La Perla is a historical shanty town astride the northern historic city wall of

Old San Juan Old San Juan ( es, Viejo San Juan) is a historic district located at the "northwest triangle" of the Isleta de San Juan, islet of San Juan. Its area roughly correlates to the Ballajá, Old San Juan, Ballajá, Catedral, Old San Juan, Catedral, Ma ...

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 ...

, stretching about 650 yards (600 m) along the rocky

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

coast immediately east of the

Santa Maria Magdalena de Pazzis Cemetery Santa Claus, also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, or simply Santa, is a legendary figure originating in Western Christian culture who is said to bring children gifts during the late evening and overnight ...

and down the slope from (north of) Calle Norzagaray. La Perla was established in the 18th century. Initially, the area was the site of a

slaughterhouse A slaughterhouse, also called abattoir (), is a facility where animals are slaughtered to provide food. Slaughterhouses supply meat, which then becomes the responsibility of a packaging facility. Slaughterhouses that produce meat that is no ...

because the law required the homes of former slaves and homeless non-white servants – as well as

cemeteries A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...

– to be established away from the main community center; in this case, outside the city walls. Sometime after, some of the farmers and workers started living around the slaughterhouse and shortly established their houses there.

History, location and description

Located inside the

Old San Juan Historic District Old San Juan ( es, Viejo San Juan) is a historic district located at the "northwest triangle" of the islet of San Juan. Its area roughly correlates to the Ballajá, Catedral, Marina, Mercado, San Cristóbal, and San Francisco sub-barrios ( ...

, (The Pearl) was originally the site of a slaughterhouse, called . It was built in the 18th century outside the walls of San Juan by slaves who were required to live outside the city. Slaves built homes and lived near the slaughterhouse and later , (Puerto Rican farmers) who moved to San Juan, lived there. La Perla belongs to and consists of the northernmost stretches of Mercado subbarrio (west) and San Cristóbal subbarrio in

San Juan Antiguo San Juan Antiguo (not to be confused with the historic district of Old San Juan which is located within this district), is a barrio located in the municipality of San Juan in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. San Juan Antiguo has 7 subbarrios. ...

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 ...

. San Juan Antiguo barrio is located on

Isleta de San Juan The Isleta de San Juan (Spanish for ''Islet of San Juan'') is a island in the San Juan Bay in the Atlantic coast of northern Puerto Rico. Home of Old San Juan, it is the site of the oldest permanent European settlement in Puerto Rico (1521), and ...

, an island off San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico, and it is connected to the mainland by bridges and causeways. La Perla is in the Old San Juan Historic District which is managed by US

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

. La Perla has sometimes been described as a slum and as a shantytown, because many homes have been built without proper permits. While tourists have normally been deterred from visiting La Perla, some entrepreneurs have tried to change its image with art galleries, cafés and restaurants. , a local community group has coordinated tours. La Perla, San Juan, Puerto Rico, view from basketball court

La Perla, San Juan, Puerto Rico, view from basketball court

Only four access points exist into La Perla: one through the

Santa María Magdalena de Pazzis Cemetery __NOTOC__ The Santa María Magdalena de Pazzis Cemetery is a colonial-era cemetery located in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico. It is the final resting place of many of Puerto Rico's most prominent natives and residents. Construction began in 1863 under ...

, and the others from Calle Norzagaray, named after Spanish soldier and colonial governor,

Fernándo Norzagaray y Escudero Fernando María Félix Mateo Juan Nepomuceno de Norzagaray y Escudero (19 July 1808 - 12 September 1860) was a Spanish soldier and colonial governor. Of Basque descent, he was a lieutenant general before becoming the 104th Governor of Puerto Ri ...

