former director of Puerto Rico’s office of the National Weather Service a rural region of 30,000 people in central Puerto Rico Barranca roughly translates to ravine or gully and the steep slopes here meant the area was especially hard-hit by Hurricane Maria Countless landslides blocked roads for weeks Streets weren’t completely cleared of mud and debris until long after green returned to the lush valleys Related: Puerto Rico’s eroding beaches spell trouble for coastal dwellers “This area was full of mud and trees,” Barranquitas resident Israel Matos told The World as he pointed to a busy intersection at the bottom of a hill a few miles from his house “It was above that,” he said pointing to a tall tree Impassable roads here and across Puerto Rico exacerbated other problems FEMA didn’t reach Barranquitas with the first emergency water supplies until two weeks after the storm and utility crews couldn’t get here either ‘We cannot get to Barranquitas because the roads are blocked The big trucks cannot get through,’” Matos said Related: Some of the last Puerto Ricans without power got it today. Now, work to build a stronger grid must begin. Matos didn’t get power back until February and that’s only because he and nearly 20 neighbors hired a private crew to restring roughly two miles of power lines and prop up utility poles They live on hills overlooking the surrounding valleys and water has to be pumped up to their homes from the water treatment facility that’s downhill and miles away Matos has a 6,000-gallon underground cistern in his front yard to guard against frequent water outages it was so low that I decided to carry water from an aqueduct,” Matos said The fact that Israel Matos’ personal preparations weren’t enough for this storm is a testament to the enormous infrastructure damage it caused As former head of the National Weather Service’s Puerto Rico office Matos was likely one of the island’s most prepared citizens ahead of Hurricane Maria His job used to be to stand behind a podium before big storms and urge the public to prepare “From my point of view as [a] meteorologist I knew that a storm with that intensity will [wreak] havoc on the island,” Matos said But what I didn’t expect was that the response was so late Migdalia Rosado Sánchez has pictures of her old house with just a single wall standing after Maria Her tin roof was blown off the house and the metal sheets slid underneath her nearby car “It was like they placed a bomb inside … I lost everything that I had,” Sánchez said Sánchez stayed with her daughter’s family while they ate canned food and hauled water from the river to bathe “There wasn’t any way to cook because there wasn’t power We had to set up a little stove to prepare food.” the valleys of Barranquitas are still dotted with blue tarp roofs The scars of landslides are visible in patches of raw and day-to-day life has returned largely to normal the town is in some ways no better equipped to handle a big storm than it was a year ago The power grid is still a fragile patchwork of temporary fixes like the ones Matos and his neighbors arranged. The Puerto Rican power authority itself admits the island’s electricity infrastructure is weak and has no timeframe laid out for work to strengthen the grid against future storms Most of the stations that pump water up the mountains of Barranquitas don’t have generators so does the water for at least a third of the town’s 30,000 residents There are more generators on the island now about 600 from FEMA compared to 80 prior to the storm but they’re concentrated at hospitals and near other key infrastructure The Puerto Rican Aqueducts and Sewer Authority says only about half of the more than 2,000 facilities that require electricity including sewage and water treatment plants and pump stations There are no plans to locate generators at all their facilities Rural roads also remain a vulnerability in Barranquitas and across Puerto Rico, where it is estimated Maria’s downpours caused more than 40,000 landslides that destroyed infrastructure and local ecosystems interim head of the local emergency management office in Barranquitas said work crews have cleared debris from roughly a dozen streams and rivers to improve drainage and combat future landslides “That’s the nature of our town,” Díaz Rivera said we’re surrounded by mountains and cliffs — which The municipality got two new earth-movers since Maria Díaz Rivera says they should help the town clear roads more quickly after future storms But she says the town really needs two more excavators to adequately respond to blocked roads FEMA’s Mike Byrne says access to rural towns may be the island’s biggest vulnerability a year after Maria “That is probably our biggest risk,” said Byrne who is coordinating the federal government’s disaster response in Puerto Rico One of FEMA’s responses to that issue has been distributing more emergency stockpiles closer to where people need them I have probably 17 times the amount of water four or five times the amount of food,” he said Barranquitas now has FEMA food and water stockpiled in the basketball stadium in the center of town Immediate changes like these are welcome to Israel Matos But he hopes with most of the short-term recovery work done the conversation in Puerto Rico around resilience can turn to the long-term and preparing for the new reality of rising seas and stronger storms And the administration needs to focus on that and plan for that,” Matos said Meanwhile, many Puerto Ricans have lost faith in their government’s ability to respond to disasters and are taking preparedness into their own hands, installing solar panels for power and stock-piling food and water in their own homes When The World visited Matos’ neighbor Migdalia Rosado Sánchez last month her new home was almost ready for her to move in delivered to your inbox every weekday morning Thanks to our sponsor PRX is a 501(c)(3) organization recognized by the IRS: #263347402. 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Primary Education Municipal System You'll now receive updates based on what you follow Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors If you have done all of this and still can't find the email Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico with winds of 155 miles an hour leaving the United States commonwealth on the brink of a humanitarian crisis The storm left 80 percent of crop value destroyed 60 percent of the island without water and almost the entire island without power as seen in the nighttime satellite images below National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration | Note: Some areas of western central Puerto Rico were partially obscured by clouds on Sept suffered severe flooding as a storm surge from nearby San Juan Bay dumped water into coastal communities Eighty percent of the homes in the Juana Matos neighborhood were destroyed DigitalGlobe via Google Earth; Ricardo Arduengo/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Though Hurricane Maria had dropped from a Category 5 to a Category 4 storm by the time it reached Puerto Rico it was more than powerful enough to rip apart roads and strip trees as it cut a path across the island The Guajataca dam in northwestern Puerto Rico sustained structural damage resulting in flash flood warnings for the nearby municipalities of Isabela and Quebradillas The governor said that nearly 70,000 people could be affected if the dam were to collapse DigitalGlobe via Google Earth; Alvin Baez/Reuters The mountain municipality of Barranquitas in the central region of Puerto Rico has been rendered nearly inaccessible after landslides effectively sealed the area off from conventional means of travel More than 2,000 people were rescued from Toa Baja, one of the hardest hit towns, as the storm surge swept residents away and neighborhoods went underwater said at least eight people drowned because of the flooding DigitalGlobe via Google Earth; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Puerto Rico (Reuters) - While his competitors wait for diesel to restart generators knocked out by Hurricane Maria flower grower Hector Santiago is already back in business because of solar panels powering his 40-acre (16.2-hectare) nursery in central Puerto Rico its electricity grid shredded by the storm that slammed into the island on Sept 20 But Santiago's decorative plant and poinsettia nursery set amid the jagged peaks of the Barranquitas farming area has kept working thanks to the $300,000 he invested in 244 solar panels six years ago "Everybody told me I was crazy because it was so expensive Now I have power and they don't," said Santiago While Santiago's nursery was considerably damaged during the storm many plants were destroyed and the roofs of some greenhouses blew off with electricity to keep pumping water from his two wells President Donald Trump surveyed damage elsewhere on Puerto Rico some of the nursery's 19 employees were busy repotting damaged plants and cleaning up Santiago's experience has left him hoping that Puerto Rico will