In Loíza, Puerto Rico, Mayor Julia Nazario Fuentes and Municipal Legislature President Joel Osorio Chiclana announced that the Jobos Elementary School in Medianía now carries the name of educator Don Virtuoso Rivera García, a designation whose administrative process concluded several years ago but whose main building still needed signage. Nazario Fuentes credited the Puerto Rico Teachers Association and its president, Víctor Bonilla, who secured funding through the diaspora organization SOMOS NY to install the signage.
The facade unveiling ceremony was attended by Bonilla, Education Department (DE) Secretary Eliezer Ramos Parés, Rivera García’s relatives, school staff and students. Nazario Fuentes said Loíza honors education and its teachers, and that Rivera García directed the school in Parcelas Vieques, the Jesusa Vizcarrondo school and the Jobos school itself, which now bears his name.
Rivera García was also a librarian, teacher, school superintendent, human resources director for the Fajardo region when there were 10 education regions, and a special assistant at the DE central level. Osorio Chiclana said he co-founded the Mayombe folkloric group and served as a municipal legislator. He was certified as an artisan, collaborated with the Arte-Sano group, sat on the board of the Hogar Fortaleza del Caído, and worked with the DE scholarship program, through which many Loíza teachers completed master’s and doctoral degrees. He earned a master’s in school supervision and direction and is a bomba dancer.