![Puerto Rico barrios](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f7/Puerto_Rico_barrios.png)
The barrios of Puerto Rico are the primary legal divisions of the seventy-eight
municipalities of Puerto Rico.
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...
's 78 ''
municipios
' (, ) and ' () are country subdivisions in Italy and several Hispanophone and Lusophone nations, respectively. They are often translated as "municipality". In the English language, a municipality often is defined as relating to a single city or ...
'' are divided into geographical sections called ''
barrio
''Barrio'' () is a Spanish language, Spanish word that means "Quarter (urban subdivision), quarter" or "neighborhood". In the modern Spanish language, it is generally defined as each area of a city, usually delimited by functional (e.g. residenti ...
s'' (English: "
wards") and, as of 2010, there were 902 of them.
In the US Census a barrio sometimes includes a division called a or subbarrio. In Puerto Rico, barrios are composed of sectors. The types of sectors, (''sectores'') may vary, from normally ''sector'' to ''urbanización'' to ''reparto'' to ''barriada'' to ''residencial'', among others.
History
The history of the creation of the barrios of Puerto Rico can be traced to the 19th century, when historical documents first mention them. Historians have speculated that their creation may have been related to the
Puerto Rican representation at the
Cortes of Cádiz
The Cortes of Cádiz was a revival of the traditional ''Cortes Generales, cortes'' (Spanish parliament), which as an institution had not functioned for many years, but it met as a single body, rather than divided into estates as with previous o ...
. The names of barrios in Puerto Rico come from various sources, mostly from Spanish or Indian origin. One barrio in each municipality (except for
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
,
Ponce, and
San Juan) is identified as the ''
barrio-pueblo''. It is differentiated from other barrios in that it is the historical center of the municipality and the area that represented the seat of the municipal government at the time Puerto Rico formalized the ''municipio'' and ''barrio'' boundaries in the late 1940s. From time to time barrios are created, broken up, or merged. The downtown district of each town was called ''pueblo'' until 1990, when they began to be referred to as ''barrio-pueblo'' in the US Census, and contains the plaza, municipal buildings and a Roman Catholic church.
In 1832 there were 490, in 1878 there were 841, in 1990 there were 899 barrios.
Classification
![Barrio San Anton, Ponce, Puerto Rico (IMG 2741A)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/13/Barrio_San_Anton%2C_Ponce%2C_Puerto_Rico_%28IMG_2741A%29.jpg)
The
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...
recognizes 902 ''barrios'' in Puerto Rico. The US classifies ''barrios'' as
minor civil divisions
A minor civil division (MCD) is a term used by the United States Census Bureau for primary governmental and/or administrative divisions of a county or county-equivalent, typically a municipal government such as a city, town, or civil township. MCD ...
for statistical purposes.
As components of each municipality, each municipality has one or more barrios. Every municipality has at least one barrio called barrio ''Pueblo'' which is home to the largest urban area of the municipality, and the political seat of the municipality. Most municipalities have a single barrio named barrio ''Pueblo'' while others, most prominently the larger municipalities like the municipality of
Ponce, may have a barrio ''Pueblo'' that is made of several barrios.
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
is the municipality with the fewest barrios, while Ponce, at 31, has the most.
![Maps in the Puerto Rico 2010 Census of Population and Housing Page 139](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/Maps_in_the_Puerto_Rico_2010_Census_of_Population_and_Housing_Page_139.jpg)
The US Census Bureau further breaks down some ''barrios'' in Puerto Rico into ''subbarrios''. One such example is
Santurce (in San Juan) which has 40 subbarrios. Another example is ''barrio''
Segundo in Ponce which consists of ''subbarrios'' Clausells and Baldorioty de Castro (commonly shortened to Baldorioty). With over , ''barrio''
Lapa in the northeast area of the municipality of
Salinas, has the largest territorial area of any ''barrio'' in Puerto Rico, being larger in size than 10 of Puerto Rico's municipalities.
Another subdivision that may exist within a barrio is a , as seen in Census data.
Esperanza
Esperanza is the Spanish word for hope, and may refer to:
Places Philippines
* Esperanza, Agusan del Sur, a municipality
* Esperanza, Masbate, a municipality
* Esperanza, Sultan Kudarat, a municipality
United States
* Esperanza, Mississippi, ...
is a ''comunidad'' in
Vieques
Vieques (; ), officially Isla de Vieques, is an island and municipality of Puerto Rico, in the northeastern Caribbean, part of an island grouping sometimes known as the Spanish Virgin Islands. Vieques is part of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, ...
and an example of a subdivision of a ''barrio'' which is not called a ''subbarrio'' but is called instead a .
Outside of the Census data and in Puerto Rico barrios are divided by sectors. list their barrios and the sectors within them.
Cañaboncito barrio in Caguas, for example, has over 90 sectors. The types of sectors, (''sectores'') may vary, from normally ''sector'' to ''urbanización'' to ''reparto'' to ''barriada'' to ''residencial'', among others.
Significance
While in the past, barrios in Puerto Rico had political authority, each with their own elected mayor and "''barrio'' councils", currently ''barrios'' in Puerto Rico are no longer vested with any political authority. Their purpose was originally for the collection of taxes, but during the 1800s any political authority ''barrios'' had been centralized in the municipal governments. In 1880 Spain's ''Nomenclature of its Territories'' publication, it is stated that the municipalities were subdivided, as needed, to facilitate voting and to ease the administration of each municipality.
An analysis of the 1899 Puerto Rican and Cuban census, published by the War Department and
Inspector General of the United States in 1900 listed the census population numbers by ''barrios'' of Puerto Rico.
''Barrio'' names continue to be an essential point of reference for purposes of municipal and
state government property management, including land surveying and property sale, purchase, and ownership. Land and property deeds and surveys are all performed with barrio names as a mandatory reference. For example, official legal matters dealing with land and property issues are heard on the basis of municipal locations relative to the officially recognized ''barrios'' and ''barrio'' boundaries.
Problems
Non-official usage
The 902 ''barrios'' of Puerto Rico represent officially established primary legal divisions of the seventy-eight municipalities that contain unique and permanent geographical land boundaries. Puerto Rico Act 68 of 7 May 1945 (Ley Num. 68 de 7 de mayo de 1945), ordered the commonwealth's
Planning Board
An urban planner (also known as town planner) is a professional who practices in the field of town planning, urban planning or city planning.
An urban planner may focus on a specific area of practice and have a title such as city planner, town ...
to prepare a map of each of the municipalities and each of the barrios within said municipalities and the corresponding barrio names. Said map and list of barrio names constitute the officially established primary legal barrio divisions.
However, often the word "barrio" is also (mistakenly) used in Puerto Rico in an unofficial manner to represent a populated sector within a ''barrio'', and in this latter case the name of the sector can be—and most often is—different from the official ''barrio'' where it is located. An example of this non-official usage is the reference to Puerto Rican
nationalist
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...
Don
Pedro Albizu Campos
Pedro Albizu Campos (September 12, 1891Luis Fortuño Janeiro. ''Album Histórico de Ponce (1692–1963).'' p. 290. Ponce, Puerto Rico: Imprenta Fortuño. 1963. – April 21, 1965) was a Puerto Rican attorney and politician, and the leading fi ...
as having been born in ''barrio'' Tenerias in Ponce yet, there has never been a ''barrio'' Tenerias in Ponce; Tenerias is a populated sector—a settlement—of ''barrio''
Machuelo Abajo
Machuelo Abajo is one of the 31 barrios of the municipality of Ponce, Puerto Rico. Along with Canas Urbano, Magueyes Urbano, Portugués Urbano, and San Antón, Machuelo Abajo is one of the municipality's five originally rural barrios that ...
. The problem is that populated places have been adopting names for themselves that do not appear in the official government maps, because such maps have not been updated, and there is no system in place for such updates.
Quality control and GPS plotting
Puerto Rico barrio boundaries were established using landmarks such as "the top of a mountain", "the lot owned by Franscico Mattei", "the peak of a mountain ridge", "an almond tree" (árbol de húcar), and "to origin of Loco River". When describing the boundaries of
Las Piedras, the official 1952 document by the Puerto Rico Planning Board stated "the border continues through Cándido Márquez's and Jesús Barrio's farms until reaching a
mamey tree. This tree is about 50 meters south of Leoncio Rivera's home..." As these descriptors tended to lend themselves to ambiguity and other problems, there was a 2002 initiative by the
University of Puerto Rico
The University of Puerto Rico ( es, Universidad de Puerto Rico, UPR) is the main public university system in the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. It is a government-owned corporation with 11 campuses and approximately 58,000 students and 5,3 ...
to describe boundaries using
GPS
The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of the global navigation satellite sy ...
technology. The GPS coordinates of barrios of Puerto Rico are available via a Puerto Rico government portal.
See also
*
List of communities in Puerto Rico
*
List of Barrios of Ponce
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby unio ...
*
Pueblos in Puerto Rico
''Pueblo'' is a term primarily used in Puerto Rico to refer to the municipal district (''barrio'') that serves as the administrative, historic and cultural center of a municipality. The concept of ''pueblo'' is often used locally as analogous to th ...
Notes
References
{{Puerto Rican topics
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...
Populated places in Puerto Rico