Through her work with the non-profit New York Boricua Resistance (NYBR), Ari Memoli returned to her homeland and heritage and connected with her family and Puerto Rican culture through a service trip she organized for NYBR.
Ari Memoli started working at Poly Prep in the 2023 school year. Before working at Poly as the Upper School Division Coordinator, Memoli built up an impressive resume. According to the Poly Prep Directory, Memoli previously worked for Brooklyn Law School and Albany Law School, and “outside of the professional sphere, she’s also an organizer in north Brooklyn amplifying the work and voices of the Puerto Rican Liberation movement.”
The main goal of the organization is to eliminate the division of mostly Puerto Ricans living in the U.S. to Puerto Rico. After receiving a generous donation, Memoli and other staff members organized a trip for NYBR members to reconnect with Puerto Rico.
On their 6-day trip, the members split up into two groups. In her group, Memoli worked with various organizations such as Utier, an electrical and irrigation workers union that essentially helps unionize electrical grid workers. Currently, Puerto Rico has a fiscal control board, originally instated by Barack Obama whose role is to approve and revise obligations and decisions made by the Puerto Rican government.
Shortly after, LUMA, the power company in charge of distributing and transmitting power in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, came into play. The problem is that many people outside Puerto Rico who are not aware of how the electrical grids work, are coming in which becomes an issue specifically during hurricane season and other natural sources. As a result, “A lot of folks ended up leaving the grid jobs with the electrical grid, primarily because LUMA would not protect their pensions,” said Memoli, meaning that when workers retired they would not be properly paid before and after retirement. Originally there were 4500 people within the union which has now decreased to around 200. Memoli brings attention to the fact that because of the issues with LUMA, most Puerto Rican citizens who do have running electricity have it because they are using emergency electrical resources which most people are unaware of. This means citizens are using backup electricity that is put in place in case of emergency.
Right now Utier is attempting to work with LUMA who have recently employed a syndicate union which creates a disconnect between the syndicate union and the actual union workers. As a result, “unfortunately, most of the proposals that the syndicate union come up with is in benefit of LUMA and not the workers,” said Memoli. Memoli gave the example of LUMA wanting to replace pensions with 401ks indicating that you only get what you invest instead of your company investing as you work towards retirement.
At a point, everyone on the service trip broke off into contingents. Memoli and her group went to Campamento Erizo, a nature preserve, “essentially the issue that they’re facing over there is that there are many people who are obtaining illegal permits, and they are finding folks who are Puerto Rican who can skirt around local law enforcement.” These permits allow Airbnbs to be built closer to the beach than what is legally allowed. The construction is dangerous when it comes time for hurricane season. The construction of the Airbnbs also affects ocean life because the drainage from construction goes into the water and kills the coral reef. The renters of the Airbnbs are directed into believing that the beach their house is built on is private, even though Puerto Rican law states that all beaches are public. Memoli experienced this firsthand. She said while she and her group were cleaning the beach, “one person came out [of their Airbnb] and was like ‘what are you doing this is my beach’ and we were just here cleaning up the beach.”
It’s also essential, Memoli said, “to visit non-tourist places and interact with locals to get the meaningful experience which also goes for any other country you visit.”
This trip was not only successful by the NYBR establishing themselves in Puerto Rico, according to Memoli, but it was also very sentimental for Memoli. Not only did she meet her family for the first time, but she “was able to actually take some of [her] grandmother’s ashes and bring them to the cemetery where [her] parents were buried.”