begin relying more on solar power and other renewable energy as it looks to fix its damaged grid That view has gained traction among some Puerto Rican politicians though it is probably unlikely in the short run given the need to restore power as quickly as possible The experience of people like Santiago could drive more individuals and businesses to invest in solar power who runs a solar installation firm in the city of Bayamon thinks the storm could drive up his business 20 percent a year He said he has been inundated with enquiries since the hurricane hit "People are going to become more conscious of how they are living Santiago's business requires a high amount of energy he lights his greenhouses with a total of 2,520 electric bulbs from 10 pm to 2 am to stimulate plant growth Santiago sold excess electricity generated by his six by three foot wide panels back to Puerto Rico's now-defunct grid 25 percent of the panels were damaged by flying debris and the nursery did not "have to worry about trees falling on the power lines." This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page For 21 years Hector Alejandro Santiago spread joy throughout Puerto Rico with the poinsettias orchids and other ornamental plants he raised and sold to major retailers including Costco In a matter of hours Hurricane Maria wiped it away The greenhouses and other buildings on the 40 acres where he grew the plants and prepared them for customers lie in tatters ripped to shreds by 155 mph (244 kph) winds and driving rain "I will need to begin from zero," said Santiago whose Cali Nurseries is located in Barranquitas a small mountain city 34 miles (55 kilometers) southwest of San Juan He's determined to rebuild and get back into business despite the losses he estimates at $1.5 million Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico on Sept the strongest to hit the island in a century At least 16 people died and nearly all 3.4 million people on the island were left without power and most without water a small bright spot of economic growth in a U.S territory mired in a decade-long recession and crushing debt While most of the island's food is imported statistics from the governor as of late 2016 show about 7,000 people working in agriculture farm income growing and acres under cultivation up 50 percent over the past four years Agricultural income is divided nearly equally between crop and livestock production according to the most recent Census of Agriculture compiled by the U.S Department of Agriculture for Puerto Rico in 2012 Crop sales generate about $271 million a year led by production of plantains Livestock sales are about $276 million led by milk production operates 10 dairy farms with his father and brother Before the storm they were milking 12,000 cows producing 22,000 gallons (85,000 liters) of milk a day Maria destroyed 90 percent of the barns and as many as 700 cows are missing or dead Lopez spent days after the storm focusing on finding enough diesel fuel to keep generators running so the cows could be milked and the milk could be kept cool Failure to milk the cows could lead to an infection that could kill them and the milk can spoil within days without refrigeration Lopez said he has managed to get back into operation "A lot of people will never be able to get back to business," he said "The ones that will be able to get back into business will never be as they were." a professor of agricultural economics at Penn State University spent three months in Puerto Rico in 2014 and said the hurricane has destroyed the high value crops that farmers produce The losses are different from crops in the Midwest where a tornado could take out a field of corn It's a major loss but the farmer can replant the next year take several years to mature enough to produce beans again "It's a very large investment and it's just a different kind of situation," Harper said The coffee industry was hit at the worst time who with her husband Kurt operates Hacienda Pomarrosa in Ponce a city on the island's southern coast where they have 8 acres of coffee plants The couple operates a small specialty coffee growing operation and a cottage where guests can stay on the coffee farm It is part of the island's growing agri-tourism industry She said the storm cut right through the island's mountainous coffee-growing area The specialty beans their farm produces grow on bushes that are planted beneath taller trees to protect them from direct sun "We've lost many trees which fell on the bushes and broke them," Legner said "My husband tells me we lost a complete harvest." said he was unable to get to his farm for five days after Maria When he arrived he found his employees had been working since the first day when I saw them working like nothing had happened," Santiago said "They give me the strength to not give up and to do whatever I have to do to continue with my business." Portraits of pride on the "island of enchantment" by Alex Q. Arbuckle(opens in a new tab) A worker on a pineapple plantation near Manati From its first inhabitation by Taíno natives to its centuries of rule under Spain and later the United States Puerto Rico has developed a culture and character unique among the islands of the Caribbean photographers from the Farm Security Administration visited the island to document the working conditions of plantation laborers cultivating sugarcane as well as daily life both in the capital of San Juan and in remote mountain villages Photographer Jack Delano became so enamored with the people and way of life that he made Puerto Rico his permanent home A tobacco farm in the Puerto Rico Rehabilitation Administration agricultural experiment area near Cayey Farmers cultivate tobacco near Barranquitas The family of an FSA borrower near Barranquitas Members of a glee club sing during a party for FSA borrowers in Corozal Farmers' wives who live in the hills near Corozal A worker on a sugar plantation pauses for a lunch of rice Striking sugar workers at a meeting in Yabucoa The mayor of Yabucoa addresses a crowd of striking workers in the town plaza Laborers on a sugar plantation near Arecibo Laborers harvest sugarcane from a burned field near Guanica An ox cart driver in a burned sugar cane field near Guanica A worker on a sugar plantation takes a drink of water A worker unloads sugarcane at a depot in San Sebastian A woman working in a tobacco field near Barranquitas Jíbaros (traditional farmers of the mountainous interior of the island) plant tobacco in a hillside A woman who lives on land in Santurce that the FSA is buying for a land and utility housing project Alex Q. Arbuckle Kindertransport: A desperate effort to save children from the Holocaust The old-school lumberjacks who felled giant trees with axes Antique mourning jewelry contained the hair of the deceased Rosie the Riveter IRL: Meet the women who built WWII planes The streets of 1970s New York City: A decade of urban decay grief at the scene of John Lennon's murder This WWII women's dorm was the hippest spot in town Rarely seen images from the Walt Disney Archives black gold: When oil derricks loomed over California beaches Chicago in ruins: The unimaginable aftermath of the Great Fire of 1871 attends a Christmas dinner in Venezuela with an associate and two Huntington's patients Huntington’s disease affects an average of 1 in 10,000 people worldwide its prevalence skyrockets to nearly 1 in 10 Reasons identified for this include geographic isolation attends a Christmas dinner in Venezuela with an associate and two Huntington’s patients The nonprofit organization Factor-H aims to help lift impoverished Huntington’s disease patients and their families in Colombia and Venezuela through improved medical care Researcher Ignacio Muñoz-Sanjuan started Factor-H along with Claudia Perandones Argentine physician with a specialty in molecular biology They formally registered their organization two years ago in Los Angeles He’s now president of the organization each child of carrier parents has a 50% chance of developing the disorder In isolated areas where intermarriage between cousins or other relatives occurs the prevalence of Huntington’s increases exponentially Muñoz-Sanjuan has seen up to 1,300 cases of the disease within five generations The neuroscientist and Huntington’s expert, 48, received his doctorate in molecular biology at Johns Hopkins University and post-doctorate at New York’s Rockefeller University. He then took a job at Merck in the U.K., which led to his research position with the CHDI Foundation He told Huntington’s Disease News in a phone interview that a 2008 trip to Mexico and a visit to Brazil two years later changed his entire perspective The trips were to set up a clinical network in Latin America on behalf of CHDI the nonprofit where he’s now vice-president of translational biology His objective was to establish standards of care for neurology centers so they could participate in future clinical studies During these visits, the native of Spain learned the magnitude of the problem and the condition of villages