Since I left Los Angeles almost 3 months ago, I must've lived at least 4 different lives. Skipping from one Airbnb apartment to another, I got to see a dozen of households, heard twice as many stories, and met five times as many people. And with every new private room, and every new city, it was a new me stepping in. Only in San Juan, Puerto Rico I've lived in 4 households within the past 32 days.
Once or twice a month when I feel like searching for unexpected story lines and twists, I would book a place at a hostel or better coliving. The former is a hive of narratives--many of them are even more entertaining than your Uber driver stories. I still have an unpublished collection of them from Coliving.club operations back in San Francisco. But the story I'm about to tell you is about one of the most intellectual, socially and politically active people I've met so far in Puerto Rico. I was introduced to Gustavo on Twitter by 
Two days later I'm stepping over a door laying on the ground, waiting for its new coat on the third floor of a white four-story building at Calle Los Baños (the street of restrooms?). Gustavo, 23, rented the whole thing to create a "human nuclear reactor" of tech, skill-exchange, and entrepreneurship in Ocean Park, San Juan. Here he is, mixing cement in the living room to refresh the kitchen island. High-school students run around the apartment with rollers and 5 gallon buckets of paint. On the balcony, by the hammock, I notice a pair of people figuring out an angle grinder to finish the rails. It's Friday and I'm in the voluntarist version of the 'Whole House Makeover'. And you're reading the "positive stories from Puerto Rico" series.
"There is no fucking way I'm leaving this island. This is where I live, and this is where I wanna die"
-Gustavo Diaz
Gustavo is the president of the Young Entrepreneurs of Puerto Rico since 19. His non-profit organization is bridging the gap between the local and international talent. He is also a board member of Edublock and Link, the two non-profit organizations educating Puerto Rican youth about Blockchain. Back at Babson college he had closely studied the Acts 20 and 22 with his professor as they co-authored a paper on on social re-engineering of Puerto Rico. I interview Gus to produce a documentary about his Hacker House and social activities. We speak about the law 135 that allows individuals to pay 0% taxes on the first $40,000 of personal income and in the first $500,000 generated by the company. He helped over 50 local companies with 135. The phone rings--it's time to go downstairs and pick up Domino's for lunch (their operation is across the street). As we go down the stairs Gustavo mentions how he helped expedite the delivery of 340,000 pounds of food and basic necessities in 3 airplanes by collaborating directly with the municipalities. 😰 Dude, I once brought 10 pounds of used paper to my Middle school to be recycled and was so proud. I would love to visit the head of this Malkovich.
Chomping on a slice of pepperoni 🍕 I listen to a 17-years-old bitcoin miner and the girl in a 'iron man marathon' t-shirt. As we crunch, people come feast with us and help with rolling the mixed paints on the walls. Everyone wants to help. Exactly one week from now, Channel4 and BBC are visiting to feature the place, and Gustavo is calling all of the friends to come help. I look around and see that a professional team of workers will have to spend at least a month here to make the place ready for the reporters. But hey, fire runs in the veins of Puerto Ricans instead of blood. Every time they play dominos it's a Guy Ritchie scene, right there. So I am pretty sure they'll manage a pastiche of several apartments.
"I see Puerto Rico becoming the Singapore of the Western Hemisphere given how the Acts 20/22 have been engineered. There is no way of fucking this. And let's not even talk about the new Special Opportunities Zone Designation"
-Gustavo Diaz
Seven decades ago, Puerto Rico was positioned as a special economic zone. The economic model of going from the agriculture to manufacturing was first tested here and then implemented all around the world. I think it's called the bootstrap plan. Today Puerto Rico seems to be working on the version 2.0 and the entrepreneurs like Gustavo are back home to secure the victory (even if they are prohibited from playing every public organ in San Juan 😉)
-K.
Positive stories from Puerto Rico
Telling positive stories is not the most popular approach for the modern media. Anger and fear provoke far more viral reactions from the readers. If you want to learn more about entrepreneurs, hustlers and doers in Puerto Rico support our project by upvoting, resteeming, and sharing this article. 🙏