Aguada Puerto Rico's Angel of the Mountain

Those who know me back home in Iowa could tell you that I am as likely to speak about such things as God or angels or faith, as Lorri would be to attend a craft show during an Iowa football game. In short, it simply wouldn't normally happen. 

In the here and now however in Puerto Rico, I find it difficult not to be deeply moved by what we have experienced and what we are witnessing all around us every day. 

As this blog surpassed 150,000 readers in recent days, we were overwhelmed by the hundreds of positive messages we received. It was such an amazing outpouring of love and blessings from people around the nation and the world. We felt like we could never return so much love. Quite randomly and during a moment of emotion, I replied to one of the messages... just one... and said we needed to meet her and give her a hug. 

I had no idea where she was, or who she was, but in a much smaller world than we used to imagine, and a world where if you can dream it, you can do it, we reached out through the darkness of internet space. A few minutes later, I received a friend request. It was her. Despite the vast majority of our new readers being in the States and elsewhere, this woman, the one we decided out of a few hundred correspondences to randomly hunt down and force our hugs upon, was literally, right up the road from us. 

Views from the drive up to the Panaderia La Vina Aguada Puerto Rico

Her name was Maribel Candaleria. She and her husband, William Gonzalez, are pastors and own the Panaderia La Vina Aguada Puerto Rico, atop road 411 km 9.8, Bo. Atalaya, Aguada.  

We expected to drive up the mountain, eat something from the bakery, collect a hug, exchange some love, and return home with little more than a good feeling and a loaf of bread. As is almost always the case here on the island, we received so much more. 

Panaderia La Vina Aguada Puerto Rico

Views from the Panaderia La Vina Aguada Puerto Rico

Inside is a busy bakery and store, with locals streaming in and out for bread and donuts and supplies and tacos. It really cannot be overstated how much a part of the community bakeries are here in Puerto Rico. They are the convenience stores, the purveyor of your fresh baked daily bread, and the gathering place for friends and neighbors. It is where working parents can make a quick stop to pick up something for dinner, where so much local business accidentally gets conducted standing in front of the glass baked goods display, and where you can find that must have emergency item...

For our friends in the states. Who doesn't want to try some smoochie soft? 

Once inside we were introduced to a small unassuming woman with a warm and pleasant smile. She sat down with us and we talked for what would turn into a few hours. Last night, we met again and talked for a few hours more over tacos. I might add, that in spite of her smallness and humble demeanor, Maribel Candelaria has a presence that fills the room and surrounds you with a positive feeling. She is, in so many ways, much larger than she first appears. 

Lorri Malone, Maribel Candelaria, and Buzz Malone 

Maribel and William had purchased the bakery at a time when they had good paying jobs at places like Honeywell and Hewlett-Packard. They had bought it to preserve it as a place for the community, as well as to create and maintain jobs. They had never planned on becoming bakers really. 

As the economy on the island changed, the corporations that supported the middle class on the island changed too. Just as in the states, Puerto Rico had a much stronger thriving middle class in recent decades than it does now. Without diving too deeply into what has changed, we hear all too familiar stories about corporations, globalization, and the squeeze on individuals and local economies created by the relentless pursuit of ever greater profits. In the end, Maribel parted ways with corporate America and looked to her bakery and to God. 

She spoke of coming to work at the bakery every morning and feeling overwhelmed. The financials did not always work. The work was without end day and night. Drugs dealers on her corner ran away customers. The building itself was massive. It was too much space and the electricity bill alone was enough to break them. She prayed every day and asked God what the purpose of it all could possibly be. She could not see it, but she always had faith that God had a plan, even if it had yet to be revealed to her. 

Maribel had always been active in her community, her church and charities. She began working with groups of missionaries and youth groups who were on the island to repair homes of the elderly and families with special needs children. At first, she would help match the missions with local people in need. When she discovered the missionaries were paying high tourist rates for their meals and stays in Puerto Rico, she finally understood what God had been leading her to do. 

She approached the drug dealers, filled their bellies with chicken and cold drinks, and explained to them that they were ruining her business and could not be there any longer, because while the corner might technically be public property, the cameras from her business saw and recorded everything. When their boss came to her, she took the same direct approach, and soon her corner was safe for working mothers to stop and grab a loaf of bread day or night. 

Maribel Candelaria, God's most reluctant baker

Missionary housing room above the Panaderia La Vina Aguada

Maribel and William converted the entire upstairs of their building into a sort of hostel for groups of missionaries to operate out of. They have since fully restored the upstairs to house almost 30 people, and have added two additional properties they are working on to house even more volunteer workers. 

Maribel has hosted and fed hundreds of volunteers from youth groups and missions that have renovated and constructed houses, painted buildings, and worked to help develop the local agritourism economy growing up around cacao by planting trees and working closely with local businesses, the local mayor and government officials to gain access to a closed school to turn into a cacao processing facility and create more local jobs.  

