@giorodriguez : The Puerto Rican Senate files a bill to support the “creative industries.” What will this mean in the long term?
San Juan at the turn of the 20th Century
In 1918 – 20 years after Puerto Rico became an incorporated territory of the United States – four siblings banded together in San Juan to acquire 527 acres of land from Count of Santurce, whose title and authority (what then remained of it) came from the Spanish Crown. The Fonalledas slowly began converting the fields from sugar cane to a dairy business. They were wildly successful. But as they grew, so did the city of San Juan, and by the 1950s – near the beginning of a huge effort by the US government to invest in the Puerto Rican economy — the family got another idea: to build the largest mall in Latin America on their property. Plaza Las Americas – known to locals simply as “Plaza” — opened in September 1968. I was there shortly after, on vacation with my uncle Israel, who could never resist taking part in big moments in popular culture. The 1960’s were loaded with such moments. Four years earlier, he had taken me to the World’s Fair.
Today, the story of the Fonalledas is both quaint and inspiring. Both literally and metaphorically, it is a story of the evolution of Puerto Rico from a colonial economy that looked inward to a consumereconomy that looks outward, though some might argue fairly that the colonial in part remains. But I thought about the Fonalledas – and their creation, Plaza – and this week when I heard about a bill introduced in the Puerto Senate to support the “creative industries.” The bill — introduced by Senators Ramón Luis Nieves and José Nadal-Power — seeks to direct the Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company (PRIDCO) to create a plan for promoting and developing these industries – design, the arts, media, and creative services – in Puerto Rico. It’s part of a grander vision for the future of Puerto Rico that’s shared by an emerging ecosystem of leaders in government (including the senators who introduced the bill, the creative community (including innovation consultant Dana Montenegro and entrepreneur Ricardo Burgos, who gave a talk in January that inspired the bill), and the tech community (Burgos again, Ramphis Castro, Marcos Polanco, many others). The vision: the emergence of Puerto Rico as a creative hub in the Americas. It struck me: if the Count of Santurce’s property defined Puerto Rico’s place in the world in the 19th century colonial economy, and Plazaredefined Puerto Rico’s place in the 20th century consumer economy, this new Puerto Rican hub — which again centers on San Juan — might define Puerto Rico’s place in the 21st century, at a time when the creative economy throughout the world appears to be driving the creation of jobs, wealth, and other opportunities.
Some say the vision is grand. Others – predictably – say it’s grandiose. Me = I agree the idea is ambitious, but entirely possible for at least three reasons.
The Way of the World
For, and most obvious, the creative economy is a global phenomenon, and it’s smart for Puerto Rico to be looking at ways to engage the world that surrounds it. As I have written before, in a world that’s increasingly networked, no man is an island, and no island is an island. This sentiment predated the current era; the Fonalledas vision for a plaza of the “Americas” – not just Puerto Rico – was an outward-facing look. But in the current era, a focus on creative industries will help Puerto Rico to better leverage its most important national resource: its youth. Each fall, Puerto Rico sends thousands of talented students to American colleges. Many never return because there’s little work. By focusing on entrepreneurship, job creation, and urban infrastructure (a bright spot in San Juan isEl Tren Urbano, a rail system that’s helping to promote urban life and work), Puerto Rico will pave a road for many to come back. Just as important, it will help create the conditions for many to stay. For one of the tenets of the creative economy movement is that these industries create wealth and work for so many people because of their ability to generate intellectual property. And it’s a wide range of professions that are touched. According to Burgos, design includes graphical, industrial design, fashion, and interiors. Arts include music, visual arts, performing arts, and publications. Media includes app development, video games, online media, digital content, and multimedia. Services include creative education, architecture, and social media. The point = you can find many of these entrepreneurial opportunities and jobs today in Silicon Valley, New York, Boston, and Austin – places where many young Puerto Ricans are migrating today. The vision for San Juan is to become one of those cities, or the next of those cities — the next creative hub.
An emerging ecosystem
As I observed in a longer post several weeks, what makes this such an interesting time in the history of Puerto Rico is that the different players that need to work together are becoming better known to one another. And they are in fact learning to work together. News of the bill this week – the result of collaboration between citizens and government – follows two recent events: a summit for leaders on the island and the Puerto Rican diaspora (I am co-founder of <a href="http://Parranda.org" rel="nofollow">Parranda.org</a>, the sponsoring organization for that event) and the Puerto Rican Tech Summit. Both events drew deep participation from leaders in government, business, and the non-profit sector. And both events created commitments for working on collaborative projects. It will take more than a village to address Puerto Rico’s many problems not to mention its ambitions. But the villagers are now getting to know one other much better, and they are rolling up their sleeves and getting to work.
The permission to think big
And it’s the “getting to work” that is so infectious, and converting new believers to the Puerto Rican cause. Because if there’s one obstacle that has stood in the way of progress for Puerto Ricans is the permission to think big. Part of this is the humility of our people (not true of all Puerto Ricans, but true of so many). Part of it has to do with our colonial past; it’s not easy to think big when your historical/institutional memory gets you down. But part of it is our relative lack of experience in just trying to get things started. In my article about the Puerto Rico Tech Summit, I lauded the virtues of hacker culture; it teaches us to work iteratively, experimentally, without shame of failure. And in the final analysis, that’s what will give us true permission to think big … the confidence gained by trying.