. #Calle Tiburcio Reyes (western border, along the outside of the old city wall) #Calle San Miguel (mostly in the western part, along the north) #Calle Bajada Matadero (mostly in the western part, along the south) #Calle Lucila Silva (mostly in the western part, east-west through the middle, too narrow for cars) #Calle Augustín O Aponte (eastern part) Despite the fact that many homes in La Perla have been built without proper permits, residents of La Perla do have utility services. Garbage pickup is done regularly in the neighborhood, which in 1973 consisted of about 900 houses and 3,300 residents. La Perla has a community-oriented music recording studio, El Estudio D' Oro, which serves as a free of cost music production workshop for all ages. El Estudio D' Oro is also home to the FM urban radio show, Hip Hop 787 La Verdadera Escuela, which is broadcast live from the studio on WVOZ Mix 107.7 FM. In 2010,

Carmelo Anthony Carmelo Kyam Anthony (born May 29, 1984) is an American professional basketball player who last played for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He has been named an NBA All-Star ten times and an All-NBA Team me ...

remodeled the basketball court located to the eastern side of La Perla, with a new surface and design featuring the logo of

Air Jordan Air Jordan is an American brand of basketball shoes produced by American corporation Nike. The first Air Jordan shoe was produced for Hall of Fame former basketball player Michael Jordan during his time with the Chicago Bulls in late 1984 and ...

’s Melo footwear line. It eventually became known by the name of the

Nuyorican Nuyorican is a portmanteau of the terms "New York" and "Puerto Rican" and refers to the members or culture of the Puerto Ricans located in or around New York City, or of their descendants (especially those raised or currently living in the N ...

athlete, who also repaired several other venues throughout the island. The refurbished playing field was later included among "the most breathtaking locations for a basketball court in the world" due to its oceanside location overlooking the Atlantic. In June 2011, the Drug Enforcement Agency with other agencies targeted 50 properties in La Perla and indicted 114 people from La Perla for

drug trafficking A drug is any chemical substance that causes a change in an organism's physiology or psychology when consumed. Drugs are typically distinguished from food and substances that provide nutritional support. Consumption of drugs can be via insuffla ...

. The area has a reputation for being dangerous, but the popular 2017 music video filmed there made it a curiosity amongst tourists, with some wanting to venture in to see where the video was filmed. In 2016, students of architecture at universities in Puerto Rico asked children for their ideas on how to improve their favorite areas of La Perla. is a colorful, bowl-shaped cemented area in La Perla, used for skateboarding on weekdays, and then filled with water on weekends, to serve as a pool. On September 20, 2017,

Hurricane Maria Hurricane Maria was a deadly Saffir–Simpson scale#Category 5, Category 5 Tropical cyclone, hurricane that devastated the northeastern Caribbean in September 2017, particularly Dominica, Saint Croix, and Puerto Rico. It is regarded as the wo ...

hit Puerto Rico and La Perla "looked like it was hit by a bomb". "

Despacito "Despacito" (; "Slowly") is a song by Puerto Rican singer Luis Fonsi featuring Puerto Rican rapper and singer Daddy Yankee as the lead single from Fonsi's 2019 studio album ''Vida''. Released on January 12, 2017, the song was written by Fonsi, ...

" (the song title that translates to "slowly") was also used to highlight and criticize the slow United States response to the destruction at La Perla caused by Hurricanes Irma and

Maria Maria may refer to: People * Mary, mother of Jesus * Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages Place names Extraterrestrial * 170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877 * Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, ...

, where the video was filmed. The

assisted the few residents of La Perla with tarps soon afterwards.

Census

In terms of the

United States 2000 Census The United States census of 2000, conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States on April 1, 2000, to be 281,421,906, an increase of 13.2 percent over the 248,709,873 people enumerated during the 1990 ce ...

, La Perla is composed of

Census block A census block is the smallest geographic unit used by the United States Census Bureau for tabulation of 100-percent data (data collected from all houses, rather than a sample of houses). The number of blocks in the United States, including Puerto R ...

s 3001 through 3010 (

Block group A Census Block Group is a geographical unit used by the United States Census Bureau which is between the Census Tract and the Census Block. It is the smallest geographical unit for which the bureau publishes sample data, i.e. data which is only coll ...

