Award of Excellence: Here I Dreamed
More than half of Puerto Rico’s public schools have closed their doors in the last 10 years. Government officials justified the “consolidations,” saying hurricane damage and declining student enrollment necessitated them. In the years since, some schools have found new life as community centers, while others have been leased or sold. The majority of buildings, however, decompose like rotting corpses, their bones swaddled in nature’s eerie embrace, remnants of past lives slowly disintegrating into earth.
Untitled
A biography of Antonio Rafael Barceló, a prominent 20th century politician and lawyer, lies abandoned on a desk at Escuela Jose de Diego in Vega Baja. Barceló’s life motto, “Puerto Rico por encima de todo” (“Puerto Rico above all else”) is reflected in his work to establish educational spaces like The School of Tropical Medicine. The school was later incorporated as part of The University of Puerto Rico, the island’s oldest University. The education crisis extends beyond primary and secondary schools; UPR has lost nearly half its budget since 2017.
