As Jersey City's Puerto Rican community continues to reel from the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, it is now mourning one of its longtime leaders, Eliu Rivera, who died over the weekend.
Rivera, a former freeholder who once headed the Jersey City-based nonprofit Puertorriquenos Asociados for Community Organization (PACO), was 74. People close to him said he died in a hospital in Puerto Rico, where he was living with the long-term effects of a chemical he unintentionally inhaled in 2011.
"This is a devastating loss for PACO and the many people he served in Jersey City and all throughout Hudson County," PACO Executive Director Julio Garcia said in a statement.
Rivera was born in Aibonito, Puerto Rico, and moved to Jersey City as a teenager. He advocated for affordable housing and other needs of the Hispanic community, and helped organize PACO. The street outside the group's office was dedicated in his honor in 2012.
He served District 4 on the Hudson County Board of Chosen Freeholders from 2006 to 2013, and also served as a deputy mayor of Jersey City.
John Carpena, a lifelong friend of Rivera, said the two met on a Jersey City street corner in 1957, watching as a row of buildings were demolished to make way for new residential complexes. Rivera began speaking in Spanish and the boys learned they were from the same Puerto Rican town.
Rivera was a man who would do anything to help people in need if they asked, Carpena said. "The man was a giver," his friend said.
While he did not have specific details of Rivera's death, Carpena said there was "no question" the wide devastation Puerto Rico sustained from Hurricane Maria played a role in Rivera's death. The 74-year-old needed an oxygen tank at all hours of the day, Carpena added.
Rivera attended Rutgers University and Saint Peter's University, and later in life received an honorary doctorate for his community work from New Jersey City University.
Jersey City Councilman Daniel Rivera (the men are unrelated) called Eliu Rivera a "fearless leader" and "icon."
"The Puerto Rican community lost someone who gave it his all in the 1960s, '70s, '80s and '90s in Downtown and throughout Jersey City," the councilman said. "Eliu Rivera was one of its biggest advocates and a true pioneer of the community."
PACO is planning a memorial service for Rivera, but details have not yet been announced.
"The residents of Jersey City, Hudson County and the entire state of New Jersey lost a great leader and the Rivera family has lost a beloved patriarch," U.S. Rep. Albio Sires, D-West New York, said in a statement. "... His leadership efforts on behalf of the Puerto Rican community as well as those less fortunate will succeed him for many years to come. ... Eliu's fight against discrimination and consideration for the underrepresented will never be forgotten."