Campus Celebrity: Activist Vanessa Uriarte

Meet Vanessa, the girl with a thousand colors. Ever heard of the term “old soul”? Well, this girl definitely embodies the definition of it. Known as “Mariposa“, this girl has crossed quite literally crossed borders to proclaim her beliefs and fight for her rights. 

Name: Vanessa Uriarte

Nickname: Mariposa

Age: 23

Classification: Sixth Year

Graduation date: May 2015

Major: Interdisciplinary Studies (Social Sciences) with emphasis on Caribbean and Latin American studies.

 

Vanessa: I began doing performance art with body paint in early 2010. At that time, the UPR and the School of Visual Arts were on strike as a result of Act 7, implemented in 2009, and the enrollment in both universities suffered as hundreds of students were left outside the institutions. Because of this, a group of students from the two universities came together and decided to use our bodies as a method to denounce the situation facing the student community.

 

Vanessa: “Coalición Playas Pa’l Pueblo” is a conglomerate of civil and environmental organizations that joined forces in 2005 against the privatization of a section of Carolina beach land belonging to the municipality. Through an illegal contract, the municipality gave the Courtyard Mariott Hotel in the area a lease to develop an extension of the hotel. As a consequence of the refusal of the parties to terminate the contract due to its illegality because the land is public, the members of the “Coalición Playas Pal ‘ Pueblo” occupied the ground to avoid construction. It’s been 10 years and we’re still going strong.

Vanessa: At this moment, in March  I have a performance art tour around the island, along with the Interamerican University School of Law, to give information to the public about the universal right to health. This includes talking about potential projects for a universal health care system in Puerto Rico that would eliminate the monopoly of insurance and ensure an optimal service to all.

 

Vanessa:  I was invited to Ecuador to testify before the 18th Internationalist Seminar: Problems of the Revolution in Latin America, about the status of our beaches and coasts. Because of our colonial situation and the policies imposed on the island, we’ve prevented the responsible development of our most important resource, the sea. Because of our small size, the sea is and should be our main raw resource, but it is impossible to take concrete decisions for the benefit of Puerto Ricans if it isn’t being used this way.

 

Vanessa: For now, to finish my studies, and hopefully in a not too distant future, I hope to develop a series of projects to integrate Puerto Rico into the larger Caribbean community through cultural exchanges, allowing identification with our sister countries.

 

 Vanessa: I think everything you do is valid. But I think the first step is to recognize our political situation and the consequences both in terms of international relations (in the political and economic context), and a social level. By internalizing this, one redefines and is able to see new possibilities for the benefit of all Puerto Ricans. But the point is not to do it from the top of knowledge: it is to understand and work from the base.

Vanessa: It has its pros and cons. Some think that being young, or at least younger than them, means that I’m underqualified or somehow unable to achieve what we’re working towards. Others are wonderful people there who have trusted me and given me the opportunity to learn a lot. Because that’s the whole point, to get everyone working together to achieve our goal of a better Puerto Rico and, eventually, a better world.