Returning to Borikén: Ways to Put Reciprocity into Practice

October 14, 2026

Dear ASHE Community-

In a few weeks, we will return to San Juan for our 51st Annual Conference. This will be our second conference in Puerto Rico in five years, and this return is significant. We are coming back with a history of relationships and prior commitments.

When ASHE met in San Juan in 2021, then-President Darin M.L. Stewart challenged us to do more than just "show up and take up space." The 2021 statement urged attendees to make a sincere contribution and create conditions for our community to engage deeply with the significance of gathering in Puerto Rico. The Borikén Syllabus from 2021 also emphasized our responsibility toward the land, water, and community. Returning in 2026 means that these commitments should build upon what we've already established, rather than starting anew.

This sense of responsibility is especially pressing now. Puerto Rico is facing a severe water crisis due to extreme drought and longstanding infrastructure issues. In August, over 180,000 residents in San Juan and surrounding areas faced rotating water outages lasting 48 hours. While the conference hotel and convention center may be somewhat insulated from these disruptions, we must remember that our experience as visitors should not define the reality that communities across Puerto Rico are enduring.

As such, the 2026 Conference Committee Leadership Team has chosen to support two Puerto Rico organizations:

• Support water relief in Puerto Rico. The Conference Committee has committed $2,500 of its 2026 $5,000 place-based contribution to Plenitude PR, a 501c3 non-profit educational farm and teaching center that focuses part of its holistic educational services on resources on Water Security. The remaining $2,500 is reserved for an Indigenous contribution that will be communicated separately as that process is finalized. In addition to ASHE’s organizational contribution, we invite members to help reach a $5,000 collective member-giving goal for Project PR Relief. One hundred members giving $50—or 200 members giving $25—would get us there.
  
  
• Honor Indigenous/Taino Recognition and Personal Responsibility to the ASHE Indigenous Community Contribution. To honor Indigenous organizations through the ASHE Indigenous Community Contribution, we ask that ASHE members also consider providing an additional personal contribution to honor the United Confederation of Taíno People. The United Confederation of Taíno People work at the local level includes promoting cultural competence, wellness, and social, political, and economic development via education, cultural arts, and intersectional advocacy focusing on human rights, the environment, sacred sites, food security, and racial justice. 

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Beyond giving: prepare to be a responsible visitor

Financial support is one part of reciprocity. As we prepare to gather, we also ask members to:

Before traveling:

• Read the Borikén Syllabus 2.0 and current-condition updates before arrival so that the water crisis is understood through its infrastructure, governance, climate, and justice contexts.
  
  
• Check ASHE and local public-safety guidance close to departure, recognizing that water conditions may shift during drought and hurricane season. We will continue to monitor the situation and provide updates.
  
  
• Bring a reusable water bottle and follow local and hotel guidance about safe drinking water and refill stations. Purchase and store bottled water in ways that follow current public-safety recommendations.
  
  
• Plan with flexibility for the possibility that service interruptions may affect restaurants, transportation, bathrooms, meeting spaces, or local excursions even when the convention center and main conference hotel remains operational.
  
  
• Recognize that water needs are not the same for everyone. Health conditions, disabilities, caregiving responsibilities, and other factors may require some attendees to use more water for hydration, hygiene, or medical purposes. We encourage all attendees to consider where conservation is feasible for them and to reduce discretionary water use when possible.

Puerto Rico should never be reduced to crisis or scarcity. Borikén is home to communities with deep knowledge, creativity, resistance, and long traditions of collective care. Our responsibility is to arrive ready to learn from that work, support it materially where we can, and understand that accepting the hospitality of a place creates obligations to that place. Thank you for helping us put Land, Memory, and Power into practice—not only in what we study and discuss, but in how we gather and what we leave behind.