As a kid growing up, my grandmother would take me to Puerto Rico for a week or two during spring break or summer vacation. Flying in from New York, New Jersey, or South Florida, we stayed in Isabela with my great grandmother and my great aunt.

I have early memories of shelling pigeon peas with my great grandmother on the front patio. Swaying in the hammock under the shade of the carport, listening to the breeze through the palm fronds. Watching my second cousin spread coconut candy out on a banana leaf, and drinking the extra sweetened passionfruit juice they made fresh in the kitchen. 

My last visit with the family was in 1997, around the time that my great grandmother passed.

I didn’t come back until 2019. My first time visiting on my own. As a journalist. My first time going somewhere other than Isabela. My first time not staying with family. 

When I flew into Mayagüez, Marla and Cecilio met me at the airport. Cecilio put my bags in the trunk of their car. They took me grocery shopping. They drove me to my Airbnb. I remember the drive in smelled of overripe fruit. Mangos on the ground.

My first night at the Airbnb, I kept waking up to a sound I thought was a metal gate crashing. The next day when I heard the sound again, I looked out my second floor bedroom window to see what it was. Mangos. Falling from the trees. Crashing onto a tin roof outside.  

During the week, between taking me along to their meetings and panels, Marla and Cecilio had me over for dinner. I met their kids. And I repaid their hospitality by asking to record interview footage in their home. The chirping of the coquí, as sunset fell on the patio, overwhelmed the audio. Then the rain started, a light mist, so we moved the camera equipment inside.

When it was time for me to travel from Mayagüez to San Juan, they dropped me off at the airport. The preferred commute was by twin engine Cessna. And it confirmed a childhood memory that I’d started to think was a dream. Flying in a small plane that, in turbulence, had small dips and drops with that feeling of inertia reminiscent of a roller coaster. 

The views — thick green tropical forests, the sunset between the mountains, and the glittering water all around — were inspiring. But I didn’t dare take my camera out per all the warning signs posted everywhere. And when the guy next to me took photos, I was instantly jealous.

I recommend the flight to everyone. And next time, I will ask to take pictures.

Sept. 20 marks nine years since Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico. The storm caused the longest blackout in U.S. history. Some communities remained without power for nearly 11 months.

Puerto Rico’s official death toll eventually rose to nearly 3,000. That estimate included deaths in the months after the storm, when damaged infrastructure disrupted access to electricity, water and medical care.

In Maria’s aftermath, a high-tech recovery narrative took hold in news coverage. Headlines followed Elon Musk’s offer to rebuild Puerto Rico’s grid with Tesla solar panels and batteries. Stories imagined that new technology could move the island toward renewable energy and a more resilient future.

I traveled to Puerto Rico in 2019 curious to see that resilient future being built, but confronted by a very different reality. One where the power grid was too outdated to integrate new technology. And where the existing workforce could not upgrade and maintain it fast enough. And where incoming workforces didn’t know the language, or have the local knowledge to adequately face the challenges on the ground.

That trip helped inspire Connect Puerto Rico, which marks two years of publishing the newsletter today. 

You can read the reporting that came from that trip here: Puerto Rico’s clean-energy and grid-restoration efforts still in doubt

To mark CPR’s second anniversary, I’m looking back at how my connection to Puerto Rico shaped this work, and at what it took to build the publication. That story includes three people who deepened my understanding of the island’s energy system, three programs that gave CPR structure and support and three independent newsrooms whose work CPR learns from, shares and supports.

How her work inspired CPR

In 2019, Marla Pérez-Lugo taught environmental sociology at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez. She served on the steering committee of the National Institute for Energy and Island Sustainability, a university initiative connecting researchers across disciplines.

That April, she testified before the House Natural Resources Committee during a hearing on rebuilding and privatizing the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority. She told lawmakers that the utility’s governance lacked transparency, accountability and real stakeholder representation. Energy conferences were often held in San Juan, Miami or Washington. Many were conducted in English. Some charged between $50 and $1,500, creating another barrier for lower-income residents. 

