Puerto Rico slum transformed by ‘Despacito’ seeks to revive
SAN JUAN: Hope had come in with a song for La Perla, a seaside slum that had long been notorious as a violent enclave that served as Puerto Rico’s biggest distribution point for heroin.
The sound of clicking cameras and excited chatter had begun to break the morning silence. Tourists rambled through the narrow streets lined with brightly painted homes. Restaurants and other shops were popping up, catering to tourists drawn by the setting for the video of the worldwide hit song “Despacito,” which had been viewed billions of times since its release in January.
Then Hurricane Maria hit, ripping away power lines, water service, rooftops and even the newly installed banners that directed tourists to spots shown in the famed video.
With tourism to Puerto Rico as a whole abruptly halted, the only visitors to La Perla since the Sept. 20 storm have been people like the US National Park Service workers who came to distribute bottles of water.
“Right now we are all mired in a depression,” said Carmen Perez, a 77-year-old retiree who joined dozens of other La Perla residents with outstretched arms to receive the donated water.
One of the businesses that had boomed since “Despacito,” the La Garita restaurant, lost all four concrete walls to the hurricane, leaving only the kitchen standing.
“People did not use to fit in here,” said owner Ibilson Morales as he gestured toward the largely vacant spot where his restaurant once stood. “This used to be the most visited neighborhood in Puerto Rico.”
La Perla is a sort of scenic shantytown of about 350 people that emerged more than a century ago on a narrow strip of Atlantic shoreline between the crashing waves and the towering walls of Old San Juan. Few outsiders ventured through the handful of entrances to the place, nor were they welcome. At one spot, a wooden sign proclaimed: “Not open to visitors. Do not enter.”