ravaged by the disease. In 2012, he toured Zulia state as well as Colombia’s departments of Atlantico and Magdalena on the Caribbean coast The stigma behind the disease was instantly evident to Muñoz-Sanjuan; few families offered any help to Huntington’s patients who were often locked away in their rooms and left to die ”I decided at the time I couldn’t just go back home and pretend to care about treating patients and ignore all of this,” Muñoz-Sanjuan said He unofficially launched the organization in Mendoza it was known simply as “The Project.” Muñoz-Sanjuan and Perandones were on their own for a couple of years as they assisted local patient organizations Eight years later, Factor-H still relies heavily on volunteer work. No board members or U.S. employees, except its executive director, Bianca Moura It has four full-time employees in Colombia and eight in Venezuela and also covers the salaries of several local partners Supporting patients with Huntington’s and at-risk children while also helping to build their communities Funding operations across all three Andean countries primarily rely on U.S Funding is a mounting challenge for the small organization adding that he partners with 15 local organizations to help reduce overhead Working closely with Huntington’s patients has changed the worldview of Muñoz-Sanjuan a researcher more at home with Petri dishes and pipettes A Factor-H physician sees families with Huntington’s in Maracaibo “The ability to interact directly with Huntington’s families living in poverty changed my life on a personal level,” he said “It puts a lot of things in perspective.” Factor-H is exploring microfinance in disadvantaged communities, recently lending $3,000 to a family in Sabanas de San Ángel It’s also finding partners in Colombia and Venezuela to help establish a larger program The hope is that Huntington’s families will eventually pay the loans back and become financially independent Project Abrazos which translates to “hugs,” focuses on delivering basic necessities such as food many of whom have aged out of the program themselves take 101 Colombian and 37 Venezuelan children on field trips and recreational activities twice a year As fathers in these South American countries tend to leave mothers with Huntington’s it often falls on the children to become caretakers All have a 50% chance of developing the disease and fear what their future might hold The project creates more of “an environment where they have an appropriate childhood,” he said explaining that his goal is to bring up a “new generation of people with social networks to support each other.” In 2017, Factor-H sent children and families to the Vatican to meet Pope Francis and shed light on the disease. That program turned into the documentary “Dancing at the Vatican.” It also funds Art 4 HD photographers and muralists — “bring into the open those who until now have been invisible.”  Muños-Sanjuan recently commissioned the Venezuelan photographer Vladimir Marcano to capture the lives of Huntington’s patients in Barranquitas and San Luís A street artist, DjLu Juega Siempre painted six murals in towns along the Caribbean coast and was set to do more before the COVID-19 pandemic struck This site is strictly a news and information website about the disease This content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience We're always trying to bring you more amazing hotels But not every hotel can immediately connect their reservation system with ours we provide real-time rates and availability via a partnership with Booking.com You'll still enjoy the full fabulous MICHELIN Guide experience when you book including our legendary service and delightful style Our 20-point scale is based on post-stay ratings from verified MICHELIN Guide guests and plays a role in helping us decide whether or not a hotel should remain in our selection This hotel offers rates & availability on request only Submit a request below and a travel specialist will assist We’re not currently taking reservations for this hotel Please explore other hotels in our selection Non-members can add the privileges at checkout through our 30 day free trial By continuing I accept the Terms & Condition and Privacy Policy. I would like to receive Newsletter from MICHELIN Guide Save lists of your favorite restaurants & hotels PATERSON — In the mountains of central Puerto Rico a vocational high school with about 580 students is still waiting to regain electricity lost to the devastation caused last September by Hurricane Maria classrooms get their light from the sunshine that comes through damaged windows teachers use battery-powered lamps to brighten their rooms the principal of Paterson’s Newcomers program has seen the destruction at the Puerto Rican school firsthand and he has gone back twice to help his father in the aftermath of the hurricane Ortiz is working with a group of local education officials and city community leaders who recently launched a fundraising initiative called “Paterson Partners with Puerto Rico” in an effort to help the vocational school recover from the storm “That was my high school. That’s where I graduated,” said Ortiz it was like it was squeezing my heart.” PHOTOS: Montclair raises spirits, funds for Puerto Rico WILLIAM PATERSON: Students visit Vieques, forge radio partnership FORT LEE: Kids find pen pals in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria computers and other educational supplies were destroyed and need to be replaced The roofs on the gym and multipurpose center must be rebuilt The water pressure is so weak that custodians flush the toilets by using buckets of water brought from elsewhere The school is named after Pablo Colon Berdecia the Paterson Partners group raised $9,200 worth of $1 donations as part of a “tag day” dress-down event for students and staff the group will hold another fundraiser: a $50-per-ticket gathering at St Members of the Paterson group plan to travel to Puerto Rico in April during spring break to deliver the supplies in person One businessman has already agreed to supply two large cargo containers and cover the transportation costs to ship the items from New York Harbor to the Port of San Juan said Paterson school board member Manny Martinez The Paterson contingent will fly to Puerto Rico to get the supplies from the cargo ship and transport them about 90 minutes south of San Juan to Barranquitas The five-day trip will serve a dual purpose said Paterson Deputy Schools Superintendent Susana Peron School district staff members will also spend three days recruiting bilingual teachers to try to fill vacancies in Paterson The recruitment of teachers from Puerto Rico is something district staff began talking about even before the hurricane hit the island a district administrator who also serves as a Passaic County freeholder The disaster relief effort presented an opportunity for the district to conduct its recruiting more directly The Paterson school district has a track record of difficulty in filling its bilingual teaching jobs the district last year went so far as to send a few employees to Newark Liberty International Airport to set up a teacher recruitment table at the terminal where flights from Puerto Rico were arriving “It’s not just a matter of adopting a school in Puerto Rico,” Best said “It’s about building a relationship with the island We want to create a pipeline of educators.” Anyone interested in buying tickets or making donations to the “Paterson Partners with Puerto Rico” event may contact Taina Pou at 973-262-0269 Zaida Lopez must set aside a few hours to take care of her son applies lotion and baby powder to his skin “He’s like my eternal baby,” she said But Javier is not a baby — he is 18 years old and suffers from a severe case of Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome a condition which has left him unable to eat nestled within the central region of the island Barranquitas took a direct hit from Hurricane Maria — the town of about 30,000 people was directly in the path of the storm on Sept More: Hurricane Maria reminds some of ‘second-class’ status More: Here's how big Hurricane Irma is compared to Michigan the Lopez family waited out the storm at the Barranquitas hospital as a precautionary measure the storm raged around them — knocking out power lines razing trees and forcing homes off their foundations The torrential rains flooded the area and triggered mudslides throughout the mountains stripping away the island’s green vegetation and exposing red Road conditions were so treacherous that the family couldn’t leave the hospital until a week after the storm ended; when they finally emerged to witness the devastation that Maria left behind Puerto Rico could face more than a decade of further economic stagnation and a steep drop in population as a result of Hurricane Maria Lack of power remains the biggest obstacle with the island's electric company struggling to maintain the 50% power generation it reached last week Projections are for 80% generation by end of November and 95% by mid-December goals that many have called ambitious.  