Puerto Rico Bonds

Maria Gonzalez-Edwards, 60, is a member of the St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Milwaukee’s Riverwest neighborhood. She was raised in Milwaukee, but her family is from the central mountainous region of Puerto Rico.    

Maria’s parents came from Utuado, almost directly in the center of the island. Maria said it is more “campo,” meaning countryside. 

Maria’s parents came to Milwaukee in 1950 because her father’s older brother and wife were there. He originally picked food in Florida, but when his brother moved to Milwaukee, he followed and sent Maria’s mother. He then worked at Maynard Steal Foundry, which is still located on South 27^th Street. He worked there until he retired.   

In Puerto Rico, “Don” and “Doña” are used to refer to elderly people to show respect. Don Rafael Reyes, 89, another member at the church, chimed in and said it was very hard work.  

“And hot,” he added.  

Maria’s father even lost a thumb. 

She said many Puerto Ricans came to the city because they had connections. When Puerto Ricans came to Milwaukee, they started to build a community, and many went to the St. Francis of Assisi Parish.  

“Many of them usually will come because they had family here,” said Maria. “And then that family would take in who was coming to try to help them get established whether it was to find a job or at least find a little apartment or room to rent.”  

Don Rafael Reyes and his wife, Doña Ines Reyes, were “compadres” with Maria’s parents. A compadres’ relationship is similar to a godparent relationship.  

“They were like best friends,” said Maria.  

Maria’s parents passed, but now they are like her parents.  

Doña Ines Reyes came to Milwaukee when she was 15-years-old to help with her sister’s children and she has been raising children ever since.  

“She took care of everybody,” said Maria. “She took care of us, my sister and I. She’s been raising children ever since, but again, it was that connection with family.”  

Her husband jumped in again, “Yeah, that job never ends.”

Maria explained the history of the Puerto Rican community in Milwaukee along with the significance of the church.  

From Maria’s understanding, Father Wilbur was one of the first priests to offer Mass in Spanish at the church. Many Puerto Ricans families lived on that side of the city and that is how the community established itself at the church.  

“There’s a very strong bond, whether it’s a Puerto Rican, whether it’s in a Puerto Rican family, or that’s generally in any Latina family; that sense of relationship,” said Maria. “I mean, we all know each other. Yeah, they all grew up together. They’ve seen their children grow up in this church.”  

She mentioned that someone in the church remembers Maria’s mother pushing her in a stroller when she was a baby. 

“You know, so that sense of growing up together and watching your families grow up together,” said Maria.  

Family is very important to many Puerto Ricans. When Maria visited Puerto Rico in 2018, a year after Hurricane Maria hit, people were already celebrating Christmas in October.   

“It was just this overwhelming sense of happiness and joy,” said Maria.  

Maria said people were not able to celebrate the previous year because of the hurricane. 

“That whole sense of being together. Family is really important,” said Maria. 

Maria has been to Puerto Rico after Hurrican Hugo and Maria. She said Hurricane Hugo was very impactful having gone right after.  

Maria and her husband celebrated their 25^th wedding anniversary when they went. She told her husband she did not want to spend her money anywhere else.  

“I said let’s go, we’re going to spend it anyway so let’s go spend it where the economy needs the boost. So they definitely at that time were encouraging tourism again.” 

Maria said one of the most impactful things having gone after Hurricane Maria was seeing all the houses with blue tarps.  

“I think there were more blue tarps evident the farther you get into the mountains,” said Maria. 

Blue tarps were used to protect roof damage by Hurricane Maria. Some houses in Puerto Rico still have blue tarps as roofs almost five years later.  

“For me that was probably the most impactful thing; seeing all these blue tarps everywhere that people were still after a year and a half or so or maybe even in two years, that still have blue tarps on their houses,” said Maria. 

Maria added that there were still families without electricity, and there were manmade bridges that were made to cross rivers. She also saw a lot of people still throwing away things that were piled in front of their houses 

She said in the mountains, they had to wait to get their electrical poles back up.  

Maria remembers going to the cemetery in Utuado and someone was there stringing hay-bush still.  

“I mean it hit the whole island, it wasn’t just one little section,” said Maria. 

Some buildings on the island are left abandoned because of the lack of resources and stressed economy after the hurricane. Driving through San Juan she saw a lot of empty cement structures that were covered with graffiti.  

“If you lived in a certain part of the island maybe you have the connections and the resources to get done quicker than you would if you lived in the mountains,” said Maria. 

She saw everything in the rivers including houses and cars. She said everything was just demolished. Lines of mud and water marked houses showing how high the river had gotten.  

Maria showed a picture of a house that had slid down a mudslide in Utuado from her visit in 2018.  

“From the front it looked okay, you could see where the mark of where the mud was, but then we went to the back, the whole half of the house had fallen into the river,” said Maria.

She mentions how everything was just starting to get green, but there were no flowers and little fruit on the trees.  

“But things were just starting to get green,” said Maria.  

She said when you visit Puerto Rico now, you will see all kinds of flowers and fruit.