Organization: Fideicomiso de Tierras Comunitarias para la Agricultura Sostenible (FiTiCAS)

Mariolga Reyes Cruz is an ecofeminist community psychologist, agroecology promoter, and filmmaker from the islands of Puerto Rico. She holds a PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she was a Ford Fellow.

Since 2011, she has worked to amplify the efforts of local agroecologists who are growing food sovereignty in Puerto Rico. She has co-produced two series of short documentaries showcasing practices in agroecology (Agroecología en Puerto Rico and Cosecha Hoy) and an award-winning feature length documentary, Serán las dueñas de la tierra / Stewards of the land, that highlights the daily struggles of young landless farmers. After hurricane María devastated Puerto Rico in 2017, she began organizing to create FiTiCAS, (https://www.fideicomisoagricola.org/) the first agrarian Community Land Trust in the islands.

Founded in 2019, FiTiCAS protects farmland in perpetuity as a commons to secure just and equitable access to land for generations of landless farmers, transforming the food system through long-term land use agreements and governance structures centered on ecosocial sustainability. In 2023, FiTiCAS received its first land donation. The land will become the first Agroecology Commons protected by FiTiCAS. Mariolga has received the Echoing Green and the Big Bets Climate Fellowships for her work.