page_title: Félix Rigau Carrera
section_title: Later years
hierarchical_section_title: Félix Rigau Carrera / Later years
caption_attribution_description: English: 1918 photo of Felix Rigau Carrera, Puerto Rico's first pilot. Sourcce "El Imparcial"; October 20, 1920; #1177 Licensing Image ir pre-1923 and therefore free of copyright laws.
context_page_description: Félix Rigau Carrera, known as El Águila de Sabana Grande, was the first Puerto Rican pilot and the first Puerto Rican pilot to fly on air mail carrying duties in Puerto Rico.
context_section_description: Rigau Carrera  settled in Gloucester, Virginia, in the early 1920s. He lived with his family in an old Abingdon Glebe School House and constructed a building to house a flour mill and other enterprises. Rigau Carrera founded the Rigau Concrete Works which manufactured a wide variety of items to meet the industrial needs of the developing county. Besides concrete blocks, he cast septic tanks, culverts, burial vaults and yard furniture. Rigau Carrera and his wife Bertha, who were certified undertakers, established a funeral home. He amassed a fortune as the owner of the funeral home and concrete factory. While living in Virginia he joined the Virginia Commonwealth USNRF (US Naval Reserve Force) 
  When the United States entered World War II, Rigau Carrera joined the United States Merchant Marine and where he served throughout the war years. During these years, Félix and Bertha divorced. He met and married Estella Martins from the Azores of Portugal with whom he had three more children, Félix, Philip, and Maria.
  Rigau Carrera died at the age of 60 and was buried with full military honors at Abingdon Episcopal Church Cemetery. His native hometown, Sabana Grande, named a street Calle Félix Rigau Carrera in his honor. On September 14, 2011, he was honored posthumously during the Hispanic Heritage Awards at Cleveland International Airport in Cleveland, Ohio.
  The American Legion Post 36 in Sabana Grande, Puerto Rico, was named in honor of LTJG Félix Rigau Carrera.
caption: Félix Rigau Carrera
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