Watch: Testimony of Dr. Marla Perez Lugo before The Natural Resources Committee on PREPA

Where that work has led

After Hurricane Maria, Marla and Cecilio Ortiz García helped build the Resilience in Sustainable Reconstruction Network. The interuniversity effort brought researchers and communities together to rethink the role of universities before and after disasters.

That work led to the Center for Community Resilience Research, Innovation and Advocacy at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Marla now co-directs the center and the university’s Gulf Scholars Program. She also serves on Barrio Eléctrico’s board.

Why it matters

Decisions about Puerto Rico’s electric grid, recovery funds and disaster planning begin before proposals reach a public hearing. Officials and institutions decide which problems to prioritize. They also decide which solutions the public will be asked to consider.

Marla’s work examines whether communities help set those priorities or are only asked to respond after the agenda has been set.

In 2019, Cecilio Ortiz García taught political science at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez. He co-founded the National Institute for Energy and Island Sustainability, a cross-disciplinary energy initiative.

Cecilio challenged the idea that Puerto Rico’s power crisis could be solved with a different fuel or operator. He described energy as a political, economic and social issue. Natural gas would still depend on large, centralized plants. A private operator could change management without changing who controlled decisions.

In 2021, as LUMA took control of the grid, Cecilio and other researchers interviewed 56 people from government, industry, labor and community groups.

Their 2024 study found broad concern that fossil fuel interests were slowing renewable energy development. Participants pointed to calls for more natural gas as one way continued fossil fuel investment was justified.

The findings reinforced Cecilio’s 2019 warning. A new operator would not necessarily change the interests shaping Puerto Rico’s energy decisions.

He now directs the Center for Community Resilience Research, Innovation and Advocacy at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. The center connects university research with communities preparing for and recovering from disasters.

Puerto Rico has changed its grid and power plant operators. Yet it remains heavily dependent on fossil fuels and large centralized projects. Authority remains divided among public agencies, private operators and a federal oversight board.

Cecilio’s work asks whether reform changes who holds power or gives established interests another way to preserve it.

How his work inspired CPR

I met Marcel Castro-Sitiriche in his role as a professor of electrical engineering and co-director of CoHemis, an engineering research center at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez.

After Hurricane Maria, his research group documented how unevenly electricity returned. The final 200,000 households to regain power waited between five months and nearly a year. Many were in remote areas.

Marcel argued that disaster planning should prioritize those households for rooftop solar and batteries — to focus on the people most affected by grid failures 

Where that work has led

Marcel now carries that principle into his role as board president of Barrio Eléctrico. Co-founders Lauren Rosenblatt and Alison Mason developed the nonprofit after Hurricane Maria for households that could not afford commercial solar.

Barrio Eléctrico installs, operates and maintains the systems. Participating households avoid equipment and maintenance costs and pay a lower electricity rate than LUMA charges.

Marcel later brought that energy-justice lens to the PR100, the federal study of paths to 100% renewable electricity in Puerto Rico. His UPRM team examined how distributed solar could improve resilience and energy justice. PR100 projected considerable growth in distributed solar and storage under every scenario it modeled.

Why it matters 

A Connect Puerto Rico analysis of LUMA data found that Puerto Rico had about 26,000 grid-connected rooftop solar systems in June 2021. By June 2025, it had nearly 168,000. That is more than six times as many systems in four years.

Source: LUMA filings with the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau for June 2021 and June 2025.

That expansion has made distributed solar a major part of Puerto Rico’s energy system. But growth alone does not tell us who can access its protection during outages. Cost, homeownership and geography still shape which households remain exposed.

Marcel’s work examines whether Puerto Rico’s solar growth is protecting the households most vulnerable to outages or primarily benefiting those who can afford their own systems.

Connect Puerto Rico is a one-person operation, but I haven’t built it alone. Scholarships made it possible for me to join the CUNY and Medill programs. Later, a Listening Post Collective grant supported CPR’s community research. 

Turning an idea into a publication 

In 2023, the idea growing out of my 2019 reporting was still broad. I wanted to connect Puerto Ricans in the states with issues on the islands and support a more sustainable, self-reliant Puerto Rico. But I hadn’t settled on what to build.

CUNY’s Entrepreneurial Journalism Creators Program helped me define CPR’s audience, purpose and first product. The broad idea became a newsletter focused on Puerto Rico’s energy system, with room for a larger community to grow around it.

Figuring out how to grow 

After CPR began publishing in September 2024, I joined Medill’s weeklong Media Innovation and Leadership Academy. It helped me consider CPR’s public-service mission and business needs as parts of the same plan.

In January 2025, CPR joined Medill’s Local News Accelerator to explore audience growth. The accelerator supported two surveys, each with 300 participants. That research became the foundation for CPR’s Information Ecosystem Assessment.

Listening before deciding what to build

In 2026, the Listening Post Collective, a civic media organization focused on community information needs, supported me in adapting its listening approach to Puerto Rico’s energy system.

The resulting Information Ecosystem Assessment found that people were piecing together information from many sources and struggling to know what was current and trustworthy. They told CPR they wanted centralized, source-backed information in searchable, visual and shareable formats, including a resource hub, short videos and visual explainers.

People have told CPR what would help. Now comes the work of building it.

CPR turns two this week. If it has helped you understand a decision, find a source or see how Puerto Rico’s energy system fits together, please help carry the work forward.

CPR is a one-person newsroom. I do the reporting, research, editing and production behind every issue. I also listen to readers about how CPR can make important information easier to find, understand and share.

Paid subscriptions and one-time gifts help protect the time and editorial independence this work requires. They also give me room to strengthen the newsletter and respond thoughtfully to what readers say they need.

CPR’s development was also shaped by independent journalists who shared their work, perspective and, at times, encouragement.

9 Millones

Camille Padilla Dalmau was one of the first people I reached out to as CPR took shape. She encouraged me to consider video and other formats alongside the newsletter.

Her publication, 9 Millones, connects Puerto Ricans around the world through reporting rooted in data and community participation. Its solutions journalism looks beyond what is going wrong to examine how people are responding. It also helps communities tell their own stories and advocate for themselves.

Centro de Periodismo Investigativo

I met Carla Minet, CPI’s executive director and editor-in-chief, in 2024. She had come to Chicago to connect with journalists serving the Puerto Rican diaspora.

I was already planning for CPR to serve people in Puerto Rico and the United States. Seeing an established Puerto Rican newsroom working to reach those same off-island readers validated the need.

Since then, I have stayed in touch with Carla and gotten to know CPI English editor Noel Algarín. CPR regularly shares CPI’s investigations and its legal work to secure public records. That work helps readers follow public money, contracts and the institutions shaping Puerto Rico.

The Latino Newsletter

Long before CPR, Julio Ricardo Varela’s Latino Rebels stood out for its independent model, voice and clear understanding of whom it served.

When Julio brought The Latino Newsletter to beehiiv, I reached out immediately. He has since republished CPR’s work, recommended it to others and backed fellowship applications that could help CPR do more ambitious reporting — including the Pulitzer Center’s Digital Storytelling Accelerator — where I'm now working on my first short form videos.

CPR is stronger because this journalism exists. I hope you’ll read it, share it and support it, too.

Hi, I’m Jillian. 👋🏼

I’m a second generation NuYorican and a first generation college graduate. I grew up in New Jersey for a short time, and South Florida for a long time. Now, I’m based in Chicago serving two tuxedo cats named Panda and Sarah.

I’m a journalist, editor, and the founder of Connect Puerto Rico.

Our mission: to inform policy, drive investment, and remove the barriers to renewable energy development in Puerto Rico.

Because reliable power is a life or death issue. And the systems that provide that power need to be transparent, equitable, and accountable to the communities they serve.

Learn more about Connect Puerto Rico on our website.