Rethinking the Future Amid an Economic Crisis: Portraits of Puerto Rico
Alberto Ramon, 20, came to Puerto Rico from the Dominican Republic to join his father and found work as a barber. He plans to move to the United States as soon as he gets the opportunity.
"It's better to go somewhere else than here," he says. "There's nothing. If customers used to come weekly, now they come monthly...Hopefully this year, God willing, I am going to the U.S." (Edwin Torres/GroundTruth)
"From here you have to leave, running like Fla.! It's better to go somewhere else then here. Only four months I've been here and itÕs been bad. Theres nothing. If customers used to come weekly, now they come monthly. Santo Domingo is better than this, of course. Hopefully this year god willing, I am going to the U.S."
Alberto Ramon, 20, came to Puerto Rico from the Dominican Republic to join his father and found work as a barber. He plans to move to the United States as soon as he gets the opportunity.
“It’s better to go somewhere else than here,” he says. “There’s nothing. If customers used to come weekly, now they come monthly…Hopefully this year, God willing, I am going to the U.S.” (Edwin Torres/GroundTruth)
Scheila Machuca, studied fashion design but works a variety of jobs to reach her end goal as a fashion designer. She works retails at Gap and social media at a media agency dedicated to design.
“I don’t get sleep. Full-time and freelance,” she says. “One takes 40 hours, the other 23 hours. I need to take a break I haven’t had the chance to sit down yet and work on my own career.” (Edwin Torres/GroundTruth)
Pedro Cruz, 21, visited the H3 conference to market a new app he is working on called Touralo.
“Touralo lets you visualize a space without visiting it using 360 degree photography and video,” he says. “You put on some goggles and you’re going to be able to see a house, a facility, a beach.” (Edwin Torres/GroundTruth)
Juan Cordoba, 22, is a 5th year geography student at the University of Puerto Rico.
“After college I hope to keep studying, maybe pursue a masters. I would like to leave to study outside but I also don’t see myself leaving Puerto Rico. I love it despite the difficulty,” he says. ” This is my home. Life here is hard. It’s dangerous to walk around. The economy is not good. I don’t see people having hope. ItÕs not that people are choosing to leave but they are obligated to leave. This form of life isn’t for everyone.” (Edwin Torres/GroundTruth)
Maria Jose Delgado, 29, created the Cool Hope artisan ice cream brand to earn a living and inspire hope on the island.
“The original idea was to have something to stop people from leaving the island, since there is such a large exodus,” she says. “We want Puerto Rican hands making the ice cream and delivering in the island.” (Edwin Torres/GroundTruth)
Diane Vasquez Lugo, 23, is studying for a masters in investigative theory and aspires to be a journalist.
“Here on the island there aren’t that many investigative journalist,” she says. “Considering work opportunities, it may be that I leave or that I stay. But I would like to stay here because I know that journalism is needed here in Puerto Rico.” (Edwin Torres/GroundTruth)
William Valentin, 20, has overcome obstacles being from a poor barrio in Puerto Rico to go to college. He is studying education at the Metropolitan University of Cupey and Balle at the National Theater of Puerto Rico.
“In these poor neighborhoods in Puerto Rico, there is a lot of talent and intelligence,” he says. “People have to push themselves forward. If they stay in the same place, they only end up in the street with money but nothing on their mind.” (Edwin Torres/GroundTruth)
Alejandra Gonzalez Torres, 21, studies Political Science at the University of Puerto Rico.
“I want to work for the government or an embassy, she says. “I don’t think I am going to find what I am looking for on this island. The political scene here is tough and I don’t think I would be able to change it. You would have to completely transform things here.” (Edwin Torres/GroundTruth)
Maria Laura Martinez, 25, in partnership with Vincente Gascow founded Keznr Jewelry, utilizing 3D printing and design. Her latest collection won three design awards in London.
“People think [because] you’re Puerto Rican, you’re not legit or believable,” she says. “The jewelry started moving when I won a prize in London. It required a validation for people to see it here on the island and that it was worth it.” (Edwin Torres/GroundTruth)
Alex Santos, 22 works as a software developer for Cometa in the Piloto 151 offices. He recently graduated from Codetrotters, a start up that trains software developers on the island.
