ON A WARM January evening, mayoral candidate Wanda Arzuaga López makes her way through Juncos, Puerto Rico, visiting a neighborhood of 1940s-style casitas and breadfruit trees sitting behind chain-link fences. Joined by her campaign director and four turquoise-shirted volunteers, Arzuaga López, an evangelical lay chaplain, goes door to door, warmly exclaiming, “¡Dios la bendiga! ¡Buenas tardes!” offering God’s blessings to residents.
The neighborhood, nestled within the lush greenery of Puerto Rico’s southeast, is plagued by acrid fumes from a nearby waste-disposal facility. Residents, most of them over 60, peer through their windows before coming outside. Questions like “Who are you?” quickly turn into another kind of dump, as people seize the opportunity to unload about Arzuaga López’s opponent, the government in San Juan, and the abandonment they
