Still pursuing peace in Vieques
Residents seek own island identity
Maura Curley
It is a small beautiful 21-mile long island, located between Puerto Rico and St. Thomas with great snorkeling, and the famous phosphorescent Mosquito Bay. Annexed to Puerto Rico in 1854, it has a population of about 10,000. But this data doesn’t even begin to tell the story of Vieques or its people. Residents still feel the pain from the past, while trying to create a future free from more exploitation.
An infamous heaven for pirates during the 17th century, the island was pirated again by the U.S. Navy in 1941, when it captured about seventy percent of Vieques’s acreage to use it for ammunition testing and target practice.
After years of protests citizens finally drove the Navy away in May of 2003.
Four years earlier the Navy had finally admitted to testing radioactive depleted uranium shells on the island. Yet even today it takes no responsibility for the island’s cancer rate, which is 25 percent higher than the rest of Puerto Rico.
Residents still feel the pain from the past, while trying to create a future free from more exploitation.
Native Ruth Paris, who works at Roy’s Café on the Main Street in Isabel Segunda, says life is definitely better since the Navy left. “We don’t hear the noises and our houses don’t shake,” she says. But she worries about “new investments,” which may make it impossible for islanders to own property.
Giovanni Torres, who works in guest services at Inn at Blue Horizon, which has won numerous awards for its green initiatives from the Puerto Rico Tourism Company, worries about the Navy’s clean-up efforts. He says he hears bombs still being detonated.
On a map, he points out the “ restricted areas” off limits to the public. When it’s mentioned that a a wild life preserve is in the middle of the “restricted area,” Torres nods his head knowingly.
Despite the traumas, Vieques is an island brimming with hospitality, and sophistication you might not expect.
Roy’s Café, for example, offers wi-fi and at least a dozen different kinds of lattes. Bravo Beach Hotel, a boutique property, has an alluring ambiance, with a menu that rivals what you might find in Miami’s South Beach.
If food, arts and culture tell you about a community, Vieques’s future looks bright.
The restored El Fortin Conde de Mirasol, in Isabel Segunda, home to the Vieques Museum of Art and History and the Vieques Historic Archives, has an exciting program of exhibits and events.
Museum director Robert Rabin Siegel, who was born in Boston, has lived in Vieques since 1980. He is one of the founders of the Committee For the Rescue and Development of Vieques, the organization successful in driving the Navy off the island. In the process Rabin Siegel was arrested twice, and served six month in the federal jail in San Juan in 2002.
He says the challenges now are “the cleanup of the island,” which he estimates will take decades, “dealing with the health crisis”... “stopping speculators” and “ building a community centered economy.”
Desolate beach in Vieques. Photo courtesy MONA
Maura Curley is publisher of virginvoices.com
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