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'It was the mother who explained to him that her daughter had said that he would never amount to anything in life. He was shocked. He used to live on the 13th floor, and he wanted to throw himself off, but he held himself back and said, ‘No, I’m going to show her, this person, I’m going to work that much harder to show her who I am.’ Completing his studies at Pontifical Catholic University in Ponce, Rivera studied design and fine arts, and resolved to build his UFO house and make it with his own hands. Purchasing the land in 2002 for $95,000, Rivera spent the next ten years and $150,000 constructing his unusual futuristic home - even wiring it up to emit the famous five tone signature theme from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The spot he picked is visible for miles around by drivers on the passing highway and Rivera intentionally chose the hillside so that the unnamed girl who broke his heart would see the UFO home and know that he had amounted to something. Scrimping and saving over the ten years it took him to build the house, Rivera fitted out his home not with expensive high tech appliances, but with dollar-store ashtrays made to resemble antennae and used $1.99 salad bowls for his flashing light fixtures. As the fame of his alien house on the hillside grew in the surrounding area, Rivera received an unusual visit four years ago in the dead of night - the girl who had broken his heart 40-years ago. | 
