Superhero La Borinqueña’s Next Mission: A Solar-Powered Grid for Puerto Rico

An unique preview of the graphic novel is obtainable on the finish of this story.

Creators of the superhero comedian La Borinqueña are teaming up with National Resource Defense Council to carry solar energy to communities in Puerto Rico. In La Borinqueña—named after the island’s authentic Taino title, Borinquen/ Borikén, or “land of the brave lord”—the Nuyorican character Marisol Rios de la Luz attracts her energy from nature and the island’s authentic inhabitants.

The upcoming graphic novel is a collaborative effort between Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez, creator of the comedian ebook sequence, a staff of artists, and the Natural Resources Defense Council to assist expanding solar energy for Puerto Rico. The ebook is the fifth launch within the Borinqueña universe that debuted in 2016.

This graphic novel options actress Rosario Dawson, who, like La Borinqueña, is of Puerto Rican descent. Her character, a supernatural model of the actual Dawson, is seen supporting La Borinqueña and the Nitainos—a superhero staff that embodies completely different parts of Puerto Rico, just like the iconic coqui frog, inexperienced parrots called iguacas, and a Transformers-meets-Gundam robotic character that represents carnival vejigantes. They work alongside the primary character to sort out points like energy fairness and air pollution offered all through the graphic novel’s completely different storylines. Miranda-Rodriguez describes Dawson’s character as one thing like a “nexus being,” somebody who can go out and in of various realities. She’s an ally to La Borinqueña and the Nitainos of their efforts to deal with issues associated to local weather change and adjoining social justice points in Puerto Rico.

“Although the character is fictional, I see myself in her,” Dawson stated in a press release offered to Earther. “I’m Afro-Latina with Puerto Rican and Cuban heritage, and I believe like La Borinqueña that Puerto Rico can be a model for a transition to renewable cleaner energy.”

The new ebook is a celebration of colour, tradition, and Caribbean resilience. You received’t discover the same old comedian ebook onomatopoeia—there are not any “kapows” or “bangs,” however there are plenty of “fuacatas” and “katapums” when a villain is kicked within the face. La Borinqueña, Dawson, and the Nitainos combat political corruption together with different issues dealing with island residents.

The comedian is ready to be released in early April and explores how local weather change impacts varied components of life for Puerto Ricans, together with maybe sudden issues like home violence, cultural preservation, and equitable entry to power. The aftermath of pure disasters typically amplifies current points for susceptible communities. Domestic violence has been reported to happen more often whereas communities battle to get better from disasters like storms, particularly as emergency companies are overwhelmed and targeted on reconstruction. An investigative report printed in Medium’s GEN in 2020 outlined how the variety of ladies murdered by their partners nearly doubled after Hurricane Maria. The report additionally famous that ladies’s rights organizations on the island referred to as for a state of emergency over the spike in gender violence on the island, however elected officers declined to take action.

During Hurricane Maria in 2017, Puerto Rico skilled the largest blackout in U.S. historical past. It was nearly a yr earlier than energy was restored to many of the island, leaving hundreds of thousands with spotty cellphone and web service. One study discovered that almost 3,000 Puerto Ricans doubtless died as a result of post-storm difficulties within the six months after Maria hit. Emergency response programs had been overwhelmed, and many individuals in distant areas went with out mandatory medical consideration. Those who died had been disproportionately poor or aged, NPR reported.

Even earlier than that hurricane, the island skilled common blackouts, and the storm unveiled an unsightly fact of neglect and unhealthy colonial coverage to the remainder of the world.

In response to the infrastructural and resilience points on the island, NRDC has labored with native organizations on expanding solar energy and getting ready folks for future storms. The upcoming La Borinqueña launch will assist NRDC in persevering with to assist extra Puerto Ricans transition to photo voltaic power via the La Borinqueña Grants Program.

