SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – On a recent morning in an Afro-Caribbean community in northeastern Puerto Rico, Dr. Pedro Juan Vázquez went door to door as part of his medical rounds. He greeted the elderly residents of the city with a cheerful “Good afternoon!” and a smile and casually asked if they would like their vitals checked.
Many were surprised to be approached with an offer of medical care. A man in a gray sweater opened the screen door and said, “Of course,” and sat on the porch to be examined.
Although a doctor, Vázquez is best known in Puerto Rico as a rapper who goes by the stage name PJ Sin Suela.
The 34-year-old is trying to fulfill his passion for music while helping those in need – and raising awareness about the health crisis on the island of 3.2 million people. The US territory faces power outages as well as a shortage of medical professionals, with many fleeing to the US mainland in search of better wages.
Puerto Rico has lost more than 8,600 doctors out of nearly 18,800 in just over a decade, according to a 2023 report from think tank The Center for a New Economy. The problem is expected to become more serious in the coming years.
“We have a huge exodus of young people,” Vázquez told the Associated Press. “In Puerto Rico, we have a much bigger crisis than people think.”
He travels from San Juan, the capital, to remote areas of the island at least once a week to treat underserved communities struggling in the wake of hurricanes, earthquakes and a fragile economy.
After hanging up his medical uniform, Vázquez spends his time producing and performing music that addresses issues such as social inequality, poverty and gun violence, with many deaths in Puerto Rico caused by domestic violence and stray bullets striking innocent victims.
“A bullet flies, lost like a child… the wind caresses it, tries to make news, falling on a skull, without any kind of justice”, he sings in “Las Balas Lloran” (“Bullets Cry”).
In “Somos Más” he addresses the difficult economic conditions of the island, singing: “The debt was placed on the worker, on those who go out in the rain and the sun, on public servants, teachers and nurses.”
His focus on social inequality resonates at home and among homesick Puerto Ricans abroad.
Vázquez comes from a background of leaving and returning to the island, a familiar back-and-forth for many Puerto Ricans since they hold U.S. passports. He does not criticize those who left Puerto Rico and went to the American continent, although he did the opposite.
“You can’t judge anyone, everyone has their story,” he said. “I am blessed to have two careers that I can pursue and live in.”
He was born in the Bronx, New York City, but moved with his family to the city of Ponce in southern Puerto Rico. He later went to Pennsylvania and then returned to Bayamón, Puerto Rico, to study medicine, becoming a doctor in 2015.
Vázquez became a household name to a younger generation in Latin America in 2018 with the single “Cuál Es Tu Plan?” The song was a collaboration with Puerto Rican icon Bad Rabbit and reggaeton singer Ñejo. The recognition he gained led to collaborations with Broadway stars Lin-Manuel Miranda It is René Pérez known by the stage name Residente the lead singer of the former reggaeton duo 13th Street.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, he went from holding a microphone to using a stethoscope, working full-time at a hospital in Ponce for a year. As a general practitioner, he saw patients of all ages who were excited to be treated by the popular rapper.
Vázquez said some doctors initially doubted his qualifications after years of touring and rapping, despite him maintaining his medical qualifications.
“After a month, everyone knew that this was not a joke to me and that I am very good at what I do,” he said. “I shut up those who doubted me.”
Dr. Carlos Díaz Vélez, president of the Puerto Rico Association of Surgical Physicians, said Vázquez helped highlight Puerto Rico’s health crisis.
“He expressed his criticisms about what is happening here because he himself knows what the problems are in the health system,” said Díaz.
In 2023, Vázquez’s work earned him a humanitarian award at the Premios Tu Música Urbano, an awards ceremony that recognizes urban music artists.
Milagros Martínez, a community leader in the western city of Hormigueros, remembers when Vázquez arrived in September 2022, after Hurricane Fiona to provide medical checkups to families without power or water.
“The younger ones recognized him,” said Martínez. “But he knew how to separate his role as a doctor from his role as an artist.”
Since then, Vázquez has been working on an album he hopes to release soon, reducing his shifts as a full-time doctor to once or twice a week at a mobile clinic for a nonprofit called Direct Relief.
Meanwhile, Vázquez faces a problem that plagues both his clinic and his recording studio: frequent power cuts.
He has had to leave the studio several times because he doesn’t have a generator, but what worries him most are the power cuts that affect his patients.
In June, cities in the central and southern parts of the island faced a prolonged power outage during extreme heat.
“You will see that people go two days without power, going through the heat that we have, and we have a huge transportation problem that people don’t talk about, where a lot of people can’t get to hospitals,” said Vázquez.
Now, more than ever, he feels the need to reconcile his passion for singing and caring for others, something that has become easier over time.
When he needs extra help, he calls on volunteers to help out at mobile clinics in Puerto Rico, and his fans reach out.
“They sign up to treat patients for free all day with me,” he said. “Sometimes I leave (the clinic) crying.”
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Associated Press cameraman Alejandro Granadillos contributed to this report.
This story originally appeared on ABCNews.go.com read the full story
