April 2, 2024
On January 10, a United States federal report revealed that rates of cesarean delivery in Puerto Rico (PR) have soared 12% from 2018 to 2022 for each age group younger than 40 (The Guardian). Now Puerto Rico represents one of the world’s largest c-section rates at more than 50% of infants delivered through surgery. While […]
April 2, 2024
Puerto Rico’s tourism industry is among the most prominent sectors of the island’s economy–almost $8.9 billion was generated in 2022 alone from travel and tourism and the island has more than 91,500 individuals employed in tourism-related jobs in the same year. These are all record highs (PR Newswire). Making up half of all tourists that […]
March 28, 2024
To begin the discussion on this topic, what is the Jones Act? The Jones Act was ratified and put into effect in 1920 and makes it so that any goods that are transported between U.S. ports must be carried on American-constructed and American-owned ships that fly the U.S. flag with crews consisting of American citizens […]
March 12, 2024
Dr. Sara Belligoni, a Postdoctoral Scholar with the Puerto Rico Research Hub, participated as a delegate of the Association of State Floodplain Managers (ASFPM) to the International Flood and Resilience Dialogue Expedition (FREDx) in Puerto Rico from March 4th to March 7th of 2024. The initiative was promoted by the ASFPM International Committee and hosted […]
February 13, 2024
IN PERSON AND VIRTUAL EVENT Join us for an enlightening conversation between guest speaker Dr. Raúl Santiago- Bartolomei, Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of Planning, University of Puerto Rico-Río Piedras, and Dr. Fernando Rivera, Director of the UCF Puerto Rico Research Hub. Dr. Santiago will discuss the challenges, solutions, and the broader impact on […]
November 27, 2023
With the nation’s first caucuses only a few months away, the issue of Puerto Rican statehood has become one of the latest topics of controversy among Republican candidates. In late October, the “Make America Great Again Inc.” SuperPAC endorsing Donald Trump shifted its campaign strategy to target fellow Republican candidate Ron DeSantis once again. The […]
October 12, 2023
On March 28, 2023, Puerto Rican governor Pedro Pierluisi announced a plan to renew Puerto Rico’s power grid through solar energy initiatives (AP News 3). Weakly maintained by a private company and devastated by storms like Hurricane Maria, the power grid is responsible for providing electricity to 3.2 million people (AP News 3). Pierluisi has […]
April 21, 2023
Since Puerto Rico’s economic crisis in 2006, the island’s housing market has faced a growing and evolving set of challenges. The widespread devastation of hurricanes, earthquakes, and natural disasters in general, severely worsened an already existing housing problem. Hurricane Irma and Maria alone damaged over 725,000 households, representing nearly 60% of all occupied housing units […]
July 8, 2020
Tell us about yourself in a nutshell. What would you say makes your work unique? I am an interdisciplinary visual artist and UCF Associate professor of studio art. What makes my art unique? I move between disciplines -drawing, sculpture, video and live performance- to best get my points across instead of only working in one […]
June 29, 2020
On Wednesday, June 24th, the University of Central Florida’s Puerto Rico Research Hub hosted a virtual conference, “In Times of Crisis: Puerto Rican Activism in Orlando.” The event featured Julie Torres, Ph.D., a Scholar-in-Residence for the Hub. Crisis, Torres argued, is a phrase that can overshadow the people most badly affected because others suffer, too. […]