3, Census tract 4,

San Juan, Puerto Rico San Juan (, , ; Spanish for "Saint John") is the capital city and most populous municipality in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2020 census, it is the 57th-largest city under the jur ...

). A population of 338 was reported, 198 housing units (29 unoccupied), and 169 households, on an area of 80,028 square yards (16.53

acre The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imp ...

s; 66,914 m²). La Perla belongs to and consists of the northernmost stretches of the subbarrios '' Mercado'' (west) and '' San Cristóbal'' in

barrio. The dividing line between the subbarrios is the imagined extension of ''Calle San Justo'' to the north beyond the old city wall to the Atlantic coast. The eastern part consists of Census blocks 3002, 3009 und 3010, with a population of 64, 35 housing units (4 unoccupied), and 31 households, on 41,348 square yards (8.5

s; 34,572 m²).

Media and popular culture

Building in La Perla, San Juan, Puerto Rico

La Perla was the true site of the fictional "La Esmeralda" barrio depicted in

Oscar Lewis Oscar Lewis, born Lefkowitz (December 25, 1914 – December 16, 1970) was an American anthropologist. He is best known for his vivid depictions of the lives of slum dwellers and his argument that a cross-generational culture of poverty transcen ...

's sociological work "La vida: a Puerto Rican family in the culture of poverty--San Juan and New York", describing the lives of Puerto Rican slumdwellers and prostitutes. From La Perla, through taped interviews with dozens of intertwined family members who lived there in the 1940s-1960s, Lewis wrote an award-winning and controversial book. Controversial because his award-winning book, written in 1967, would influence the way people viewed Puerto Rican women and Puerto Ricans, in general. "Many who read his book assumed the

whores Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-penet ...

of La Perla were typical of all Puerto Rican women." In 1978, salsa singer

Ismael Rivera Ismael Rivera a.k.a. "Maelo" (October 5, 1931 – May 13, 1987), was a Puerto Rican composer and salsa singer. Early life Rivera was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, a sector of San Juan, Puerto Rico. He was the first of five children born to ...

had a hit song, written by composer Catalino Curet Alonso, in honor of this community, and named after it. In 2009 Urban Music group Calle 13 released another tribute song, also named ''La Perla'', in collaboration with

Ruben Blades Reuben or Reuven is a Hebrew Bible, Biblical male first name from Hebrew רְאוּבֵן (Re'uven), meaning "behold, a son". In the Bible, Reuben (son of Jacob), Reuben was the Reuben (son of Jacob), firstborn son of Jacob. Variants include R� ...

. In the song, Blades references Rivera's early effort; in the song's video, Blades pays his respects to Curet by visiting his tomb at the community's Santa María Madgalena de Pazzis cemetery.

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

singer

Nelly Furtado Nelly Kim Furtado (; ; born December 2, 1978) is a Canadian singer and songwriter. Furtado has sold over 40 million records worldwide making her one of the most successful Canadian artists. She first gained fame with her trip hop-inspired deb ...

along with Calle 13 band member

Residente René Pérez Joglar (born February 23, 1978), known professionally as Residente (often stylized as Resīdɛntə), is a Puerto Rican rapper, singer, and songwriter. He is best known as one of the founders of the alternative rap band Calle 13. ...

filmed the music video to the remix of Furtado's song ''

No Hay Igual "No Hay Igual" ("There Is No Equal") is a song by Canadian singer-songwriter Nelly Furtado from her third studio album, ''Loose'' (2006). It was written and produced by Furtado, Tim "Timbaland" Mosley, Nate "Danja" Hills, and Nisan Stewart, with ...

