Josué y Iris / by Tamara Cedre

Josué & Iris run their family owned bike shop in San Juan. They care for Iris’ sick parents and her younger sister while trying to keep the business alive. They have two children. Their youngest daughter was born right before the hurricanes. 

With no other choice, they rode out the storms last year in shelters just days after Iris gave birth. Due to poor city planning, they were moved from shelter to shelter. During this time, Iris’s father suffered a stroke, her mother’s diabetes was out of control and Iris lost her ability to breast feed because of a lack of water and stress to her body. Medical personnel were spread too thin to attend to evacuees, and there was no medical care or medicine available to them for much of their stay. It was Iris’s strength and Josué’s calm thinking, and previous training as a nurse, that kept their family alive.

After months in the shelter, they returned to a destroyed apartment, so they had to live in a motel off of a FEMA voucher until power was restored in January. While the bike shop had no electricity, they ran the business in a tent outside. Insurance companies continue to take their money, but have not made good on their policies to help. 

They say they feel lucky to be together, because they didn’t suffer a death or the loss of a family property like so many they know. But, everything they have is invested into their store in an economy that has seen wages plummet and job security vanish for Boricuas as private investors profit off the disaster.