BellezzoNero

Gregorio Velazquez Rivera, 81, sits inside an abandoned house he now occupies with his relatives after they lost their home to Hurricane Maria in Vieques, Puerto Rico.

A man walks under a downed light post in Vieques, Puerto Rico.

Felicita Garcia, 66, looks inside her recently repaired house, which was completely destroyed by the storm.

José Ramón Sierra Meléndez, 70, shows a photo of his destroyed house after Hurricane Maria.

José Ramón Sierra Meléndez and his wife Felicita Garcia stand on their porch of their recently rebuilt house. Meléndez received the tarp and a couple of boxes of water from one passing FEMA truck.

Nearly three months after Hurricane Maria, parts of Puerto Rico are showing clear signs of recovery. But in Vieques, a remote island with nearly 9,000 residents eight miles off the main island’s coast, recovery is a long way off. There, some live in dingy conditions as they wait for help to rebuild, while others gather what they can to do it themselves.

Gregorio Velazquez Rivera, an 81-year-old who is blind, has left his destroyed home — which is totally unlivable — virtually untouched in the months since the hurricane.

He recently tore open an envelope from the Federal Emergency Management Agency confirming his address and basic information — an early step in the process of receiving federal assistance to help rebuild his home.

But when FEMA inspectors eventually come looking for him, they won’t find him at that address. The roof and several walls are caved in; the interior is a moldy mess of tree branches and destroyed furniture. One of the only things left standing is the bright pink facade adorned with a painted white horse.

“We need to rebuild a completely new house, it can’t be fixed,” he says.

‘No Man’s Land’: An Isolated Puerto Rican Island Struggles To Rebuild

Photos: Ricardo Arduengo for NPR

Once upon a time Puerto Ricans and Nuyoricans used to be so beautiful and handsome. We were fucking POOR but we managed. Sure not every single one of us was absolutely gorgeous but the rest were jaw-dropping. Now they let their looks go to hell.

I geniunely don’t like U.S. Latinos too much. They are cold bastards.

These SJW U.S. Latinos need to stop!

They are trying so hard to prove that they are Latinos by proving how they are not really Latinos. They keep biting themselves in the ass.

“Afro-Latinx, Mestizx-Latinx, Asian-Latinx” Come on now! Really? I will admit I got into the hyped of Latinx until I realized it sound like Mucinex and the fact that Latin Americans have a hard time saying (x) and educating myself on the Spanish language. This Latinx phenomenon is stupid, but interesting because you can tell a difference between a Latin American and U.S. Latino, “Latinx” being the obvious indicator that you are a U.S. Latino. Let alone U.S. Latinos tend to be more segregated than Latin Americans.