Some estimates put hurricane damage at $115 billion even without counting business losses. So far Congress has approved nearly $5 billion in aid for Puerto Rico the Lopez family lost electricity and running water — potentially dangerous circumstances for someone with a condition like Javier Javier was diagnosed when he was 3 years old after his parents realized he had failed to meet developmental benchmarks His condition worsened so much that he could barely breathe and doctors estimated he had two years to live the family prepared for the worst — but Javier eventually got better and stabilized I’ll do it for as long as you want me to, ’” she recounted he puts up a struggle and is surprisingly strong he wouldn’t have survived this long,” Zaida said “He doesn’t want to leave this world.” a trio of nurses takes turns assisting Zaida during the week But on an October morning three weeks after the storm hit Because communications services in Puerto Rico were knocked out by the storm Zaida couldn’t reach her — so she handled his care by herself in a routine that has been made much more complicated since Maria Javier’s lungs are atrophied so he must be connected to a tracheal tube to allow him to breathe comfortably and can only go one hour without it; he must also be connected to feeding tubes And those machines require power to operate The family follows a strict schedule and alternates between using an old generator to power their home and connecting his machinery to car batteries with the use of an inverter particularly for a family that no longer has an income who had had a career as a nurse before Javier was born left her job many years ago so she could take care of him full-time He had been a chef at the nearby popular La Vecindad Del Chavo Bar & Grill but the restaurant was damaged in the storm leaving Luis unemployed. Though aid is arriving in Puerto Rico now finding necessities can still be a challenge The family lives in a hilly area surrounded by trees where the roads are paved and have been cleared since the storm but there is no running water.  They can cook using their stove while their generator is on.  They’ve been relying on donations for diapers and water for him They immediately contacted the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) after the storm and while the agency gave them a priority number the family said it hasn’t heard from FEMA since.  “It’s fine if I don’t eat,” Zaida said special cases are referred to the appropriate local agency for follow-up more than 9,000 residents of Barranquitas have registered for FEMA’s Individual and Household Assistance Program FEMA has also provided more than 570 tarps more than 34,000 meals and more than 91,000 liters of bottled water invited the family to live with him until life in Puerto Rico returns to normal they are seriously considering the move Neither they nor Anjelica speak any English and none of them has ever traveled to the U.S “I don’t know anything about life over there,” Anjelica said He is worried that he will uproot his entire family and still be unable to find work in Florida Zaida is reluctant to be far from her family and friends who comprise her support network in Barranquitas which she describes as a “place where your neighbors know you.” They would also need to find a hospital in Florida that can accept Javier and arrange a medical transport flight The family will wait a little while longer hoping and praying that the electricity and water will return soon “There are people in Puerto Rico who lost their homes,” Zaida said Other people are without anything.”  Following the aftermath of Hurricane Maria freelance journalists Bianca Fortis and Elaine Cromie traveled to the island to pursue independent stories and visit their families Cromie is a freelance photojournalist in Detroit whose work has frequently been published in the Free Press The Associated Press contributed to this report This post originally appeared on Grist More than a year has passed since Hurricane Maria pummeled Puerto Rico but Bethlyn Avilez and her family are still grappling with the irrevocable upheaval Avilez lives in the central Puerto Rican municipality of Ciales with her husband and her two young boys After the storm’s 155 mph winds and intense rainfall had torn through the island causing a nearby bridge to collapse and a nearby river to rise When the swollen river completely submerged their home Xarquier intently watched the drastic devastation unfold from his neighbor’s window everything,” Avilez told Grist in her native Spanish When the family finally trekked to its home two days after the storm had passed Xarquier grasped the full scope of the wreckage “He told me all he felt was sadness — that he’d lost everything that things weren’t the same,” Avilez added That sentiment hangs over the Avilez family today Avilez estimates it took three to four months for Xarquier to return to school — and finding supplies and clothes was a struggle since many stores were either closed or inaccessible The family is still living in Avilez’s parents house while its works on finding a new home to start from scratch Now, preliminary findings from a study out this week reveal that increased economic hardship following Maria coupled with inadequate access to health and education is further affecting the wellbeing and development of young people The study involved interviews with more than 700 Puerto Rican households with children under 18 years of age between July and September of 2018 Researchers used a three-pronged approach: looking at the extent to which economics and education had levied deep-seeded impacts on children about a third of households surveyed had reduced incomes due to loss of employment and reduced work hours Low-income families suffered disproportionately by this erosion of income The study reveals that 44 percent of minors exhibited new behaviors after the hurricane — with 23 percent of that group experiencing anxiety Children under 5 years old went an average of 92 days without attending preschool while children between 5 and 17 years old are estimated to have spent an average of 78 days away from school 3 out of 10 children with disabilities that require medication for treatment had difficulty obtaining it after the hurricane “This study shows that families with children, who were facing significant challenges before the hurricane, are facing even more bleak conditions today,” said Anitza Cox director of analysis and social policy at Estudios Técnicos the firm that helped administer the survey “This type of economic insecurity is what has led to families leaving in droves over the last decade and what will continue to drive it if comprehensive policies are not put into place immediately.” Indeed, more than 30 percent of households surveyed indicated that they are very likely or likely to move due to Hurricane Maria. In Florida alone, 200,000 Puerto Ricans arrived within the first two months after the storm made landfall Avilez considered being part of the subsequent mass migration but ultimately felt that she needed to face this newfound reality head-on Reproduction of material from any Salon pages without written permission is strictly prohibited Patent and Trademark Office as a trademark of Salon.com Associated Press articles: Copyright © 2016 The Associated Press Cover Page Legal HistorySports SearchInter-American University to open meat & poultry workforce training centerThe San Juan Daily StarOct 1 20242 min readThe Barranquitas and Guayama campuses of Inter-American University of Puerto Rico are spearheading an initiative to establish a Meat and Poultry Processing Workforce Training Center.By The Star Staff With Puerto Rico producing less than 15% of the food it consumes the Barranquitas and Guayama campuses of Inter-American University of Puerto Rico are spearheading an initiative to establish a Meat and Poultry Processing Workforce Training Center Funded by a $950,000 Hispanic-Serving Institutions Education Grant in 2023 from the U.S Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) the four-year project aims to revitalize Puerto Rico’s agriculture sector by developing a skilled workforce in meat and poultry production and processing Yesenia Rivera Rivera said the project offers more than training is a business option for those interested in entering the meat industry in Puerto Rico with the skills and knowledge that make them competitive,” she said it guarantees Puerto Ricans fresh food from farm to table The project recognizes the vital role agriculture can play in ensuring food security generating employment and driving economic growth By focusing on meat and poultry production the initiative seeks to strengthen the supply chain for those essential animal-based proteins which are the main source of protein for Puerto Rico’s population and 21% of chicken consumed on the island are produced locally The new training center aims to boost those numbers reducing dependence on imports and enhancing food security The training