ricans’ plight.
“I think in many ways our community in Westchester has had a huge impact by doing small gestures like this,” Santiago said.
For those interested in attending, information is available by visiting www.burnsfilmcenter.org. Tickets are $10 for members and $15 for non-members.
Martin has more than 30 years experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, including a frequent focus on zoning and planning issues. He has been editor-in-chief of The Examiner since its inception in 2007. Read more from Martin’s editor-author bio here. Read Martin’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/martin-wilbur2007/
