Jose and his younger sister were raised in Puerto Rico by their mother. When he was eighteen a neighbor sexually assaulted his seven-year old sister. As the oldest and only male in the family, he says, he had no choice. 'I went to jail. Attempted murder. I did fourteen years.' In jail he got 'with a bad crowd, started using junk.' His mother passed. With no family left in Puerto Rico, he came to the states.
Homeless, he now lives under the Bruckner Expressway, collecting cans and scrap metal for money. When I asked how he wanted to be described he said 'I got nothing. I don't like this. I don't like being dirty, collecting junk. There is nothing good. Nothing good. Nothing.'
More on Addiction: Faces of Addiction
costagavras, Veee Man, thought107, proof_by_contradiction, and 21 other people added this photo to their favorites.
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PamelaPul 14 months ago | reply
He is wrong that nothing is good. He is good. Bad choice but still. . . don't we all make bad choices? He is still paying for his crime. And yet, with all the bad in his life, he still smiles.
debeallison 14 months ago | reply
I've book marked your site and am always checking for up dates. You really have soul and compassion to capture these people the way you do. Great work.
Kim 'n Isabellyjelly 13 months ago | reply
I wonder, do you ever print out the responses that people share here to your pictures - nay, life stories - of these people, to show them how affected we can be, how much we can care for them, even if it's a passing thought and a moment of sending positive energy to a man whose life I can never touch? Makes you wonder if knowing that there are people out here who think he is WAY more than nothing, that he CAN HAVE more than nothing, even though it seems hopeless on that day? Who knows what tomorrow can bring? Seeing his face makes me want to reach out to him and even though I can't, I'm certainly going to remember his face when I see someone in my own city who may affect me in the same way and will reach out to help. Maybe it could give Jose a glimmer of hope to know that just seeing his face and hearing his story caused a more postive day for the person I'll connect with...
Chris Arnade 13 months ago | reply
Often finding folks is hard, some are now in jail, some move on, others in rehab. Jose is someone I have not located since this picture. He was living under an expressway in a makeshift shelter that a few weeks later sanitation cleared away.