center will be the first of its kind in Puerto Rico offering them specialized academic programs designed to meet industry standards Each campus will be equipped with state-of-the-art laboratories providing students with hands-on experience in meat and poultry processing at the industrial level The practical training will be complemented by online education ensuring that the programs are accessible to a wide range of students The initiative also includes partnerships with industry experts and the Small Business Technology Development Center to ensure that the curriculum is relevant and up-to-date A symposium on meat and poultry processing will be held as part of the project industry and farmers to share knowledge and best practices By investing in the education and training of a new generation of meat and poultry professionals the initiative will not only strengthen Puerto Rico’s agricultural sector but also will provide a pathway to economic growth and sustainability © 2025 The San Juan Daily Star - Puerto Rico Jose Morales Menendez had some great times fishing along the beautiful southeast coast of Puerto Rico watching the lights of giant freight ships pass by his little boat the 75-year-old depends on others for many day-to-day things life was okay before Hurricane Maria made landfall six months ago “Life after Maria has been really sad,” he says, sitting in the front room of his small house yards from the beach in the Playa el Negro section of Yabucoa, Puerto Rico. The house, which he shares with his wife Irma, was flooded during the storm after it made landfall very near their neighborhood with sustained winds of 155 mph “The little bit that we had was taken back.” Yabucoa, a town of about 35,000 on the southeastern corner of Puerto Rico, was devastated by Hurricane Maria. The winds destroyed concrete homes that had withstood prior hurricanes, according to USA Today leaving it the hardest hit city on an island wracked with devastation Officials estimate that roughly 1,500 homes were destroyed along with 95 percent of all municipal infrastructure With the six-month anniversary of the storm on Tuesday The town is providing water to its citizens by using 25 generators to power pumps and significant damage can be seen throughout town The mayor is working out of a small temporary office in the center of town explained that the sheer volume of devastation has made recovery painfully slow She shared a spreadsheet tracking what the dozens of electrical crews from places like New Jersey including the neighborhoods where they’re working She credited the mayor for pushing to get as much work done in the town as has been done and says the state government has largely ignored the city or places in Texas and Florida after Harvey and Irma Rivera slammed Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rosselló for neglecting her community “The governors of those states went first to the worst areas,” she says “Yabucoa was a town that received a direct hit from Maria and to this day the governor has not stepped foot in Yabucoa.” (A spokesperson for the governor did not respond to a request for comment.) the administrator for the municipal cemetery says Yabucoa is “still in crisis,” and not getting the help it needs died of a heart attack after Maria because she didn’t have regular access to medical care and couldn’t properly store her diabetes medication without refrigeration Rivera says that there have been 150 deaths registered with the cemetery in the six months since Maria passed through Rivera says she recorded 40 more deaths than she did over the same period of time in 2017 Rivera can’t definitively say if the increased rate of death is linked to Maria Official accountings of Maria-related deaths have been widely questioned. The island’s government recently partnered with George Washington University to conduct a new count The two city workers tell me about one of their coworkers who went missing after the storm worked in the city’s property records office Cortéz couldn’t get consistent treatment from a doctor or access to her psychiatric medications Her neighbors say they saw her leave her house on January 31st “When you are a mental health patient these things can get the best of you.” Luis Saul Sustache mans the bar at a roadside chinchorro called La Rumba With a round face that makes him look much younger than his 34 years Saul points to the new-ish looking wood that makes up roughly half the patio and explains that the bar was nearly destroyed during Maria but was repaired quickly and reopened 10 days after the winds died down Most of the business the bar sees is from the scores of contractors from the mainland working in the area “Sometimes it feels like it’s easier to just close down the business,” he says before walking away to pack five bottles of cold water into a plastic bag for another customer at a long-term stay hotel called Lucia Beach Villas Ana Celia Lazú reports that the property suffered some damage in the storm but that the owners have been able to finance repairs with revenue from stateside contractors who are staying as guests Some smaller out buildings around the property suffered heavy damage and was vacated by its owner days after the storm Right in front of the hotel stood a beachfront chinchorro that was completely destroyed Jose Morales Menendez’s house sits about a mile or two down from Lucia Beach FEMA gave him and his wife Irma $8,000 to help with repairs worried that the waves will again rise up and pull her out to sea or that an earthquake will shake the home and end it all his family and neighbors have provided help “I thank my lord for the beings who have come to help,” he says While Alberto never reached hurricane strength, its early arrival is unsettling, especially to people still recovering from last year’s overactive and devastating hurricane season. Forecasters are placing their bets on a normal to above-normal number of named storms and major hurricanes but those predictions can change significantly as the season progresses “The grid is there, but the grid isn’t there. It’s teetering,” Hector Pesquera, Puerto Rico’s commissioner of public safety, told the Associated Press it is in such a state that I think we’re going to lose power While the people of Puerto Rico suffered the most from last year’s hurricane season citizens elsewhere are also still getting their lives back to normal Cleaning up from Hurricanes Irma and Maria is going slower than expected in the U.S business and households still suffering the damages from last year’s hurricane season it’s safe to say that many of these people are hoping that forecasters are wrong and that this storm season will be more forgiving than last Efforts to treat Huntington’s disease involve costly drugs way beyond the reach of the poor communities in South America who take part in research studies As the small motorboat chugs to a halt, three travellers, wind-beaten from the three-hour journey along the Atrato river, step on to the muddy banks of Bellavista, an otherwise inaccessible town in the heart of the heavily forested north-west of Colombia They swing their hessian bags – stuffed with bedsheets dried beans and cuddly toys – to their shoulders and clamber up a dusty path Tucked inside the bag of one of the travellers is the reason they are here: a wad of unfinished The people whose names are circled on the charts have Huntington’s disease an incurable genetic brain disorder that usually starts between the ages of 35 and 45 years It begins with personality changes that can make them aggressive robbing them first of the control of their body which jerks and twists seemingly of its own will about 20 years after the symptoms first begin each of whom has a 50% chance of inheriting the disease watch and wait to see if it will happen to them It is in this way that the disease strangles families With Moreno is Ignacio Muñoz-Sanjuan, vice president of translational biology at CHDI Foundation a US nonprofit research organisation that aims to find ways to prevent or slow down the progression of the disease The foundation spent $140m–$150m (£97m-£104m) on research last year but Muñoz-Sanjuan is not here on official business an initiative he founded four years ago to help with the other end of the problem – poor families with Huntington’s struggling in Latin America With money from fundraisers and occasional small donations – a thousand dollars here and there from companies that want to remain nameless – he helps people such as Janeth Mosquera who runs a one-woman patients’ association to aid sufferers This mainly takes the form of advice and support but also of gifts: food and bedsheets for the adults (incontinence is an issue in the later stages of the disease) Muñoz-Sanjuan also connects with people like Moreno also here volunteering outside her full-time job at the University of Antioquia in Medellin Such is the stigma associated with the disease that some live their lives locked up and out of sight“You’re the only ones to have come,” says a fraught-looking woman as they