'' on 26 June 2006 in La Perla. Residente said he hoped that the video would help them both reach new audiences: "It's a good opportunity for us both. More than the North American market, the European market really interests me and her because her family is Portuguese." The video was directed by

Israel Lugo Israel Lugo (born November 7, 1973) is an American actor, director and Latin Grammy Award-winner music video director. Lugo was born in Brooklyn, New York and has credits for directing the documentary ''Sonó, Sonó, Tité Curet!!!'' (2011) and f ...

and

Gabriel Coss Gabriel Coss is a Latin Grammy Award and a Regional Emmy Award-winner music video director. Coss also has credits for directing the documentaries ''Aljuriya'' (2004), ''Sonó, Sonó, Tité Curet!!!'' (2011) and ''Armonía'' (Doctv Latinoamérica 20 ...

, photographed by Sonnel Velazquez and produced by María Estades. In

Giannina Braschi Giannina Braschi (born February 5, 1953) is a Puerto Rican poet, novelist, dramatist, and scholar. Her notable works include ''Empire of Dreams'' (1988), ''Yo-Yo Boing!'' (1998) ''and United States of Banana'' (2011). Braschi writes cross-genr ...

's political allegory

United States of Banana ''United States of Banana'' (2011) is a postmodern allegorical novel by the Puerto Rican author Giannina Braschi. It is a cross-genre work that blends experimental theatre, prose poetry, short story, and political philosophy with a manifesto o ...

(2011), the Puerto Rican prisoner Segismundo is born in the dungeon of the Statue of Liberty as the illegitimate child of a woman from La Perla and the Governor of Puerto Rico

Luis Muñoz Marín José Luis Alberto Muñoz Marín (February 18, 1898April 30, 1980) was a Puerto Rican journalist, politician, statesman and was the first elected governor of Puerto Rico, regarded as the "Architect of the Puerto Rico Commonwealth." In 1948 he ...

. The Puerto Rican classic play by

La Carreta ''La Carreta'' ( en, The Oxcart) is a 1953 play by Puerto Rican playwright René Marqués.Gil de La Madrid, Antonio.René Marqués, dramaturgo. ''Biografías de escritores puertorriqueños'', ''La Gran Enciclopedia Ilustrada del Proyecto Salón ...

(1953) by

René Marqués René Marqués (October 4, 1919 – March 22, 1979) was a Puerto Rican short story writer and playwright. Early years Marqués was born, raised and educated in the city of Arecibo. He developed an interest in writing at a young age and was ...

takes place in La Perla. A poor family moves from their farm to La Perla, and then to the

Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

for the better life that they never quite find. The motion picture

The Vessel (film) ''The Vessel'' is a 2016 film starring Martin Sheen. Cuban American filmmaker Julio Quintana wrote and directed and his brother Lucas Quintana stars alongside Sheen. Terrence Malick was an executive producer on the film. The movie was filmed in E ...

starring

Martin Sheen Ramón Antonio Gerardo Estévez (born August 3, 1940), known professionally as Martin Sheen, is an American actor. He first became known for his roles in the films ''The Subject Was Roses'' (1968) and ''Badlands'' (1973), and later achieved wid ...

about a tidal wave that destroys a small town was filmed in La Perla in 2013. With more than 6 billion views on YouTube, La Perla became world-known with the music video for the song

being filmed there.

Gallery

La Perla Puerto Rico.jpg, 2009 in La Perla La perla sign san juan puerto rico 2021-08-07 17-49-43 1.jpg, Comunidad La Perla sign Top of homes in La Perla, San Juan, Puerto Rico.jpg, Top of homes in La Perla La Perla, San Juan, Puerto Rico.JPG, Residences in La Perla La Perla neighborhood in San Juan, Puerto Rico.jpg, La Perla neighborhood in San Juan La Perla of Puerto Rico coastline.jpg, La Perla coastline in 2018 San Juan, view from a ship, Puerto Rico.jpg, La Perla from the sea in 2012 Basketball court at La Perla in San Juan, Puerto Rico.jpg, Youth playing basketball at a court at La Perla

References

Bibliography

External links

* {{Coord, 18, 28, 09, N, 66, 06, 58, W, type:landmark_region:US-PR, display=title Old San Juan, Puerto Rico Geography of San Juan, Puerto Rico 18th-century establishments in Puerto Rico Populated places established in the 18th century