The following photos featuring youth missionary groups performing work in Puerto Rico are attributable to LYNC8 Facebook page. The group bills itself as a "Christian non profit organization committed to raising awareness to social injustices in the U.S. and Latin America" but from everything I have heard and seen, they mostly just do a lot of good, hard work for people who need it. 

In the aftermath of Maria, Panaderia La Vina Aguada became a hub for the activity of rebuilding. Every morning officials from the US Army Corps of Engineers, the power company, and the local government descended upon the backroom to meet. Working with the mayor's office, Maribel would help direct the work to make sure those rural people with the greatest medical needs inside their homes had their power turned back on first. 

At one point, there was an urgent call from someone that people were there trying to take the power poles that were staged for their community. It was Maribel who physically stood on top of the poles and made sure they weren't taken away. As I said, she is much larger than she first appears.

Now, in the aftermath of the earthquake, as we sat and talked, she is fielding a steady stream of phone calls. She is working with people who are out in the countryside of the damaged areas to the south seeking out the same people she is always looking out for, the elderly, the sick, the special needs families. Those who cannot make it to the large distributions in the cities, or those who larger relief efforts have missed or overlooked. 

One call is about blankets. Another is about medicine. Another still and she is talking about which mountain road is impassable 60 miles away, and the alternative route her team has found to get around to the area where the house is. During our first meeting, the building began to slowly roll beneath our feet. It was another earthquake. We all went outside until it passed. 

I say she is a saint, a miracle. Maribel only laughs at the thought of that. She isn't an angel or a saint she would argue, because sometimes she gets so angry about injustices or the way things are, or when people who don't need it abuse systems designed to help those who are in real need. She has seen people thrown off of food assistance who are barely surviving while others abuse the system and it frustrates her. 

Maribel allowed me to share her story, not to sing her praises as the angel we believe her to be, but to remind people that she and her husband William are not unique, or imparted with superhuman strength or special powers. We all have the capacity, the ability and the means to do more for others, to help more, to love more, and make the world a better place. Most of us simply choose not to. 

Like almost every small business owner we have met on the island, no conversation can be had without them talking about the tremendous pride they have about providing jobs in their community. To most of them we have talked to in Puerto Rico, their businesses really are all about their people first and foremost. As an old union bum, this seems so foreign to me, coming from a world where so many businesses seemed to be mere engines seeking profit, where employees are seen more of an obtrusion upon the bottom line as anything else.  

Maribel has a story about every employee, past and current, about the difference having that job made in their lives, how opportunity turned lives around, and how one put herself through college and has a good job at the bank now. Her bakery, as it turns out, is not so much about donuts or fresh bread after all.

Admittedly, Maribel and William are not unique in that regard in Puerto Rico. As I write this hundreds of small business owners on the island treat their businesses the same way, as a conduit to help people in their communities. Many of them are deeply involved in helping the earthquake victims and the continued recovery of Hurricane Maria. 

Without the small businesses, I shudder to think of what the island might be like right now. They are often the conduits between the local people and the government and other organizations, and more often than not, their bottom lines are ultimately about how many more jobs they can create, or how many more beds they can buy for earthquake victims, or how much food they can afford to send to those in need. 

They may not be so special, or unique, and Maribel may only be doing what she has been called upon by God to do, and she will tell you herself that she mostly only connects the dots between people in need, the mayor's office, charities, and those who have something to give, or time to donate, but we still think she is inspiring.

As a Buzz fat kid side note... we will be regulars at the Panaderia La Vina Aguada from now one. Beyond a hug and meeting an amazing woman whose friendship is certain to change our lives, the $1 donuts weighed about a pound a piece, Lorri bought the place out of macaroons, and the woman Maribel has now who makes conejo tacos is a miracle worker all in her own rights. Seriously. Awesome food. Two words...conejo tacos. Homemade shells. OMG!

When we asked Maribel what we could do to help with relief efforts she is providing, she only asked us to let her know if we found someone with special needs in the affected area who the support was not reaching. Also, while showing us where the youth missionaries stayed, we noticed the beds and closets were bare. Turns out she has sent every blanket they had to be distributed to the elderly who are sleeping outside at night. 

The following is a link to her current blanket FB fundraiser even though she didn't ask us to share it:

https://www.facebook.com/donate/490746271444585/

She has it up because a few people in her network prefer to use it. Mostly, they give her the donations directly because they know it will get where it is needed most. She does not actively seek donations and takes no credit for anything ever... "God" she says will find a way to provide what is needed. That may be true, but He still relies pretty heavily upon people like Maribel, who we will always remember as Aguada's Angel of the Mountain.  

Thank you all for the messages, comments and blessings and for reading. 

-Buzz-