arrive at their guest house Several of her cousins have Huntington’s disease and she helped to arrange the trip “It’s a forgotten place.” The three dump their bags a 40-year-old man in a dark breeze-block shack which he was led to tenderly but with some difficulty by his elderly mother who cared for his father before him his face contorts with pain and his eyes dart around the room uncontrollably; his body writhes and his limbs fling themselves about These involuntary body movements gave the disease one of its early names People with the disease look more like they’re being controlled by a malicious and untiring puppeteer the grinding of his teeth and the constant squeaking of his chair fill the room as his family There’s a drug called tetrabenazine that might help to control his movements but at $400 a month it’s way beyond their means She can help them write to their local health system but applications are often not successful She might be able to help with a special mattress to ease his bedsores is standing quietly by the door doing her best to stay still She will share Diego’s and her father’s fate as might her young children who are tugging at her shorts The story is depressingly similar at each house we visit plastic chairs are unfolded and the large families sit and listen Moreno sits with the matriarchs and tries to complete her family trees – they sprawl spreading over several pages and ending in question marks and phone numbers lines scribbled out and redrawn as new information emerges It is thought to affect one in 10,000 people mostly of European descent – but is most prevalent in pockets in Latin American countries where it is thought to have arrived with European sailors who settled during colonisation “It was the perfect scenario for the gene to take hold,” explains Michael Hayden a Huntington’s researcher and professor of genetics at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver “People lived in clusters in isolated areas so there wasn’t much migration in or out Because symptoms emerge after the age of sexual reproduction the disease is able to flow down the generations – unlike genetic diseases that kill or disable people before child-rearing age Ten children a generation soon add up to very large families José Rafael (in the red top) supports his family which has been devastated by Huntington’s disease Photograph: Nick Garcia/The ObserverDNA comprises a series of building blocks called nucleotides these sequences of nucleotides make a recipe that cells use to make proteins The Huntington’s mutation is a repetition of three nucleotides: a stutter in the genetic recipe that means cells make a large mutant version of the huntingtin protein that kills brain cells More than 40 repeats of this three-nucleotide sequence and an individual will develop the disease Although there are no treatments to change the disease’s course a neurologist at the University of Ulm in Germany who advises the CHDI Foundation there are drugs that can help to manage the symptoms antipsychotics and tetrabenazine for the movement – although all drugs need to be given by professionals who can monitor for side-effects which can slow people down to a point that they feel like they’re moving through jelly “They won’t magically change lives for people in developing countries but for some a drug like tetrabenazine or an antidepressant can help.” Tetrabenazine helped the family of Doris Echeverria Ripoll who runs another patients’ association in Juan de Acosta and whose father is in the later stages of the disease “It meant he could hold our hands again for a while Nobody knows how many people have Huntington’s in Colombia The country is emerging from 50 years of guerrilla wars – the river to Bellavista in the north-west is still patrolled by heavily armed military boats that we had to register with; only for the past decade have parts of the north-east of the country been safe to enter so its health system is understandably weak knows of about 500 nuclear families with the disease in the north-east of the country and Mosquera knows of about 200 in Bogotá and the north-west Not counting the many people as yet unknown to these three volunteers estimates that include more distant family members run into several thousands at risk With Muñoz-Sanjuan I travel onward to the Caribbean coast and Santa Marta an emerging tourist spot where backpackers party on rooftop bars along dusty roads and past rickety fences and forlorn-looking cows where the concentration of people with Huntington’s disease is the second-highest in the world At each house we visit with Oviedo or Ripoll the food and drinks they deliver are guzzled straight away “Food and water are a big issue here,” says Muñoz-Sanjuan of San Angel Patients with the disease have an immense hunger They have to eat around 5,000 calories a day “Nobody knows exactly why but it’s not just from the movement – marathon runners don’t even eat that much.” Intense poverty leads to desperate actions healthy relatives who can get work leave their loved ones tied up at home so they can’t cause harm to themselves or to others Indeed such is the stigma associated with the disease that some live their lives locked up and out of sight most sufferers choke or starve to death in the rags they wear as clothes so that if we find a treatment these people can get it.” With no success, drug companies have moved away from these difficult neurodegenerative diseasesThe hunt for a treatment is on. In September last year researchers led by Professor Sarah Tabrizi at UCL in London began the human testing of a drug that would be the first to slow down the progression of the disease “Because the mutant protein is expressed so ubiquitously throughout the brain it’s difficult to target with treatment,” she says it’s more efficient to go right to the beginning – to the gene.” New technology means scientists can now do that. The drug, Ionis-HTTRx developed by the California biotech firm Ionis Pharmaceuticals a molecule small enough to enter the cell and intercept the genetic instructions for the protein before it can be made – take out the messenger and you can stop the mutant protein from forming Getting the drug to the brain is difficult It has to be injected with a four-inch needle into the liquid that surrounds the spine it travels up to the brain and into the brain cells most of which are tucked away in hard-to-reach places “We’re targeting a 50% reduction in the huntingtin protein,” says Tabrizi, who stresses that this first trial will test only for safety – a necessary step before testing for effectiveness in larger numbers of patients. This trial, involving only 36 patients in small groups, will be carried out in the UK, Canada and Germany at hi-tech treatment centres such as the Leonard Wolfson Experimental Neurology Centre in London The team hopes to finish the safety trial by the end of 2017 Managing expectations among patients is a necessary component of these early trials Many drugs don’t make the transition from tests in animals with small brains to human beings A cure or a treatment for such a terrible disease would change the lives of many people: an estimated 8,500 in the UK and 36,000 in the US the Swiss drugs firm Roche signed a deal with Ionis Pharmaceuticals for a deal worth up to $362m for the rights to take the drug through the necessarily large and expensive tests for effectiveness and then regulatory approval if it proves safe Ionis will also get royalties on the future sales of the drug so-called orphan diseases will be expensive An extreme example is the price of Glybera developed by the Dutch company Uniqure to combat a rare disease that causes pancreatitis Ionis-HTTRx will not be as expensive as Glybera – nowhere near – but it will still be so expensive that only governments and insurance companies will be able to afford it whereas Ionis-HTTRx would be taken many times meaning the drug company could recoup costs and make profit over a patient’s lifetime rather than in one lump sum There’s another reasons this trial is important “The pharmaceutical industry in particular became more interested in Huntington’s because it’s rare but not too rare,” says Tabrizi “And because we absolutely know the cause – a mutation in one gene that makes one mutant protein – it is a good proof of the principle that other neurodegenerative diseases caused by mutant proteins are treatable.” These other diseases include Alzheimer’s the causes of which are as yet not fully known and definitely more complicated “If we can slow down or reverse Huntington’s it means we can theoretically do the same with the others.” Such a signal would reinvigorate an industry that over the past few decades has ploughed tens of billions of dollars into finding a treatment drug companies have moved away from these difficult neurodegenerative diseases Other pharma giants will be watching with interest to see how other technologies being worked on for Huntington’s are faring They include things such as zinc finger proteins packaged into viruses and even gene-editing