The Local Boss

It is the story of a young Puerto Rican government doctor who is assigned to fight schistosomiasis in a rural district and informs Puerto Ricans about the dangers posed by this common disease.

Aimed to educate the people, and especially those who lived in the most vulnerable areas, about important safety measures to be taken before, during, and after a storm. The film takes a decidedly modern, scientific approach in its discussion of hurricanes, and it goes to great lengths to dispel popular lore that many of the island’s under-educated inhabitants still relied on for weather predictions.

It presents of one of the major challenges faced by DivEdCo’s fieldworkers: how to convince the island’s rural farmers of the continued importance of traditional agricultural practices in the face of Puerto Rico’s rapid modernization and industrialization under Operation Bootstrap. The film encourages families to make good use of arable land by cultivating healthy and affordable crops.

Prize winner, Venice Festival 1956. The DivEdCo’s most important attempt to depict women’s rights in the context of modernization processes in Puerto Rico. Modesta leads a group of women in Barrio Sonadora, Guaynabo, in a strike against their husbands to demand their rights in a domestic context.

Illustrates the dilemma of a sugarcane worker who has a child out of wedlock without his wife’s knowledge.