“I used to love robotics and wanted to program for that, but ended up in web development,” he says. “I will stay here for a bit while I learn English better and prepare for a life away from Puerto Rico.” (Edwin Torres/GroundTruth)
Felix Rodriguez DeJesus, 21, is studying Architecture at the Pontifical Catholic University in Puerto Rico and is the founder of ReSight, a sunglass company using reclaimed wood.
“I always had the plan to have my own businesses,” he says. “But I never thought in my mind that it would be so [early].” (Edwin Torres/GroundTruth)
Luis M. Diaz, 25, is an entrepreneur who started up a successful food truck called, Cosechas. It serves traditional criollo food with a modern twist.
“I studied Culinary Arts in Miami but I found life in the United States too harsh, so I ended up coming back,” he says. “I wasn’t doing well. In the long run, I decided to stay here because Puerto Rico has a lot of potential and you can find good local products.” (Edwin Torres/GroundTruth)
Puerto Rico, an island with a financial crisis nearly as bad as Greece, is a commonwealth to one of the wealthiest countries in the world. The island’s weak economy and high unemployment, coupled with years of severe austerity measures, have resulted in one of the largest population exoduses in recent history.
It is estimated that roughly 84,000 people have left the island for the U.S. since 2010– an increase of 34 percent, according to the Pew Research Center. There are now more Puerto Ricans on the mainland than on the island.
Many of those who have already left are members of the middle class (i.e. professors, doctors, lawyers, and graduate college students). Many refer to this mass exodus a “brain drain.”
Juan Cordoba, 22, a fifth-year Geography student in the University of Puerto Rico doesn’t see a future for himself or his peers on the island.
“I don’t see people having hope. Its not that people are choosing to leave but they are obligated to leave,” he said.
But there is hope.
On a warm day at the Caribe Hilton in Puerto Rico, hundreds of young faces, charged and determined, shared a variety of innovative ideas and attended talks by tech entrepreneurs from different parts of world. The H3 conference, meaning Hipsters, Hustlers,and Hackers, was on its second successful year bringing together designers, investors, and developers to create local businesses and export globally.
One millennial, Pedro Cruz, 21, whizzed around showing off Touralo, an app for virtual real estate tours, to potential investors. Another, Maria-Laura Martinez, 25, won design awards in London for jewelry created using 3-D printing techniques. A group of college students won free tickets to the conference because of their idea for an app that saves people time waiting at the doctor’s office.
Conferences like H3 aren’t the only ones supporting the momentum for the innovative start up scene on the island. Organizations like Piloto 151 in San Juan provides a co-working space, while Codetrotters serves as an intense academy to train software developers.
Within the fabric of a fleeing population, there are still people who want to stay and build for the future of the island. Isabel Rullan, 27, co-founded Conprmetidos, a start-up linking Puerto Rican professionals in the diaspora with the mission of investing and building on the island.
“As citizens we have a responsibility to also do something for the island. We went to college and we are prepared,” said Rullan. “We can create a movement, we should step up to the plate.”
Photographer’s Note:
The Palante portrait series recounts the narratives of Puerto Rican youth who, despite adversity in the economy, are finding ways to move forward in their endeavors. These are the faces of Puerto Rican Millennials: entrepreneurs, students, cooks, designers, and hackers. Many of the portraits were made while on assignment for The GroundTruth Project in Puerto Rico.
The use of the word Palante (meaning “forward”) came from the name of the Young Lords’s newspaper, a vehicle to promote change for Puerto Rican communities living under oppression in New York City in the 1970s.
During this assignment I made an effort cover as many different stories as possible. There are many more to be told. I worked with a 30-year-old Hasselblad film camera, only 12 pictures per roll, and hand-developed the film in the basement of the Bronx Documentary Center. This antiquated process allowed me work slowly, and think carefully about how to best tell the stories in a formal portrait series. I drew on inspiration from photographers like August Sanders and Walker Evans, whose work has shown me the strong documentarian purpose of portraiture.