After her Saturday night show in Las Vegas, Jennifer Lopez headed straight to her hometown so she could attend a press conference, where New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the state’s initiative to help Puerto Rico. Delivering a message in both Spanish and English, J Lo remarked that in the aftermath of Category 4 Hurricane Maria ravaging Puerto Rico, the island needs our help. During her emotional plea, Lopez stated that not only are she and Alex Rodriguez using all their connections to get the island more help, she will also donate $1 million for relief efforts from her Vegas residency shows.
“Puerto Ricans are American citizens, and today Puerto Ricans need our help,” she said. “Hurricane Maria has devastated our island. This is the strongest hurricane to strike Puerto Rico in nearly 90 years, and the consequences have been disastrous. Lives have been lost. Power is down across the entire island. More than 15,000 people have been forced into shelters and the storm has devastated the lives of thousands of others. My cousin and I and our family still haven’t been able to hear from all of our family over there, and we are concerned for them and for everyone on the island.”
Though her speech mostly focused on Puerto Rico, she stated that now is the time for all of us to pay attention and support the Caribbean, which has faced two cataclysmic hurricanes. She also noted that alongside Marc Anthony, they will spearhead more initiatives to help the Caribbean and Mexico, which also saw several natural disasters this month, recover.
Check out her entire speech below (her part starts at 12:12 in Spanish and 16:45 in English):
Before announcing her plans to help the island, she took to Instagram on Friday and told her followers about being unable to communicate with her family: