美国国家公共电台 NPR Vieques Still Finding Its Footing After Hurricane Destruction

 

LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:

The Island of Vieques is part of Puerto Rico, but it is set apart, too, a short distance off the big island's eastern coast. Vieques is an isolated¹ place known for its remote beaches and for the decades during which the U.S. Navy used those beaches for bombing runs and training exercises. It's an island that has long been a hard place to stay for locals but a good place for visitors. Now, nine months after Hurricane Maria, as Connecticut Public Radio's Jeff Cohen reports, that dynamic is even more at play.

JEFF COHEN, BYLINE²: In the windy shade near the ferry terminal is a small square with a tower in the middle. It's called Plaza³ Hijos Ausentes - the plaza for absent children. It's a place to honor those who were born in Vieques but who chose to leave or who had to.

ELDA GUADALUPE CARRASQUILLO: It's always been an issue in Vieques.

COHEN: That's Elda Guadalupe Carrasquillo. She's a municipal legislator, a middle school science teacher, and she's lived here since she was a child.

CARRASQUILLO: Normally, our kids - right? - we have our children here and then they go out to study and it's very few that, can come back and work here. So they did this monument to honor that they lived in Vieques and they are called sons and daughters of Vieques although they're not here now. They're absent.

COHEN: Puerto Ricans have left their main island for decades in search of opportunity. Vieques is no different, but it's more remote than its bigger neighbor. In good times, it isn't always easy living here. Now, it's worse. Take, for instance, electricity. The underwater power connection that used to bring power from Puerto Rico may be out of service for four years. Robert Rabin isn't from here, but he's lived here for 40 years and runs, among other things, the island's community radio station. He says Vieques' history also distinguishes it from mainland Puerto Rico.

ROBERT RABIN: We're still suffering the impact of over half a century of military control that blocked natural, normal development, leaving the people of Vieques, you know, years behind in terms of economic capacity, economic development, social development.

COHEN: So tourism is what there is, and when it hurts, the whole island hurts. But he also knows that he, a guy who came here to write a college thesis and stayed, could be seen as part of the problem. It's a contradiction, he says, he lives with. Lin Wetherby is a real estate agent here. She's fended⁴ off her share of speculators, one offering $50,000 in cash for five houses. What's important to her and to homeowners is that the properties she's working with, often at the higher end of the island's market, hold their value after the storm. And based on her evidence, it appears they may be.

LIN WETHERBY: I had four contracts at the time Maria hit us and pretty much figured maybe I'd get two of them to close. And we're actually going to close all four.

COHEN: Wanda Bermudez is a Vieques native. I met her on the back patio⁵ of her mother's downtown home surrounded by wind chimes. She likes tourism but not necessarily the kind that leads to a land grab.

WANDA BERMUDEZ: OK, yeah, we need tourists, but we don't need them to stay.

COHEN: Bermudez says the real estate market skyrocketed after the Navy left. Fifteen years later, she was hoping Maria would have provided a correction to the recently hot market, making it more affordable⁶ for locals. None of her cousins can own their Vieques homes. That all said, if the island's complicated history has created some unavoidable tensions, she feels them, too. She fears locals will get pushed out by market forces. And even with all of that, she just sold a beachfront home to an island outsider who could buy it - almost top dollar.

BERMUDEZ: I'm guilty as charged. Here I am. I sold to an outsider.

COHEN: Bermudez says the whole situation is emotionally hard, even more so because the things she loves most about Vieques are still in recovery. There are no ripe mangoes here. The shade trees at the beach are stripped of their leaves. And at least for her, it feels like it's going to take a long time for the island to grow new fruit. For NPR News, I'm Jeff Cohen.

1 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 plaza   

n.广场，市场

参考例句：

• They designated the new shopping centre York Plaza.他们给这个新购物中心定名为约克购物中心。
• The plaza is teeming with undercover policemen.这个广场上布满了便衣警察。

4 fended   

v.独立生活，照料自己( fend的过去式和过去分词 )；挡开，避开

参考例句：

• He neatly fended off a jab at his chest. 他利落地挡开了当胸的一击。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I fended off his sword thrust with my spear. 他一刀砍来，我拿枪架住。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

5 patio   

n.庭院，平台

参考例句：

• Suddenly, the thought of my beautiful patio came to mind. I can be quiet out there,I thought.我又忽然想到家里漂亮的院子，我能够在这里宁静地呆会。
• They had a barbecue on their patio on Sunday.星期天他们在院子里进行烧烤。

6 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。