Miranda-Rodriguez organized artists and labored with organizations instantly after Hurricane Maria to launch Ricanstruction: Reminiscing & Rebuilding Puerto Rico, a 2018 anthology of La Borinqueña that raised funds for the island’s restoration. The collaboration with NRDC is the graphic novel’s subsequent philanthropic challenge. Miranda-Rodriguez recalled how cartoons like Captain Planet helped join audiences to environmental issues and desires La Borinqueña to be an up to date, culturally related model of that.

“That was like in the 90s… [some kids] grew up with this blue skin, green haired character, right? But La Borinqueña—though she is a fictional character—was based on real people. She looked like a real person,” he stated.

Luis Martínez, director of NRDC’s Southeast Energy, Climate, and Clean Energy Program, is happy that the group is a part of the challenge. His household is from Puerto Rico, and he was on the cellphone together with his dad and mom proper earlier than the island was reduce off from energy. “I had been begging them to leave the island, ‘come stay with me’ and all that. And then the line went dead,” he recalled.

He and different local weather activists need a new power system, not repairs to the current centralized mannequin that has repeatedly given out on Puerto Ricans. He argues {that a} decentralized grid made up of rooftop photo voltaic panels would assist susceptible communities change into resilient to blackouts and different disasters. Puerto Rico is sunny many of the yr, making it a wonderful location for rooftop photo voltaic power and battery storage, however solely about 3% of the island’s energy comes from renewable sources, a 2021 define from the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported.

“Puerto Rico and [other] Caribbean islands are really the canary in the coal mine, and unless we get off coal, unless we get off fossil fuels, those places that we love are in really deep trouble,” Martínez stated.

Like Martínez, a number of the artists behind the comedian sequence know firsthand the issues about which they’re creating artwork. Colorist Eliana Falcón-Dvorsky and illustrator Francisco Javier Rodríguez are each artists from Puerto Rico who’ve needed to prolong deadlines whereas working with Miranda-Rodriguez and the remainder of the La Borinqueña comedian staff because of the fragile power infrastructure. For Rodríguez, engaged on the sequence has been an avenue to validate his emotions concerning the island’s power infrastructure and to assist a transition to photo voltaic.

“After Maria I was so angry. I didn’t have light, I didn’t have any water… no one did,” he stated in Spanish. “We have to go with renewable energy… I see it as an uphill battle, it’s not an impossible shift, but it has been hard [for Puerto Rico].”

Falcón-Dvorsky’s house is now powered by photo voltaic panels, and she or he gives room in her fridge in order that neighbors don’t should throw out their meals when the facility goes out. Her father has used photo voltaic power for years and supported her in her personal transition to photo voltaic.

Her mom tried to transition into photo voltaic through LUMA, the island’s present power authority, however the system wasn’t arrange appropriately. It’s one thing she’s seen with different island residents who’ve tried to go photo voltaic on their very own, and it’s why she’s supportive of NRDC serving to extra folks transition to photo voltaic. “A lot of the installations in the inverter were wrong. It was connected to LUMA directly,” Falcón-Dvorsky defined. “A lot of the companies, mostly like a lot of the private companies… do not sell the appropriate equipment.”

Because she’s seen different Puerto Ricans close to her working to seek out other ways to energy their houses earlier than the following massive storm or blackout, Falcón-Dvorsky feels that there isn’t sufficient assist and proper data that will make the transition simpler for Puerto Ricans.

2018’s Ricanstruction was a particularly profitable graphic novel within the ongoing La Borinqueña universe, and Miranda-Rodriguez hopes this new ebook will do even higher. He particularly needs readers to assist a clean-energy transition within the island earlier than the following massive storm.

“[With] this comic book we can enter into conversation with media outlets, and fans and readers, and really boost the signal and hopefully… ‘si dios quiere’… the book can become a commercial success and that we continue what NRDC already started in Puerto Rico,” he stated.

Pages illustrated by Will Rosado, coloured by Chris Sotomayor, with manufacturing help by Sabrina Cintrón, edited by Eliana Falcón, and artwork directed, lettered, and written by Edgardo Miranda-Rodiguez.