with new Crispr technology all of which have technical and – in the case of gene-editing of embryos with Crispr – ethical hurdles yet to overcome Ricardo he now sells eggs by the side of the road to support himself and his family Photograph: Nick Garcia/The ObserverThese two stories – one of multimillion-pound deals and exciting scientific potential and the other of abject poverty – aren’t as separate as they first seem from which scientists have learned about the disease and on which all potential gene-targeted therapies hinge was discovered thanks to studies done by US researchers between 1978 and 2002 in impoverished Latin American communities just over the border from Juan de Acosta and San Angel on the shores on Venezuela’s Lake Maracaibo The same circumstances that allowed the disease to take hold in Colombia had allowed it to do so to devastating effect in the small fishing villages of Barranquitas and San Luis where the concentration of the disease is the highest in the world a geneticist from Columbia University in New York On the site of an old brothel in Maracaibo Wexler (with help from the Danish drug company Lundbeck which makes tetrabenazine) set up a hospice which took in around 60 patients and gave them food and medical care With Venezuela’s economy in a tailspin and increasing violence the hospice has for the past two years not been able to take patients in or provide them with care “Nancy is devastated that she hasn’t been able to return,” says Sir Michael Rawlins the former head of the UK’s drug regulator He and Wexler have tried to arrange for scientists to provide more help to Casa Hogar through the British ambassador in Venezuela she felt that we owed something to the villagers and Casa Hogar was an attempt to try to give something back She wanted to make sure that if we ever found a treatment they would have access to it.” these villagers continue to contribute to science: cell lines taken from the samples they donated are sitting in a biorepository at the Coriell Institute for Medical Research in New Jersey which can make them into stem cells and grow them into neurons to experiment on It is unclear how much these families know about such use of their cells given that the technology was not imaginable even to the scientists when the villagers agreed to participate in studies Such vulnerability exists across the border in Colombia As we travelled through San Angel a familiar story was heard Several families spoke of “doctors with computers” who had visited in October last year and taken blood from all family members None of the families were sure where the doctors were from but they were under the impression that the doctors would return the following November with the test results or some help coordinator of the genetic and chronic diseases group at Colombia’s National Institute of Health who confirmed that it was his team that took the samples at the request of the local secretary of health for San Angel and the surrounding area who wanted an idea of the size of the problem Edson Photograph: Nick Garcia/The ObserverHe said that technical difficulties have so far prevented genetic testing but added that even when they do test they can’t give the results to the individuals without the proper plans in place for necessary care and support He also confirmed that they took blood from babies and young children knowing that they would not be able to give them their results until they were adults That the government is trying to get to grips with the problem is encouraging but that they did it so invasively – and that the fate of these people is locked away in government files – speaks to the vulnerability of sufferers and their families The truth is that those “doctors with computers” could have been anyone will be prohibitively expensive to these communities they don’t have any local access to medical care let alone the hi-tech centres and doctors needed to deliver the drug That these communities have been used for research but are unlikely to benefit from any breakthrough troubles Tabrizi as it does all Huntington’s disease scientists It’s the reason that Muñoz-Sanjuan started Factor-H “I’m worried that drug companies haven’t reached a sense of consciousness about the communities that live in developing countries,” he says “The people who contributed to what is the basis of all these gene therapies – does anyone have a plan in place to make these drugs available to them How are people who don’t even have food to eat going to get support from their government to access any of these new gene therapies if they work?” their current pressing needs should not be insurmountable: clean water community care to help ease the burden of care on family members mobile neurology units to help local doctors to deliver and monitor currently available drugs that could make their lives more bearable To place all the responsibility on the scientific world would be both unfair and unwise, says James Gusella, a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School in Massachusetts, who was part of the international collaboration that first identified the Huntington’s gene and its defect. “The purpose of science is to gain knowledge,” he says. Read more“The clusters of patients in Venezuela were studied from that point of view and as yet although these gene therapies are exciting it hasn’t provided a treatment.” Unpicking the medical from the social causes of poverty “As scientists we can use the knowledge that we gain to advise and help the powers that be [governments and international agencies] but ultimately it is they who must be involved in implementation.” who is also chief scientific officer at Teva Pharmaceuticals an Israeli drug company working on Huntington’s treatments says that drug companies can and should play a big part “Innovation should be rewarded in developed countries,” he says “There needs to be a sense of corporate and social responsibility embedded in the company if we say that our primary goal is to improve health and make people feel better commitment and drive from individuals to hold companies accountable – it needs champions.” Expensive antiretrovirals are provided free to impoverished HIV sufferers in developing countries thanks to lobbying from a community of passionate activists that began in the 1980s will by its nature not prompt lobbying in such numbers But if people are looking for ways to help giving support to the work of the handful of volunteers and doctors who have built up the much-needed trust of families will be a good place to start Building a sense of consciousness among people who can help – not only drug companies but governments and research organisations – will be more tricky but possible when the story is set out more widely As with the people in one of Moreno’s sprawling family trees This article was produced with the help of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting 1374 Epidemic of “dancing mania” condition in Europe 1500 Swiss physician and polymath Paracelsus coins the term chorea Saint Vitus (after the patron saint of dancers) recognising several different forms and suggesting that the nervous system is involved 1832 British physician John Elliotson identifies an inherited form of chorea (other infectious causes of chorea had been described earlier) 1872 American physician George Huntington writes the first thorough clinical description of the disease that will go on to bear his name 1955 The disease is found to be prevalent in the Lake Maracaibo region of Venezuela 1983 The approximate location of the gene that causes the disease is narrowed down to chromosome 4 1993 The gene that causes the disease is identified 2015 First in-man safety testing of Ionis Pharmaceutical’s gene-silencing therapy begins This is the archive of The Observer up until 21/04/2025 The Observer is now owned and operated by Tortoise Media The Birthday of Don Luis Muñoz Rivera is commemorated on July 18 annually and politician from Puerto Rico who lived from July 17 He played a significant role in the fight for Puerto Rico’s political independence while they were a part of Spain Rivera joined the leadership of the newly created Autonomist Party in 1887 He was a successful candidate in 1889 for the Caguas district delegate position Rivera later joined a group set up by the party to talk about autonomy proposals with Práxedes Mateo Sagasta who would later give Puerto Rico an autonomous government after his election Rivera began writing poetry at a young age; however he didn’t start publishing any of his work until he was 23 the poem ‘Adelante!’ was published by Mario Braschi an editor for the newspaper “El Pueblo.” Braschi encouraged Rivera to keep writing about politics and science rather than love poems Rivera started writing about Puerto Rico’s political situation and advocating for the need for an independent government Although his father was a Conservative Party supporter Rivera joined the Liberal Party in 1883 to support the ideologies of his uncle Rivera opened a store on Quintán Negrón Sanjurjo was chosen to lead the Barranquitas committee Rivera attempted to be elected to the Provincial Assembly in 1885 to represent the Juana Diaz district Muñoz Rivera publishes “El Territorio,” a newspaper for landowners harmed by a blockade imposed by the United States Rivera is appointed Resident Commissioner to the U.S House of Representatives; he plays a role in granting Puerto Ricans their citizenship The northern plaza of the city's main square is renamed Plaza Muoz Rivera by the municipality of Ponce which also erects a statue in Rivera’s memory becomes Puerto Rico's first governor to be chosen democratically Known as the “Architect of the Puerto Rico Commonwealth,” he was a journalist and first elected governor of Puerto Rico from February 18 a celebration of flavors that guests can indulge in embodies the vibrance of the island’s culture While you may trace the origin of the sweet concoction of coconut cream they’re yet to settle the island’s long-running debate over its authorship Make a trip down and enjoy the lush landscape and ambiance of Puerto Rico The people are fun and warm to visitors; they'll be willing to share their history with you Enjoy the island and take pieces of it with you as souvenirs They have many white sand beaches and fun activities at the beach It's always a good time at the beach with food and drinks Luis Muñoz Rivera played a significant role in Puerto Rico's fight for political independence while still being a part of Spain Rivera won the support of the Liberal Party and got elected to the municipal council; he was also named the president of the Barranquitas committee More than 200 caves make up the 250-mile-long Cavernas del Rio Camuy Puerto Rico is neither a state nor a country; since it got handed over to America Luquillo Beach is a very well-liked destination on the main island You're in for another treat at Sun Bay Beach where plankton that emit bioluminescent light at night reside Christopher Columbus is steering his ship in the sculpture “The Birth of the New World.” The statue is 360 feet tall and is made of bronze standing more than 200 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty More than 300 stores are within the 1.9 million square foot Plaza Las Américas Almost every significant retailer is available and license plates from shops in the mall if you want genuine Puerto Rican souvenirs We keep track of fun holidays and special moments on the cultural calendar — giving you exciting activities ' + scriptOptions._localizedStrings.webview_notification_text + ' " + scriptOptions._localizedStrings.redirect_overlay_title + " " + scriptOptions._localizedStrings.redirect_overlay_text + " Álvarez uses mango and genip (quenepa) from Santa Isabel hand crafted Ron Caña infusing five flavors: Rumba Mango Álvarez has around 70 acres of sugarcane with plans to increase to up to 100 acres in production Álvarez will soon be presenting to the market coconut-infused ron caña and “bili quenepa” a Vieques-originated drink that includes blends of Spanish lime and cinnamon Álvarez acquired three pot stills from the Cognac and Champagne regions of France and one German pot still to install in his small-batch producing factory Álvarez grows a total 70 acres of sugarcane which he mills into raw sugarcane juice for his premium agricole rum brand Proudly wearing a green baseball cap that reads "Drink Local" in bold white letters Pepe Álvarez toured his artisan rum distillery in reflection of the uphill battle he has faced opening Puerto Rico’s first modern "agricole" rum distillery Ron Pepón is a rum fully produced with the acres of sugarcane that Álvarez has cultivated in his very own 14-acre farm in Vega Alta that he acquired in 1991 Álvarez worked from summer job to summer job in his teenage years then went to college at night and during the day worked on opening his own grass business He grew and sold grass to the plentiful construction businesses that were experiencing boom times in the 1990s corporations tax incentives to establish operations in Puerto Rico As a 55-year-old connoisseur of grass-breeding Álvarez looked for ways to reinvent himself as it was too early to retire finding in sugarcane the solution to his income-lacking situation “Sugarcane is just essentially another type of grass something I knew how to work well with,” said the distiller Álvarez saw a business opportunity in the fact that no one in Puerto Rico distilled rum using the pure unprocessed juice that’s extracted from the sugarcane which is that same juice only boiled and concentrated to be crystallized gooey syrup that is later fermented and distilled into rum who was once a world leader in sugarcane production in the 20th century has the perfect soil for sugarcane development as he rescued it from near extinction and cultivated the scarce Puerto Rican sugarcane cultivars that now cover over 70 acres of his land with another farm in Vega Baja luscious sugarcane plants ready to turn into what is known as agricole rum Hurricane Maria destroyed and inundated all of it on Sept he had to think of a way to generate income while he grew back all the sugarcane the hurricane destroyed walking through an abandoned field where the non-operating railway of the famous sugar factory train remained Álvarez stumbled on three nails that lay on the ground "Tres Clavos," meaning "three nails," would be the name of his next venture an artisanal rum that would be aged using fresh Álvarez uses mango and Spanish lime ("quenepa") from Santa Isabel ginger from Barranquitas and pineapple from Manatí and Lajas to age his artisanal handcrafted ron caña infusing five flavors: Rumba Mango Álvarez acquired three pot stills from the Cognac and Champagne regions of France and one German pot still to install in his small-batch producing factory Two of the pots have a capacity of producing 2,500 liters of rum Unlike massive rum distilleries that use a continuous distillation process San Juan Artisan Distillers gets rid of what is known as the "heads" and "tails" of what is produced at the end of the distillation process meaning what first comes out and what comes out last is discarded to only use pure and fresh ron caña “We do this to maintain the quality of our product using only what is known as the ‘cortes corazón’ or ‘heart cuts’ of the total liquid that is produced,” he said To help him is engineer José Roberto Álvarez Lefranc his son who is the head distiller and vice president of operations assistant distiller and assistant operations manager Cordero took over the factory’s operations making sure the rum produced reached an alcohol level of 30 percent a high amount when compared to the flavor-infused rum standard of 15 percent or 22 percent Álvarez remained patient as the sugarcane grew back aging his first batches of Ron Pepón a little over a year after the hurricane will be the first rum in Puerto Rico to be produced with locally grown sugarcane but possibly this fall with a limited edition the law states that for a distilled rum to be labeled as Puerto Rican it must be aged at least one year in oak barrels of which Álvarez just recently received a shipment to complete an arsenal of 210 ex-Jack Daniels once-dumped barrels which Álvarez confirmed has three important economic development elements involves three government agencies: the Agriculture Department Puerto Rico Tourism Company and the Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company Agriculture made a $130,000 investment in San Juan Artisan Distillers that were used for the farm’s irrigation system the purchase of sugarcane seeds and the purchase of the mill used to extract the raw sugarcane juice later used for Ron Pepón Álvarez currently has around five or six employees working the field while also having five or six employees working in packaging and preparing the sleek-looking bottles of the premium fruit-infused ron caña “This is a family-owned business that continues to be in the works we are artisanal in the sense that we always value quality over quantity We are not rushing to produce big amounts of rum; we are testing and exploring as we go,” said the adventurous entrepreneur who was also once the owner of a surf shop called Loka Ola at Plaza Las Ámericas mall in San Juan The owner and founder hopes to employ more workers with the inauguration of what will soon be the San Juan Distillers Visitors Center The goal is to create an agrotourism site where visitors will get to tour the facilities and see from start to finish the fascinating process of turning fresh-cut sugarcane into herbal handcrafted caña agrícola rum for the sweet pleasure of tasting Álvarez will soon be presenting to the market coconut-infused ron caña and "bili quenepa," a Vieques-originated drink that includes blends of Spanish lime and cinnamon San Juan Artisan Distillers is located on RD-690 Sabana Hoyos Vega Alta and can be reached at 787-505-2430 Email notifications are only sent once a day Your browser is out of date and potentially vulnerable to security risks.We recommend switching to one of the following browsers: