Ponce, Puerto Rico
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Ponce ( , , ) is a city and a
municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...
on the southern coast of
Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...
. The most populated city outside the San Juan metropolitan area, Ponce was founded on August 12, 1692Some publications/reporters have erroneously stated Ponce's date of founding as December 12, 1692 (see, for example, Jose Fernandez-Colon, The Associated Press, at "Noticias Online" on January 24, 2009, a
''Noticias Puerto Rico.''
Accessed 23 March 2019.) Another incorrect date sometimes found is September 12, 1692 (See, for example, Jorge L. Perez (El Nuevo Dia) and Jorge Figueroa (Ponce Municipal Historian), a
''Historic Buildings and Structures in Ponce, Puerto Rico.''
at the text accompanying Drawing #20, titled "Tumba de los Bomberos". Puerto Rico Historic Buildings Drawings Society. 2019. Accessed 4 February 2019. See als
''Mapa de Municipios y Barrios: Ponce, Memoria Numero 27.''
Gobierno del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico. Junta de Planificación. Santurce, Puerto Rico. 1953. p. 6.). Miguel A Sanchez-Celada also points to the September 12, 1692 date based on the record that on that date the Spanish Crown officially recognized, via Royal Decree, the hamlet as a town (See Miguel A Sanchez-Celada. ''Evolución urbana de Ponce (Puerto_Rico) según la cartografía Histórica.'' Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), Madrid, Spain. 2018. (DOI:http:..dx.doi.org/10.5944/etfvi.11.2018.20421) In, Espacio, Tiempo y Forma", Revista de la Facultad de Geografia e Historia, UNED. Serie VI. Geografía 11. 2018, pp. 219-245. ISSN 1130-2968. E-ISSN 2340-146x.) In this article the date reported is that given by the authorities closest to the founding date, and with their respective references.
Salvador Brau. ''La fundación de Ponce: estudio retrospectivo que comprende desde los asomos de vecindad europea en las riberas del Portugués, al terminar el siglo XVI, hasta el incendio casi total del pueblo de Ponce en febrero de 1820.'' Ponce, Puerto Rico: Taller Tipográfico Comercial "La Democracia". 1909. p. 5. Reprinted at San Juan, Puerto Rico, at a later date. p. 4. (See Francisco Lluch Mora's ''Orígenes y Fundación de Ponce'', Editorial Plaza Mayor, 2006, pp. 29, 33.)José Leandro Montalvo-Guenard. In, Luis Fortuño Janeiro. ''Album Histórico de Ponce: 1692-1963 (Section: "Algo Sobre Ponce y su Fundación".)'' Ponce, Puerto Rico: Imprenta Fortuño. 1963. p. 11.Francisco Lluch Mora. ''Orígenes y Fundación de Ponce.'' San Juan, Puerto Rico: Editorial Plaza Mayor. Segunda Edición. 2006. p. 33. and is named after Juan Ponce de León y Loayza, the great-grandson of Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León.Some historians state that the municipality was named after Juan Ponce de León himself. (Crediting Juan Ponce de León himself see, for example, Eduardo Neuman Gandia's ''Verdadera y Auténtica Historia de la Ciudad de Ponce.'' (San Juan, Puerto Rico: Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña. 1913.) Page 34, and Jose Luis Diaz de Villegas, https://books.google.com/books?id=ovzJlU1f-iAC&pg=PA46, and Sandra Torres Guzmán's '' Una hacienda atada a la historia citadina'', https://www.periodicolaperla.com/una-hacienda-atada-a-la-historia-citadina/ .) Others state it was named after Juan Ponce de Leon y Loayza, the great-grandson of Juan Ponce de Leon. (Crediting the great-grandson see, for example, Encyclopedia Puerto Rico, ; J.A. Corretjer, http://www.yerbabruja.com/pueblos/ponce.html; Frommer, https://books.google.com/books?id=Wy_BSu4a2EYC&pg=PA185; and Harry S. Pariser, https://books.google.com/books?id=KawuqbFxLS0C&pg=PT239.) A few authorities state it may have been named after the Ponce de León family in general, covering father, son, grandson, and great-grandson (See, for example, Francisco Lluch Mora's ''"Orígenes y Fundación de Ponce, y otras noticias relativas a su desarrollo urbano, demográfico y cultural (siglos XVI-XIX)"'', Segunda Edición, Editorial Plaza Mayor, 2006, page 27.). Still others state it was founded by Juan Ponce de León y Loayza but named by him in the memory of his great-grandfather, the Spanish Conquistador Juan Ponce de León. Ponce is often referred to as ''La Perla del Sur'' (The Pearl of the South), ''La Ciudad Señorial'' (The Manorial City), and ''La Ciudad de las Quenepas'' ( Genip City). The city serves as the governmental seat of the autonomous municipality as well as the regional hub for various government of Puerto Rico entities, such as the
Supreme Court of Puerto Rico The Supreme Court of Puerto Rico () is the highest court of Puerto Rico, having judicial authority to interpret and decide questions of Puerto Rican law. The Court is analogous to one of the state supreme courts of the states of the United State ...
. It is also the regional center for various U.S. federal government agencies. Ponce is a principal city of both the Ponce Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Ponce-Yauco-Coamo Combined Statistical Area with, as of the 2020 US Census, a population of 278,477 and 333,426 respectively. The municipality of Ponce, officially the ''Autonomous Municipality of Ponce'', is located in the southern coastal plain region of the island, south of
Adjuntas Adjuntas () is a small mountainside Adjuntas barrio-pueblo, town and Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality in Puerto Rico located in the central midwestern portion of the island on the Cordillera Central, Puerto Rico, Cordillera Central, no ...
, Utuado, and Jayuya; east of Peñuelas; west of Juana Díaz; and bordered on the south by the
Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba ...
. The municipality has 31
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 delimited by functional (e.g. residential, comm ...
s, including 19 outside the city's urban area and 12 in the urban area of the city. It is the second largest in Puerto Rico by land area, and it was the first in Puerto Rico to obtain its
autonomy In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy is the capacity to make an informed, uncoerced decision. Autonomous organizations or institutions are independent or self-governing. Autonomy can also be ...
, becoming the ''Autonomous Municipality of Ponce'' in 1992. The historic '' Ponce Pueblo'' district, located in the downtown area of the city, is composed by several of the downtown barrios, and is located approximately three miles () inland from the Caribbean coast. The historic district is characterized for its Rococo architecture, '' Neoclásico Isabelino'', and Ponce Creole architectures.


History


Early settlers

The region of what is now Ponce belonged to the
Taíno The Taíno are the Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, Indigenous peoples of the Greater Antilles and surrounding islands. At the time of European contact in the late 15th century, they were the principal inhabitants of most of what is now The ...
Guaynia region, which stretched along the southern coast of Puerto Rico. Agüeybaná, a
cacique A cacique, sometimes spelled as cazique (; ; feminine form: ), was a tribal chieftain of the Taíno people, who were the Indigenous inhabitants of the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles at the time of European cont ...
who led the region, was among those who greeted Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León when he came to the island in 1508. Archaeological findings have identified four sites within the municipality of Ponce with archaeological significance: Canas, Tibes, Caracoles, and El Bronce. During the first years of the
colonization 475px, Map of the year each country achieved List of sovereign states by date of formation, independence. Colonization (British English: colonisation) is a process of establishing occupation of or control over foreign territories or peoples f ...
, Spanish families started settling around the Jacaguas River, in the south of the island. For security reasons, these families moved to the banks of the Rio Portugués, then called Baramaya. Starting around 1646 the whole area from the Rio Portugués to the Bay of Guayanilla was called Ponce. In 1670, a small
chapel A chapel (from , a diminutive of ''cappa'', meaning "little cape") is a Christianity, Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. First, smaller spaces inside a church that have their o ...
was raised in the middle of the small settlement and dedicated in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Among its earliest settlers were Juan Ponce de León y Loayza, and the Portuguese Don Pedro Rodríguez de Guzmán, from nearby San Germán. On September 17, 1692, the King of Spain Carlos II issued a ''Cédula Real'' (Royal Permit) converting the chapel into a parish, and in so doing officially recognizing the small settlement as a hamlet. It is believed that Juan Ponce de León y Loayza, Juan Ponce de León's great-grandson, was instrumental in obtaining the royal permit to formalize the founding of the
hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...
. Captains Enrique Salazar and Miguel del Toro were also instrumental. The city is named after Juan Ponce de León y Loayza, the great-grandson of Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León. In the early 18th century Don Antonio Abad Rodriguez Berrios built a small chapel under the name of San Antonio Abad. The area would later receive the name of '' San Antón'', a historically important part of modern Ponce. In 1712 the village was chartered as ''El Poblado de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de Ponce'' (The Village of Our Lady of Guadalupe of Ponce).


19th-century immigrants

In the early 19th century, Ponce continued to be one of dozens of hamlets that dotted the Island. Its inhabitants survived by subsistence agriculture, cattle raising, and maritime
contraband Contraband (from Medieval French ''contrebande'' "smuggling") is any item that, relating to its nature, is illegal to be possessed or sold. It comprises goods that by their nature are considered too dangerous or offensive in the eyes of the leg ...
with foreigners. Mayor José Benítez categorized the jurisdiction into ''cotos'', ''hatos'', ''criaderos'', ''monterías'', and ''terrenos realengos''. ''Cotos'' were lands awarded to residents as reward for their services to the king. They were developed into
estancias An estancia or estância is a large, private plot of land used for farming or raising cattle or sheep. Estancias are located in the southern South American grasslands of Chilean and Argentine Patagonia, while the ''pampas'' have historically bee ...
or lands apt to be cultivated for agricultural use. ''Hatos'' were lands not granted to anyone in particular, but available for communal use where cattle could roam at will. ''Monterías'' were hilly areas located next to ''hatos'' were cattle could be reigned in or gathered together with the help of trained dogs. ''Criaderos'' were lands were cows could be herded for milk production. Goats, sheep, pigs, asses, and mares were also herded in ''criaderos''. ''Terrenos realengos'' were lands that belonged to the state (to the king). However, in the 1820s, three events dramatically changed the size of the town. The first of these events was the arrival of a significant number of white Francophones, fleeing the
Haitian Revolution The Haitian Revolution ( or ; ) was a successful insurrection by slave revolt, self-liberated slaves against French colonial rule in Saint-Domingue, now the sovereign state of Haiti. The revolution was the only known Slave rebellion, slave up ...
of 1791–1804.Eduardo Neumann Gandia. ''Verdadera y Autentica Historia de la Ciudad de Ponce.'' 1913. Reprinted in 1987. San Juan, Puerto Rico: Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña. p. 38. The effect of this mass migration was not felt significantly until the 1820s. These French Creole
entrepreneurs Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...
were attracted to the area because of its large flatlands, and they came with enough capital,
slaves Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...
, and commercial connections to stimulate Ponce's
sugarcane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fib ...
production and sales. Secondly, landlords and merchants migrated from various Latin American countries. They had migrated for better conditions, as they were leaving economic decline following the revolutions and disruption of societies as nations gained independence from Spain in the 1810s-1820s. Third, the Spanish Royal Decree of Graces of 1815 attracted numerous European immigrants to Puerto Rico. It encouraged any citizen of a country politically friendly to Spain to settle in Puerto Rico as long as they converted to the
Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
faith and agreed to work in the
agricultural Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created f ...
business. With such mass migrations, not only the size of the town was changed, but the character of its population was changed as well. Europeans, including many
Protestants Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...
, immigrated from a variety of nations. On July 29, 1848, and as a result of this explosive growth, the Ponce hamlet was declared a ''villa'' (village) by Queen Isabella II, and in 1877 the village obtained its city charter. Some of these immigrants made considerable fortunes in coffee, corn and sugarcane harvesting, rum production,
bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...
ing and
finance Finance refers to monetary resources and to the study and Academic discipline, discipline of money, currency, assets and Liability (financial accounting), liabilities. As a subject of study, is a field of Business administration, Business Admin ...
, the importing of industrial machinery, iron foundries and other enterprises. At the time of the American invasion of the Island in 1898, Ponce was a thriving city, boasting the Island's main financial center, the Island's first communications link to another country, the best capitalized financial institutions, and even its own currency. It had consular offices for England, Germany, the Netherlands, and other nations. Following trends set in Europe and elsewhere, in 1877, Don Miguel Rosich conceived an exposition for Ponce. This was approved in 1880, and the Ponce Fair was held in the city in 1882. It showed several industrial and agricultural advancements.
"It is important to establish a relationship between the European exhibitions that I have mentioned and the Ponce Fair, as the Fair was meant as a showcase of the advancements of the day: Agriculture, Trade, Industry, and the Arts. Just as with the 1878 World's Fair in Paris, the electric grid of the city of Ponce was inaugurated on the first day of the Ponce Fair. In this occasion the Plaza Las Delicias and various other buildings, including the Mercantile Union Building, the Ponce Casino, and some of Ponce's homes were illuminated with the incandescent light bulb for the first time".


Ponce in the 20th century


U.S. invasion

At the time of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Puerto Rico in 1898 during the
Spanish–American War The Spanish–American War (April 21 – August 13, 1898) was fought between Restoration (Spain), Spain and the United States in 1898. It began with the sinking of the USS Maine (1889), USS ''Maine'' in Havana Harbor in Cuba, and resulted in the ...
, Ponce was the largest city in the island with a population of 22,000. Ponce had the best road in Puerto Rico, running from Ponce to San Juan, which had been built by the Spaniards for military purposes. The taking of Ponce by American troops "was a critical turning point in the Puerto Rican campaign. For the first time the Americans held a major port to funnel large numbers of men and quantities of war material into the island." Ponce also had underwater
telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...
cable connections with
Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...
and the
West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...
, putting the U.S. forces on the island in direct communication with Washington, D.C., for the first time since the beginning of the campaign. Just prior to the United States occupation of the island, Ponce was a flourishing and dynamic city with a significant number of public facilities, a large number of industries and commercial firms, and a great number of exquisite residences that reflected the high standing of its bourgeoisie. On July 27, American troops, aboard the ''
Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...
'', '' Dixie'', , and ''
Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city, non-metropolitan district and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West England, South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean ...
'', disembarked at Playa de Ponce. General Nelson Miles arrived the next day with reinforcements from Guánica and took possession of the city. There were some minor skirmishes in the city, but no major battle was fought. Three men were killed and 13 wounded on the Spanish side, while the Americans suffered four wounded. The American flag was raised in the town center that same day and most of the Spanish troops retreated into the surrounding mountains. The U.S. Army then established its headquarters in Ponce.


Period of stagnation

After the U.S. invasion, the Americans chose to centralize the administration of the island in San Juan, the capital, neglecting the south and thus starting a period of socio- economic stagnation for Ponce. This was worsened by several factors: * Hurricane San Ciriaco in 1899 had left the region in misery * The opening of sugar mills in Salinas and Guánica drew commercial and agricultural activity away from Ponce * The decadence in coffee plantations in the 1920s * The loss of the Spanish and
Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...
n markets "The Spanish American War had paralyzed the trade of the Island of Puerto Rico and when Spain surrendered the sovereignty she closed her pain'sports to Puerto Rican products, while the American occupation of Cuba destroyed the only other important market. As a result, the trade in coffee and tobacco was ruined, and nothing was provided by the Americans to take their place." At least one author has also blamed the stagnation on "the strife between the U.S. and the local Nationalist Party." The 20th century financial stagnation prompted residents to initiate measures to attract economic activity back into the city. Also, a solid manufacturing industry surged that still remains. Examples of this are the Ponce Cement, Puerto Rico Iron Works, Vassallo Industries, and Destilería Serrallés. El Dia was also founded in Ponce in 1911.


Ponce massacre

On March 21, 1937, a peaceful march was organized by the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party to celebrate the 64th anniversary of the abolition of slavery and protest the incarceration of their leader, Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos, in a federal prison on charges of
sedition Sedition is overt conduct, such as speech or organization, that tends toward rebellion against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent toward, or insurrection against, establ ...
.''Report of the Commission of Inquiry on Civil Rights in Puerto Rico.'' By The Commission of Inquiry on Civil Rights in Puerto Rico. 70p, np, 22 May 1937. Law Library Microform Consortium. Kaneohe, HI.
Retrieved 22 November 2009.
The march turned into a bloody event when the Insular Police, a force somewhat resembling the
National Guard National guard is the name used by a wide variety of current and historical uniformed organizations in different countries. The original National Guard was formed during the French Revolution around a cadre of defectors from the French Guards. ...
of the typical U.S. state and which answered to U.S.-appointed governor Blanton Winship, opened fire on unarmed and defenseless members of the Cadets of the Republic and bystanders. When the shooting stopped, nineteen civilians had been killed or mortally wounded. Over two hundred others were badly wounded. Many were shot in their backs while running away, including a seven-year-old girl named Georgina Maldonado who was "killed through the back while running to a nearby church." The US commissioned an independent investigation headed by Arthur Garfield Hays, general counsel of the
American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is an American nonprofit civil rights organization founded in 1920. ACLU affiliates are active in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The budget of the ACLU in 2024 was $383 million. T ...
, together with prominent citizens of Puerto Rico. The members concluded in their report that the event was a massacre, with the police acting as a mob. They harshly criticized Winship's actions as governor and said he had numerous abuses of civil rights. The event has since been known as the Ponce massacre.. Retrieved 23 November 2009. It was the largest massacre in Puerto Rican history. As a result of this report and other charges against Winship, he was dismissed from his position in 1937 and replaced as governor. The history of this event can be viewed at the Ponce Massacre Museum on Marina Street. An open-air park in the city, the Pedro Albizu Campos Park, is dedicated to the memory of the president of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. As a result of this event, Ponce has been identified as "the birthplace of Puerto Rican national identity." Ponce history in general is expressed at the Ponce History Museum, on the block bordered by Isabel, Mayor, Cristina, and Salud streets in the historic downtown area.


Hub for political and economic activity

Ponce has continued to be a hub of political activity on the island, and is the founding site of several major political parties. It has also been the birthplace of several important political figures of the island, including Luis A. Ferré and Rafael Hernández Colón, both former governors of Puerto Rico, as well as the childhood town of governor Roberto Sanchez Vilella. Statistics taken from the 2010 census show that 82.0% of Ponceños are
White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
and 9.0% are African-American, with
Taíno The Taíno are the Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, Indigenous peoples of the Greater Antilles and surrounding islands. At the time of European contact in the late 15th century, they were the principal inhabitants of most of what is now The ...
s, Asians, people of
mixed race The term multiracial people refers to people who are mixed with two or more races and the term multi-ethnic people refers to people who are of more than one ethnicities. A variety of terms have been used both historically and presently for mul ...
and others making up the rest. At 82.0% vs. 76.2% for the island as a whole, Ponce has the highest concentration of white population of any municipality in Puerto Rico. However, the US Census Bureau changed the definitions of its racial makeup categories for the 2020 census resulting in 19.0% of Ponceños being classified as
white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
and 13.3% as Black/Afro Puerto Rican', 0.3% as Asian, and people of
mixed race The term multiracial people refers to people who are mixed with two or more races and the term multi-ethnic people refers to people who are of more than one ethnicities. A variety of terms have been used both historically and presently for mul ...
making up the rest.


1970s economic decline

The 1970s brought significant commercial, industrial and banking changes to Ponce that dramatically altered its financial stability and outlook of the city, the municipality and, to an extent, the entire southern Puerto Rico region. After Luis A. Ferre concluded his term as governor of Puerto Rico on January 1, 1973, he closed the Puerto Rico Iron Works foundry on Avenida Hostos, and transferred the offices of Ponce's island-wide El Dia newspaper that he owned, as well as the headquarters of his Empresas Ferré, to San Juan. In 1976, CORCO—southern Puerto Rico's main source of economic vitality—shut down its industrial operations in Guayanilla leaving thousands of area residents without work; its impact on indirect sources of employment was even greater. Also, the sugar cane industry, also suffered a major downturn. Sugar cane had until 1976 been grown and refined at Ponce's Central Mercedita, but in that year agricultural production of sugar cane was halted in the lands of the municipality of Ponce and adjacent towns. Also, the headquarters of Banco de Ponce and Banco Crédito y Ahorro Ponceño were moved to San Juan. Unemployment of Ponce jumped to 25% as a result of these changes.


The Mameyes landslide

On October 7, 1985, Ponce was the scene of a major tragedy, when at least 129 people lost their lives to a
mudslide A mudflow, also known as mudslide or mud flow, is a form of mass wasting involving fast-moving flow of debris and dirt that has become liquified by the addition of water. Such flows can move at speeds ranging from 3 meters/minute to 5 meters/ ...
in a sector of Barrio
Portugués Urbano Portugués Urbano is one of the 31 barrios in the municipality of Ponce, Puerto Rico. Along with Canas Urbano, Machuelo Abajo, Magueyes Urbano, and San Antón, Portugués Urbano is one of the municipality's five originally rural barrios that ar ...
called Mameyes. International help was needed to rescue people and recover corpses. The United States and many other countries, including Mexico, France, and
Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...
, sent economic, human, and machinery relief. The commonwealth government, subsequently, relocated hundreds of people to a new community built on stable ground. In 2005, the National Science and Technology Council's Subcommittee on Disaster Reduction of the United States reported that the Mameyes landslide held the record for having inflicted "the greatest loss of life by a single landslide" up to that year.


Recent history

The
municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...
of Ponce became the first in Puerto Rico to obtain its
autonomy In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy is the capacity to make an informed, uncoerced decision. Autonomous organizations or institutions are independent or self-governing. Autonomy can also be ...
on October 27, 1992, under a new law (''The Autonomous Municipalities Act of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico'') enacted by the Puerto Rican legislature. Ponce's mayor for 15 years, Rafael Cordero Santiago ("Churumba"), credited for leading the municipal government to that accomplishment, died in office on the morning of January 17, 2004, after suffering three consecutive strokes. Vice-mayor Delis Castillo Rivera de Santiago finished his term. Cordero was succeeded by Francisco Zayas Seijo. In the 2008 general elections María "Mayita" Meléndez was elected mayor of the city of Ponce and served three terms. The current (2021) mayor is Luis Irizarry Pabón who became the first mayoral candidate in the modern history of Ponce to win with more than 60% of votes cast. The city is also the governmental seat of the Autonomous Municipality of Ponce, and the regional hub for various commonwealth entities. For example, it serves as the southern hub for the Judiciary of Puerto Rico. It is also the regional center for various other commonwealth and federal government agencies. Ponce has improved its economy in the last years. In recent years, Ponce has solidified its position as the second most important city of Puerto Rico based on its economic progress and increasing population. Today, the city of Ponce is the second largest in Puerto Rico outside of the San Juan metropolitan area. Its nicknames include: ''La Perla del Sur'' (The Pearl of the South) and ''La Ciudad Señorial'' (The Noble or Lordly City). The city is also known as ''La Ciudad de las Quenepas'' ( Genip City), from the abundant amount of this fruit that grows within its borders. The complete history of Ponce can be appreciated at the Museo de la Historia de Ponce, which opened in the city in 1992. It depicts the history of the city from its early settlement days until the end of the 20th century. On September 20, 2017, Hurricane Maria struck the island of Puerto Rico. In Ponce, $1,000 million in damages were the initial estimates. An estimated 3,500 homes were completely or partially destroyed. The hurricane triggered numerous landslides in Ponce.


Geography

The Municipality of Ponce sits on the Southern Coastal Plain region of the Puerto Rico, on the shores of the Caribbean Sea. It is bordered by the municipalities of Adjuntas, Utuado, Jayuya, Peñuelas, and Juana Díaz. Ponce is a large municipality, with only Arecibo larger in land area in Puerto Rico. In terms of physical features, the municipality occupies a roughly rectangular area in south-central portion of the Island of approximately wide (east-to-west) by long (north-to-south). It has a surface area of . The main physiographic features of the municipality of Ponce are: (1) the mountainous interior containing the headwaters of the main river systems, (2) an upper plain, (3) a range of predominantly east-west trending limestone hills, (4) a coastal plain, and (5) a coastal flat. The northern two-thirds of the municipality consists of the mountainous interior, with the southern third divided between hills, coastal plains, and the coastal flat. Ponce's municipal territory reaches the central mountain range to the north and the Caribbean Sea to the south. Geographically speaking, the southern area of the territory is part of the Ponce-Patillas alluvial plain subsector and the southern coastal plain, which were created by the consolidation of the valleys of the southern side of the central mountain range and the Cayey mountain range. The central area of the municipality is part of the semi-arid southern hills. These two regions are classified as being the driest on the island. The northern part of the municipality is considered to be within the rainy western mountains. Barrio Anón is home to Cerro Maravilla, a peak that at is Puerto Rico's fourth highest peak. Nineteen barrios comprise the rural areas of the municipality, and the topology of their lands varies from flatlands to hills to steep mountain slopes. The hilly barrios of the municipality (moving clockwise around the outskirts of the city) are these seven: Quebrada Limón, Marueño, Magueyes, Tibes, Portugués Rural, Machuelo Arriba, and Cerrillos. The barrios of Canas, Coto Laurel, Capitanejo, Sabanetas, Vayas, and Bucaná also surround the outskirts of the city but these are mostly flat. The remaining six other barrios are further away from the city and their topology is rugged mountain terrain. These are (clockwise): Guaraguao, San Patricio, Monte Llano, Maragüez, Anón, and Real. The ruggedness of these barrios is because through these areas of the municipality runs the Central Mountain Range of the Island. The remaining barrios are part of the urban zone of the city. There are six barrios in the core urban zone of the municipality named '' Primero'', '' Segundo'', '' Tercero'', '' Cuarto'', '' Quinto'', and '' Sexto.'' They are delimetered by streets, rivers, or major highways. For example, Barrio Tercero is bounded in the north by Isabel Street, in the east by the Rio Portugués, in the south by Comercio Street, and the west by Plaza Las Delicias. Barrio Tercero includes much of what is called the historic district. There is a seismic detector that the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus, has placed in Barrio Cerrillos.


Land features

Elevations include Cerro de Punta at , the highest in Puerto Rico, located in Barrio Anón in the territory of the municipality of Ponce. Mount Jayuya, at is located on the boundary between Barrio Anón and Barrio Saliente in Jayuya. Cerro Maravilla, at nearly above sea level, is located to the east of Barrio Anón. There are many other mountains at lower elevations in the municipality, such as the Montes Llanos ridge and Mount Diablo, at and Mount Marueño, at , and Pinto Peak, among others. Part of the Toro Negro Forest is located in Barrio Anón. Coastal promontories include Cuchara, Peñoncillo, Carnero, and Cabullón points. Fifty-six percent of the municipality consists of slopes 10 degrees or greater.


Water features

The 14 rivers comprising the hydrographic system of Ponce are Matilde, Inabón, Bucaná, Jacaguas, Portugués, Cañas, Pastillo, Cerrillos, Chiquito, Bayagan, Blanco, Prieto, Anón and San Patricio The Jacaguas River runs for a brief stretch on the southeast area of the municipality. The Inabón River springs from Anón ward and runs through the municipality for some ; the tributaries of the Inabón are the Anón and Guayo rivers and the Emajagua Brook. The Bucaná River springs from Machuelo Arriba ward and runs for into the Caribbean Sea. The tributaries of the Bucaná are the San Patricio, Bayagán, and Prieto Rivers and Ausubo brook. The Portugués River springs from the ward of that name in Adjuntas, and runs for into the Caribbean sea at Ponce Playa ward. The Matilde River, also known as the Pastillo River, runs for ; its tributaries are the Cañas River and the Limón and del Agua brooks. Lakes in Ponce include Bronce and Ponceña as well as lakes bearing numbers: Uno, Dos, Tres, and Cinco; and the Salinas Lagoon, which is considered a restricted lagoon. Other water bodies are the springs at Quintana and the La Guancha and El Tuque beaches. There is also a beach at Caja de Muertos Island. Lake Cerrillos is located within the limits of the municipality, as will be the future lake resulting from the Portugués Dam. The Cerrillos State Forest is also located in the municipality of Ponce. Coastal geographic features in Ponce include Bahía de Ponce, Caleta de Cabullones (Cabullones Cove), and five cays: Jueyes, Ratones, Cardona, Gatas, and Isla del Frio. Caja de Muertos Island and Morrillito islet are located at the boundary between Ponce and Juana Díaz. There is a
mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows mainly in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. Mangroves grow in an equatorial climate, typically along coastlines and tidal rivers. They have particular adaptations to take in extra oxygen a ...
covering an area of approximately at Cabullón promontory and Isla del Frio. The Salinas Lagoon, part of Reserva Natural Punta Cucharas, has a mangrove that expands about . The lagoon itself consists of 698 ''cuerdas'' (678 acres; 274 ha). The Rita cave is located in Barrio Cerrillos.


Climate

Ponce features a
tropical savanna climate Tropical savanna climate or tropical wet and dry climate is a tropical climate sub-type that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification categories ''Aw'' (for a dry "winter") and ''As'' (for a dry "summer"). The driest month has less than ...
( Koppen Aw/As). Ponce has summer highs averaging and winter highs, .''February Daily Averages for Ponce, PR.''
The Weather Channel. 2012. Accessed 21 July 2019
Archived at the WayBack Machine on 3 November 2012.
/ref> It has lows averaging in the winter and in the summer. It has a record high of , which occurred on 21 August 2003, and a record low of which occurred on 28 February 2004, tying the record low of from 25 January 1993. The mean annual temperature in the municipality is .


Cityscape


Architecture

During the 19th century, the city was witness to a flourishing architectural development, including the birth of a new architectural style later dubbed Ponce Creole. Architects like Francisco Valls, Manuel Víctor Domenech, Eduardo Salich, Blas Silva Boucher, Agustín Camilo González, Alfredo Wiechers, Francisco Porrata Doria and Francisco Gardón Vega used a mixture of
Art Nouveau Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...
and neoclassic styles to give the city a unique look. This can be seen in the various structures located in the center of the city like the Teatro La Perla. To showcase its rich architectural heritage, the city has opened the Museum of Puerto Rican Architecture at the Wiechers-Villaronga residence. Many of the city's features (from house façades to chamfered street corners) are modeled on
Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...
's architecture, given the city's strong Catalan heritage. In 2020, the National Trust for Historic Preservation named the Ponce Historic Zone as one of America's most endangered historic places.


Barrios

With 31 ''barrios'', Ponce is Puerto Rico's municipality with the largest number of barrios. Ponce's barrios consist of 12 located in the urban area of the city plus 19 outside the urban zone. Of these nineteen, seven were considered
suburban A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...
in 1999. The suburban barrios were: Canas, Magueyes, Portugués, Machuelo Arriba, Sabanetas, Coto Laurel, and Cerrillos. A 2000 report by the U.S. Census Bureau provides detailed demographics statistics for each of Ponce's barrios. The 2000 Census showed that Montes Llanos is the least populated barrio in the municipality. Thanks to its larger area, barrio Canas was by far the most populated ward of the municipality. At 68 persons per square mile, San Patricio was the least populated, while Cuarto was the most densely populated at 18,819 persons per square mile. Ponce has nine barrios that border neighboring municipalities. These are Canas, Quebrada Limón, Marueño, Guaraguao, San Patricio, Anón, Real, Coto Laurel, and Capitanejo. Canas and Capitanejo are also coastal barrios, and together with three others ( Playa, Bucaná, and Vayas) make up the municipality's five coastal barrios. There are also five barrios within the city limits ( Canas Urbano, Machuelo Abajo, Magueyes Urbano,
Portugués Urbano Portugués Urbano is one of the 31 barrios in the municipality of Ponce, Puerto Rico. Along with Canas Urbano, Machuelo Abajo, Magueyes Urbano, and San Antón, Portugués Urbano is one of the municipality's five originally rural barrios that ar ...
, and San Antón) that in addition to the original six city core barrios — named Primero, Segundo, Tercero, Cuarto, Quinto, and Sexto — make up the 11 urban zone barrios of the municipality. The historic zone of the city is within these original six core city barrios. These eleven barrios composed what is known as the urban zone of the municipality. The remaining eight barrios ( Magueyes, Tibes, Montes Llanos, Maragüez, Portugués, Machuelo Arriba, Cerrillos, Sabanetas) are located in the interior of the municipality. These last eight are outside the city limits and are neither coastal nor bordering barrios. A summary of all the barrios of the municipality, their population, population density, and land and water areas as given by the U.S. Census Bureau is as follows:


Tourism

Due to its historical importance throughout the years, Ponce features many points of interest for visiting tourists. The downtown area contains the bulk of Ponce's tourist attractions. Tourism has seen significant growth in recent years. In 2007, over 6,000 tourists visited the city via cruise ships. Passenger movement at the Mercedita Airport in FY 2008 was 278,911, a 1,228% increase over fiscal year 2003 and the highest of all the regional airports for that 5-year period. Though not all of these were tourists, it represents a volume larger than the population of the city itself. To support a growing tourist industry, around the 1970s, and starting with the Ponce
Holiday Inn Holiday Inn by IHG is a chain of hotels based in Atlanta, Georgia and a brand of IHG Hotels & Resorts. The chain was founded in 1952 by Kemmons Wilson (1913–2003), who opened the first location in Memphis, Tennessee. The chain was a division ...
, several hotels have been built. Newer lodging additions include the Ponce Hilton Golf & Casino Resort, home to the new Costa Caribe Golf & Country Club, featuring a 27-hole PGA championship
golf course A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a teeing ground, tee box, a #Fairway and rough, fairway, the #Fairway and rough, rough and other hazard (golf), hazards, and ...
. The Hotel Meliá has operated in the city continuously since the early 20th century. It has also been studied that the Intercontinental Hotel, which opened in February 1960 and closed in 1975, could be refurbished and re-opened atop the hill near Cruceta del Vigía as the "Magna Vista Resort". The Ponce Ramada also opened in 2009, and other hotel projects in the works include the Four Points by Sheraton, and Marriott Courtyard, among others. In 2013, the downtown Ponce Ramada Hotel added a casino to its 70-room structure. Ponce is part of the Government of Puerto Rico's Porta Caribe tourist region.


''Ponce en Marcha''

In recent years an intensive $440 million revitalization project called "''Ponce en Marcha''" ("Ponce on the Move") has increased the city's historic area from 260 to 1,046 buildings. The ''Ponce en Marcha'' project was conceived in 1985 by then governor Rafael Hernández Colón during his second term in La Fortaleza and Ponce mayor Jose Dapena Thompson. The plan was approved by the Ponce Municipal Legislature on January 14, 2003. It was signed by Governor Sila Calderon via Executive Order on December 28, 2003, and went into effect on January 12, 2004. The plan incorporates one billion dollars in spending during the period of 2004 through 2012. A significant number of buildings in Ponce are listed in the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
. The nonprofit ''Project for Public Places'' listed the historic downtown Ponce city center as one of the ''60 of the World's Great Places'', for its "graciously preserved showcase of Caribbean culture". The revitalized historic area of the city goes by various names, including "Ponce Centro" (Ponce Center), "Historic Ponce", and "Historic District." The name "Ponce en Marcha" comes from the revitalization plan of ''Zona Atocha'' in Madrid called ''Atocha en Marcha''.


Landmarks

The city has been christened as ''Museum City'' for its many quality museums. All museums in Ponce are under municipal government administration. On 15 September 2004, the last four museums not under local control were transferred from the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture to the Ponce Municipal Government by act of the Puerto Rico Legislature. However, these four museums ( Casa Armstrong Poventud, Casa Wiechers-Villaronga, Museo de la Música Puertorriqueña, and Casa de la Masacre) continue to be controlled by the ICP. Downtown Ponce in particular features several museums and landmarks. Plaza Las Delicias, the town's main square, features a prominent fountain (namely, the "Lions Fountain"), the Ponce Cathedral, and Parque de Bombas, an old fire house, now a museum, that stands as an iconic symbol of the city and a tribute to the bravery of its firefighters. This plaza is also a usual gathering place for "ponceños". Other buildings around Ponce's main plaza include the Casa Alcaldía (
Ponce City Hall The Ponce City Hall () is a historic city hall in Ponce, Puerto Rico. It is located it the center of the city, on Federico Degetau, Calle Degetau, across from Plaza Degetau in the Ponce Historic Zone. The building serves as the seat of the execu ...
), the oldest colonial building in the city, dating to the 1840s, and the Armstrong-Poventud Residence, an example of the neoclassical architectural heritage of the island. Just north of downtown Ponce lies the Castillo Serrallés and the Cruceta del Vigía, a observation tower which overlooks the city. The Serralles castle is reported to receive nearly 100,000 visitors every year. The hill on which the Cruceta is located was originally used by scouts to scan for incoming mercantile ships as well as invading ones. The invasion of American troops in 1898 was first spotted from there. Ponce is home to Puerto Rico's oldest cemetery; in fact, it is the oldest cemetery in the Antilles. In the city outskirts, the Tibes Indigenous Ceremonial Center was discovered in 1975 after hurricane rains uncovered
pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other raw materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. The place where such wares are made by a ''potter'' is al ...
. The center is the site of the oldest cemetery uncovered up to date in the Antilles. With some 200 skeletons unearthed from the year 300 AD, it is considered the largest and the most important archaeological finding in the West Indies. Two other cemeteries in Ponce worth noting are the Panteón Nacional Román Baldorioty de Castro and the Cementerio Catolico San Vicente de Paul, both of which are listed in the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
. The Cementerio Catolico San Vicente de Paul has the most eye-catching burial constructions of any cemetery for the wealthiest families, both local and foreign-born, of southern Puerto Rico. Also in the city outskirts is Hacienda Buena Vista, an estate built in 1833 originally to grow fruits. It was converted into a coffee
plantation Plantations are farms specializing in cash crops, usually mainly planting a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Plantations, centered on a plantation house, grow crops including cotton, cannabis, tob ...
and
gristmill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that h ...
in 1845. It remained in operation until 1937, then fell into disrepair, but was restored by the government's ''Fideicomiso de Conservación de Puerto Rico''. All the machinery works (the metal parts) are original, operated by water channeled from the 360m Vives waterfall; there is a hydraulic
turbine A turbine ( or ) (from the Greek , ''tyrbē'', or Latin ''turbo'', meaning vortex) is a rotary mechanical device that extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful work. The work produced can be used for generating electrical ...
which makes the corn mill work. Paseo Tablado La Guancha is located in the town's sea shore. It features kiosks with food and beverages, an open-space stage for activities, and a marina called Club Náutico de Ponce. From the observation tower on the boardwalk, Cardona Island Light can be seen. A 45-minute boat ride is also available to Isla de Caja de Muertos (Coffin Island), a small island with several beaches and an 1887
lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lens (optics), lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Ligh ...
. , the city had also engaged in the development of a convention center with a capacity for 3,000 people. It is also to include two major hotels, apartment buildings and recreational facilities. Puerto Rico Route 143 ( PR-143), known as the '' Panoramic Route'', runs edging near the municipality's northern border.


Culture

The city is home to a long list of cultural assets including libraries, museums, galleries, and parks, hundreds of buildings of historical value including schools, residences, bridges, and estates, and frequent activities such as festivals and carnivals. The municipality invests close to half a million dollars in promoting its cultural assets. It established its first
library A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...
in 1894 and, had a new central library with seven other branches scattered throughout the municipality. A number of cultural events take place during the year, most prominently: * February – Ponce Carnival * March –
Feria de Artesanías de Ponce In the liturgy of the Catholic Church, a feria is a day of the week other than Sunday. In more recent official liturgical texts in English, the term ''weekday'' is used instead of ''feria''. If the feast day of a saint falls on such a day, t ...
(Ponce Crafts Fair) In 2019, the 45th was held. * April – Ponce Jazz Festival * May –— Fiesta Nacional de la Danza; Barrio Playa Festival * July – Barrio San Anton's Bomba Festival * August – Festival Nacional de la Quenepa (National Genip Festival), often the third week * September – Día Mundial de Ponce * November – Discovering Our Indian Roots * December – Patron Saint's Day Festival ('' Fiestas Patronales'');''Vuelven a Ponce las Fiestas Patronales.''
Carmen Cila Rodríguez. La Perla del Sur. Ponce, Puerto Rico. 5 December 2012. Retrieved 5 December 2012.
'' Las Mañanitas''; Children's Christmas Concert The city values its cultural traditions as evidenced by the revitalization project ''Ponce en Marcha.'' It is deeply rooted in its traditional cultural, artistic, and musical heritage. The love for art and architecture, for example, can be appreciated at its museums of art, music, and architecture.
"Over the last century or so, the north .e., San Juanwillingly accepted the influence of
western culture Western culture, also known as Western civilization, European civilization, Occidental culture, Western society, or simply the West, refers to the Cultural heritage, internally diverse culture of the Western world. The term "Western" encompas ...
with its tendency toward large sprawling metropolises, and the displacement of old values and attitudes. Ponce, on the other hand, has been content to retain its old
traditions A tradition is a system of beliefs or behaviors (folk custom) passed down within a group of people or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common exa ...
and
culture Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...
. Ponce is not concerned about losing its long standing position as the second largest city in population after San Juan. On the contrary, she prefers to maintain her current size, and stick to its old traditions and culture."
Some argue that the Ponceño culture is different from the rest of the Island:
"Ponceños have always been a breed apart from other Puerto Ricans. Their insularity and haughtiness are legendary, and some Puerto Ricans claim that even the dialect in Ponce is slightly different from that spoken in the rest of the Island. They are also racially different: you'll see more people of African descent in Ponce than anywhere else in the Island except Loiza."
Others claim that Ponceños exhibit considerable more civic pride than do residents of other locales. Luis Muñoz Rivera, the most important statesman in the Island at the close of the 19th century, referred to Ponce as "the most Puerto Rican city of Puerto Rico."


Music

Artistic development also flourished during this period. The surging of popular rhythms like Bomba and Plena took place in the south region of the island, mainly in Ponce. Barrio San Antón is known as one of the birthplaces of the rhythm. Every July, Ponce celebrates an annual festival of Bomba and Plena, which includes various musicians and parades. Immigrants from Spain, Italy, France, Germany, and England came to Ponce to develop an international city that still maintains rich
Taíno The Taíno are the Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, Indigenous peoples of the Greater Antilles and surrounding islands. At the time of European contact in the late 15th century, they were the principal inhabitants of most of what is now The ...
and African heritage. The African personality, belief, and music add flavor and colorful rhythm to Ponce's culture. Part of this are the influences of the Bomba and Plena rhythms. These are a combination and Caribbean and African music. Ponce has also been the birthplace of several singers and musicians. From
opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...
singers like Antonio Paoli, who lived in the early 20th century, to contemporary singers like
Ednita Nazario Edna María Nazario Figueroa (born April 11, 1955) is a Puerto Rican Latin pop singer who has achieved stardom both at home and abroad. She has been in the music business from a young age and has released twenty-three studio albums, seven live ...
. Also, Salsa singers like Héctor Lavoe,
Cheo Feliciano Cheo Feliciano (3 July 1935 – 17 April 2014) was a Puerto Rican singer and composer of salsa and bolero music. Feliciano was the owner of a recording company called "Coche Records". He was the first tropical singer to perform at the "Amira ...
, and Ismael Quintana also come from the city. Dating back to 1858, Ponce's Carnival is the oldest in Puerto Rico, and acquired an international flavor for its 150th anniversary. It is one of the oldest
carnival Carnival (known as Shrovetide in certain localities) is a festive season that occurs at the close of the Christian pre-Lenten period, consisting of Quinquagesima or Shrove Sunday, Shrove Monday, and Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras. Carnival typi ...
s celebrated in the Western Hemisphere. It features various parades with masked characters representative of good and evil. The Museum of Puerto Rican Music, located at the Serrallés-Nevárez family residence in downtown Ponce, illustrates music history on the Island, most of which had its origin and development in Ponce. No discussion of music in Ponce would be complete without rendering honor to the great performances of King of Tenors Antonio Paoli and danza master Juan Morel Campos, both from Ponce. Today, there is a statue of Juan Morel Campos that adorns the Plaza Las Delicias city square, and the
home A home, or domicile, is a space used as a permanent or semi-permanent residence for one or more human occupants, and sometimes various companion animals. Homes provide sheltered spaces, for instance rooms, where domestic activity can be p ...
where Paoli was born and raised functions as the Puerto Rico Center for Folkloric Research, a research center for Puerto Rican culture. A municipal band presents concerts every Sunday evening, and a Youth Symphony Orchestra also performs.


Arts

Ponce's love for the arts dates back to at least 1864 when the Teatro La Perla was built. Ponce is also the birthplace of artists like Miguel Pou, Horacio Castaing, and several others in the fields of
painting Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...
,
sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...
, and others. The City is one of only seven cities in the
Western Hemisphere The Western Hemisphere is the half of the planet Earth that lies west of the Prime Meridian (which crosses Greenwich, London, United Kingdom) and east of the 180th meridian.- The other half is called the Eastern Hemisphere. Geopolitically, ...
(the others being
Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...
,
Havana Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.Valparaíso,
Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...
, Mar del Plata, and
Rosario Rosario () is the largest city in the central provinces of Argentina, Argentine province of Santa Fe Province, Santa Fe. The city, located northwest of Buenos Aires on the west bank of the Paraná River, is the third-most populous city in the ...
) in the Ruta Europea del Modernisme, an international
non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...
association for the promotion and protection of
Art Nouveau Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...
heritage in the world. Today, Ponce has more museums (nine) than any other municipality in the Island. Ponce is home to the Museo de Arte de Ponce (MAP), founded in 1959 by fellow ''ponceño'' Luis A. Ferré. The museum was operated by Ferré until his death at the age of 99, and it is now under the direction of the Luis A. Ferré Foundation. Designed by Edward Durell Stone, architect of Radio City Music Hall and the
Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...
in New York, MAP is the only museum of international stature on the Island, the only one that was accredited by the American Alliance of Museums (AAM), and the only one that has received a design prize of honor from the American Institute of Architects (AIA). It houses the most extensive art collection in the Caribbean with 4,500 pieces.


Sports

Most of Ponce's professional teams are called the ''Leones de Ponce'' (''Ponce Lions'', or '' Ponce Lionesses'' as the case may be) regardless of the sport. The Leones de Ponce basketball team is one of the leading teams of the island, winning 12 championships during their tenure. The team's venue is the Juan Pachín Vicéns Auditorium. The Leones de Ponce (men's) baseball and the Leonas de Ponce (women's) baseball teams have also been fairly successful. The baseball teams' venue is the Francisco Montaner Stadium. The stadium is located next to the Juan Pachín Vicéns Auditorium. In 1993 the city hosted the Central American and Caribbean Games, from November 19–30. The city also hosts two international annual sporting events. In the month of May, it hosts the Ponce Grand Prix, a
track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...
event in which over 100 athletes participate. During the Memorial Day Weekend in the month of September, the city hosts Cruce a Nado Internacional, a swimming competition with over a dozen countries represented. Also, the Ponce Marathon takes place every December, sometimes as part of the '' Las Mañanitas'' event on December 12. The Francisco "Pancho" Coimbre Sports Museum, named after the baseball player of the same name, was dedicated to the honor of Puerto Rico's great sports men and women. It is located on the grounds of the Charles H. Terry Athletic Park on Lolita Tizol Street, just north of the entrance to Historic Ponce at Puente de los Leones (Lions' Bridge) and the Ponce Tricentennial Park. In 2012 the city commenced construction of the multi-sport complex Ciudad Deportiva Millito Navarro. No date has been announced for its completion yet, but its
skateboarding Skateboarding is an extreme sport, action sport that involves riding and Skateboarding trick, performing tricks using a skateboard, as well as a recreational activity, an art form, an entertainment industry Profession, job, and a method of tr ...
section opened in March 2013. The main annual sports events are as follows: * April – Las Justas – intercollegiate sports competition * May – Ponce Grand Prix – international track and field competition * August – Cruce a Nado Internacional – international swimming competition * December – Maratón La Guadalupe– - 26-mile national marathon


Recreation

The municipality is home to several parks and beaches, including both passive and active parks. Among the most popular passive parks are the Julio Enrique Monagas Family Park on Ponce By-pass Road ( PR-2) at the location where the Rio Portugués feeds into Bucaná. The Parque Urbano Dora Colon Clavell, another passive park is in the downtown area. Active parks include the Charles H. Terry Athletic Field, and several municipal tennis courts, including one at Poly Deportivos with 9 hard courts, and one at La Rambla with six hard courts. There are also many public basketball courts scattered throughout the various barrios of the municipality. The municipality has 40 beaches including 28 on the mainland and 12 in Caja de Muertos. Among these, about a dozen of them are most notable, including El Tuque Beach in the El Tuque sector on highway PR-2, west of the city, La Guancha Beach at the La Guancha sector south of the city, and four beaches in Caja de Muertos: Pelicano, Playa Larga, Carrucho, and Coast Guard beach. A
ferry A ferry is a boat or ship that transports passengers, and occasionally vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A small passenger ferry with multiple stops, like those in Venice, Italy, is sometimes referred to as a water taxi or water bus ...
must be boarded at La Guancha for transportation to the Caja de Muertos beaches.


Religion

During and after colonization, the Roman Catholic Church became the established religion of the colony. Gradually African slaves were converted to Christianity, but many incorporated their own traditions and symbols, maintaining African traditions as well. Ponce Cathedral, listed in the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
, was built in 1839. The Royal Decree of Graces of 1815 allowed for non-Catholics to immigrate legally to Puerto Rico, but it required those who wanted to settle on the island to make a vow of alliance to the Catholic Church. Ponce was the first city in Puerto Rico where
Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...
churches were built. With the U.S. invasion, there was a significant change in the religious landscape in the City and in Puerto Rico. "The Protestant missionaries followed the footprints of the United States soldiers, right after the Treaty of Paris was ratified and Puerto Rico was ceded to the American government."Aida Belen Rivera Ruiz, Certifying Official, and Juan Llanes Santos, Preparer, Puerto Rico Historic Preservation Office. (San Juan, Puerto Rico) 26 February 2008. In ''National Register of Historic Places Registration Form''. United States Department of the Inferior. National Park Service. (Washington, D.C.) Page 20. Listing Reference Number 08000283. Section 8, page 16. 11 April 2008. By March 1899, eight months after the occupation, executives from the
Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...
s, Episcopalians,
Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...
s,
Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...
s, and others, had arranged for an evangelical division whereby Ponce would have Evangelical, Baptist, and Methodist "campaigns". With the passing of the Foraker Act in 1900, which established total separation between Church and State, the absolute power of the Catholic Church eroded quickly. Various Protestant churches were soon established and built in Ponce; today many are recognized as historic sites. Among them are the McCabe Memorial Church (Methodist) (1908), and the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church (Methodist) (1907). The bell of the Episcopalian Holy Trinity Church in Barrio Cuarto, rang again when the Americans arrived on 25 July 1898. Built in 1873, the church was allowed to function by the Spanish Crown under the conditions that its bell would not be rung, its front doors would always remain closed, and its services would be offered in English only. Today, Ponce is home to a mix of religious faiths: both Protestants and Catholics, as well as
Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...
s, have places of worship in Ponce. Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians,
Pentecostal Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a movement within the broader Evangelical wing of Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes direct personal experience of God in Christianity, God through Baptism with the Holy Spirit#Cl ...
s, Adventists, Evangelicals,
Disciples of Christ The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination in the United States and Canada. The denomination started with the Restoration Movement during the Second Great Awakening, first existing during the 19th ...
, and Congregationalists are among the Protestant faiths with a following in Ponce. Catholicism is the faith of the majority of ''ponceños.'' In 2009, the Catholic Church had 18 parishes in the municipality, two bishops and 131 priests. In his ''Memoirs'', Albert E. Lee summed up Ponce's attitude towards religion:


Economy

Traditionally the city's economy had depended almost entirely on the sugarcane industry. Since around the 1950s, however, the town's economy has diversified and today its economy revolves around a mixed-industry manufacturing sector, retail, and tourism. The building of a mega port, anticipated to be completed in 2012, is expected to add significantly to the area's economy. Agriculture, retail, and services are also significant players in the local economy. It is considered an agricultural, trade, and distribution center, with manufacturing that includes electronics, communications equipment, food processing, pharmaceutical drugs, concrete plants, scientific instruments and rum distilling as well as an established gourmet coffee agricultural industry.''City of Ponce: Ponce is for all that come to visit. Ponce is Ours...''
Think Ponce. 2013. Retrieved 19 September 2013.
The city, though, suffers from an unemployment rate that hovers around the 15 percent mark.


Manufacturing

The municipality is considered one of the most developed municipalities in Puerto Rico. Its
manufacturing Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of the secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer ...
sectors include electronic and
electrical Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwel ...
equipment, communications equipment,
food processing Food processing is the transformation of agricultural products into food, or of one form of food into other forms. Food processing takes many forms, from grinding grain into raw flour, home cooking, and complex industrial methods used in the mak ...
,
pharmaceutical drug Medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal product, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy ( pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the ...
s, concrete plants, and scientific instruments. It also produces leather products, needlework, and
fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...
flour Flour is a powder made by Mill (grinding), grinding raw grains, List of root vegetables, roots, beans, Nut (fruit), nuts, or seeds. Flours are used to make many different foods. Cereal flour, particularly wheat flour, is the main ingredie ...
to a lesser extent. Ponce is home to the Serralles rum distillery, which manufactures Don Q, and to Industrias Vassallo, a leader in PVC manufacturing. Other important local manufacturers are Ponce Cement, Cristalia Premium Water, Rovira Biscuits Corporation, and Café Rico. Ponce was once the headquarters for Puerto Rico Iron Works, Ponce Salt Industries, and Ponce Candy Industries.


Agriculture

In the agricultural sector, the most important products are coffee, followed by plantains,
banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus '' Musa''. In some countries, cooking bananas are called plantains, distinguishing the ...
s, oranges, and grapefruits. A mix of public and private services, as well as finance, retail sales, and construction round up Ponce's economic rhythm. Cafe Rico, which metamorphosed from coffee-grower Cafeteros de Puerto Rico, has its headquarters in Ponce.


Retail

For many years commercial retail activity in Ponce centered around what is now Paseo Atocha. This has shifted in recent years, and most retail activity today occurs in one of Ponce's various malls, in particular Plaza del Caribe. Centro del Sur Mall is also a significant retail area, as is Ponce Mall.


Mega port

Ponce is home to Puerto Rico's chief Caribbean port, the Port of Ponce. The port is expanding to transform it into a mega port, called the Port of the Americas that will operate as an international transshipment port. When fully operational, it is expected to support 100,000 jobs.


Demographics

Ponce has consistently ranked as one of the most populous cities in Puerto Rico. Ponce's population, according to the 2010 census, stands at 166,327, with a
population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...
of , ranking third in terms of population among Puerto Rican municipalities. As of 2000, speakers of English as a first language accounted for 13.89% of the population.


Government

The
municipal government A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...
has its seat in the city of Ponce. Since its foundation in 1692, the city of Ponce has been led by a
mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...
. Its first mayor was Don Pedro Sánchez de Matos. The 2008 election of María Meléndez Altieri ( PNP), brought Ponce the first woman to be elected to the mayoral office in the city's history. She was re-elected in
2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...
and again in 2016, but lost her re-election bid in
2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...
. In the
2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...
election Luis Irizarry Pabón ( PPD) was elected as mayor, but was suspended as mayor on November 1, 2023, by the Puerto Rico Office of the Special Independent Prosecutor's Panel after an investigation. Marlese Sifre has served as interim mayor since November 2, 2023 and was elected as mayor during the 2024 Puerto Rican general election. Ponce's best known
mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...
of recent years is perhaps Rafael "Churumba" Cordero Santiago ( PPD), who held office from 1989 until his sudden death on the morning of 17 January 2004, after suffering three successive brain strokes. The city also has a municipal legislature that handles local legislative matters. Ponce has had a municipal council since 1812. The municipal legislature is composed of 16 civilians elected during the general elections, along with the mayor, state representatives and senators. The delegations are, until the 2020 general election, distributed as follows: 13 legislators of the Popular Democratic Party, two legislators of the New Progressive Party, and one legislator from the Movimento Victoria Ciudadana. The
Ponce City Hall The Ponce City Hall () is a historic city hall in Ponce, Puerto Rico. It is located it the center of the city, on Federico Degetau, Calle Degetau, across from Plaza Degetau in the Ponce Historic Zone. The building serves as the seat of the execu ...
has one of the most unusual histories of any city hall throughout the world. "Originally built in the 1840s as a public assembly hall, Ponce's City Hall was a jail until the end of the 19th century. Current galleries were former cells, and executions were held in the courtyard. Four U.S. presidents spoke from the balcony - Theodore Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover, Franklin Roosevelt and George Bush." It is listed in the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
. In 2005, the municipality's budget was US$152 million. In 2010-2011 it was $158 million. In 2016-2017 the proposed budget was $140 million. From a business perspective, the Ponce municipal government is generally praised for its efficiency and speediness, thanks to its adoption of the Autonomous Municipality Law of 1991. The municipality of Ponce is the seat of the Puerto Rico Senatorial district V, which is represented by two senators. During the 2024 Puerto Rico Senate election, Marially González of the Popular Democratic Party and Jamie Barlucea, of the New Progressive Party, were elected as District Senators and are currently serving.


Symbols

The has an official flag and coat of arms.


Coat of arms

The
coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...
of the municipality is based on the design of the official mayoral seal that was adopted in 1844 under the administration of mayor Salvador de Vives. The coat of arms of Ponce consists of an escutcheon (shield) in the Spanish tradition. This shield has a field with a party per bend division. The division runs from top left to bottom right. The field is red and black, bordered with a fine golden line. In the center of the shield is the figure of an erect lion standing on a bridge. The top of the bridge is a golden, the middle is red bricks, and the base foundation is gray rocks. Under the bridge there are gray wavy lines. Over the shield rests a five-tower golden stone wall with openings in the form of red windows. To the left of the shield is a coffee tree branch with its fruit, and to the right of the shield is a sugarcane stalk. The symbols of the shield are as follows: The field represents the flag of the municipality of Ponce, divided diagonally in the traditional city colors: red and black. The lion over the bridge alludes to the last name of the conqueror and first governor of Puerto Rico, Juan Ponce de Leon. The waves under the bridge allude to the Rio Portugues, on the banks of which the city was born. The coronet in the form of a five-tower mural crown above the shield allude to the Spanish crown, through which the settlement obtained its city charter. The coffee tree branch and the sugarcane stalk represent the main agricultural basis of the economy of the young municipality.


Flag

Ponce has two official flags, one for the municipality and one for the city proper. The municipal flag, "the 1692 flag", was adopted in 1967 via a municipal ordinance. This flag, designed by Mario Ramirez, was selected from among a number of public proposals. It consisted of a rectangular cloth divided by a diagonal line into two equal
isosceles triangle In geometry, an isosceles triangle () is a triangle that has two Edge (geometry), sides of equal length and two angles of equal measure. Sometimes it is specified as having ''exactly'' two sides of equal length, and sometimes as having ''at le ...
s. The line ran from the top right-hand corner to the bottom left-hand corner. The top triangle was black; the bottom right triangle was red. On the top triangle was the figure of a lion over a bridge. On the bottom triangle was the word "Ponce" with the number "1692", the date when the municipality was founded. Ponce Municipal Assembly Order No. 5, Section 5, of Municipal Assembly Year 1966-1967 established that the last Sunday in April is "Día de la Bandera de Ponce" (Ponce Flag Day). Ten years later, in 1977, a new municipal ordinance introduced a flag, "the 1877 city flag" to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the declaration of the ''city'' charter. This (1977) flag consisted of a rectangular cloth divided by a diagonal line, creating two equal isosceles triangles, starting from the top left hand corner and ending on the lower right hand corner. The top triangle is red; the bottom triangle is black. In the center of the flag sits the shield of the municipality. Under this shield is the number "1877", the year of the founding of the city, and above the shield is the word "PONCE". Some flags have the "1877" date on the left border of the bottom triangle and the name of the city on the right border of the triangle, as illustrated in the insert on the left.


Municipal services


Fire protection

The city's fire department has a history of firsts, including being the first organized fire department in the Island. As the largest city in the island at the time, and ''de facto'' economic and social center of Puerto Rico, this in effect also created the first Puerto Rico Fire Department. The Ponce Fire Department also built the first fire station in the Island, which still stands to this day, and is now open as the Parque de Bombas museum. Also, in 1951, Ponce's Fire Chief Raúl Gándara Cartagena, wrote a book on the firemen's service, which became a firemen's manual in several Latin American countries. In recognition of the service rendered by its fire fighters, the City of Ponce built them homes resulting in the creation of the 25 de Enero Street near the city's historic district.


Major fires

The city has withstood some nearly catastrophic fires. A major fire took place on February 27, 1820, that "almost destroyed the early Ponce settlement". It destroyed 106 "of the best homes in town."''Verdadera y Auténtica Historia de la Ciudad de Ponce.'' By Dr. Eduardo Neumann. 1913. (In Spanish) Reprinted by the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña (1987)Page 194. In 1823, then Governor of Puerto Rico, Miguel de la Torre mandated that "every male from 16 to 60 years old must be a firefighter".Puerto Rico. Cuerpo de Bomberos. Historia. Datos Historicos.
Retrieved 30 November 2009.
Those firefighters had to supply their own fire fighting equipment (essentially picks, buckets, and shovels). Once De la Torre left office, this first fire fighting institution started to decay. Another major fire occurred in La Playa in March 1845, that destroyed "most of the Ponce vicinity." It significantly damaged the Spanish Customs House in Ponce, this being one of the few buildings left standing after the fire. The fire burned down the major buildings of the "Marina de Ponce". After this fire, then governor of Puerto Rico Conde de Mirasol (born Rafael de Aristegui y Velez), created a new fire fighting organization staffed by volunteers. In 1862, the Ponce Firefighters Corps was reorganized under the administration of Ponce mayor Luis de Quixano y Font, and Tomás Cladellas was named fire chief. In 1879 the Ponce Fire Corps reorganized again, with a new fire chief, the local architect Juan Bertoli. On September 25, 1880 another fire, took place destroying most of the older civil records (births, baptisms, marriages, etc.) of the Ponce parish. In 1883, the Ponce firefighter corps reorganized once more, this time in a more definitive fashion when Máximo Meana was mayor of Ponce. During this time the Ponce Fire Corps was made up of 400 firefighters. Its leadership consisted of Julio Steinacher, fire chief, Juan Seix, second fire chief, Oscar Schuch Olivero, Chief of Brigade, and Fernando M. Toro, Supervisor of the Gymnastics Academy. Concurrent with this, the firefighter corps music band was organized. In September 1883, Juan Morel Campos formally organized the Ponce Fire Corps Municipal Band which exists to this day. The fourth Ponce fire of large proportions occurred on January 25, 1899. The fire was fought by a group of firefighters among whom was Pedro Sabater and the civilian Rafael Rivera Esbrí, who would later become mayor of the city. The fire started at the U.S. munitions depot on the lot currently occupied by the Ponce High School building and grounds. The heroes in that fire, believed to have saved the city from certain annihilation, are remembered to this day with monuments on their tombs as well as in a monument in the city square Plaza Las Delicias. As a further gesture of gratitude, a neighborhood of distinctive Victorian-style cottages were constructed to house the firefighters and their families. These houses, painted in the red and black colors of the city, are located along a street named Calle 25 de Enero (''25 de Enero street''); they are still owned and occupied by the descendants of these firefighters and are a scenic attraction in Ponce's historic center.


Police

The Ponce Municipal Police consists of a force of some 500 officers. This force is complemented by the
Puerto Rico Police The Puerto Rico Police (PPR; , ), officially the Puerto Rico Police Bureau (, ), is a law enforcement agency with jurisdiction over the entire Puerto Rico, Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. It is a division of the Puerto Rico Department of Public Safe ...
force. The Ponce Municipal Police has its headquarters at the southwest corner of the intersection of PR-163 ( Las Americas Avenue) and PR-2R (Carretera Pámpanos). In addition it has three precincts as follows: Cantera, La Guancha, and Coto Laurel, plus specialized units at Port of the Americas (maritime unit), Mariani (transit unit),
Belgica Gallia Belgica ("Belgic Gaul") was a Roman province, province of the Roman Empire located in the north-eastern part of Roman Gaul, in what is today primarily northern France, Belgium, and Luxembourg, along with parts of the Netherlands and German ...
(motorcycle unit), and Parque Dora Clavell (tourism unit). The Puerto Rico Police had its Ponce area regional headquarters from 1970 until 2011 on Hostos Avenue. In 2011 it moved its command center to a new and larger facility further west on Urbanizacion Los Caobos in Barrio Bucana. It commands five precincts in the city:
Villa A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house that provided an escape from urban life. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the f ...
, Playa, Morel Campos, La Rambla, and El Tuque. The Ponce municipal coverage of the Puerto Rico Police force is as follows: * The Villa precinct covers barrios Primero, Segundo, Tercero, Cuarto, Quinto, and Sexto, and Portugués Urbano. This precinct includes the historic Ponce district. * The Playa precinct (# 258) covers the barrios of Playa, Capitanejo, Bucaná, and Vayas. * The La Rambla precinct covers barrios Anón, Real, Maragüez, Cerrillos, Coto Laurel, Sabanetas, San Patricio, Monte Llano, Machuelo Arriba, Machuelo Abajo, and Portugués. * The El Tuque precinct covers barrios Canas and Canas Urbano. * The Morel Campos precinct covers barrios Guaraguao, Marueño, Tibes, Magueyes, Magueyes Urbano, and Quebrada Limón.


Crime

In 2002, most of the homicides in Puerto Rico were occurring in San Juan and the greater metropolitan areas of Bayamón, Carolina and Caguas, but Ponce also had a high homicide rate. Also in 2002, Puerto Rico law enforcement officials drafted plans to increase the number of forensic investigators by 25%. The investigators, assigned to the Institute of Forensic Sciences in San Juan, covered homicides in about 65 percent of the island, but the Institute was considering assigning Ponce its own unit. By mid-year 2005, there had been 25 more murder cases in Ponce than for all of 2004, a significant increase. The police acknowledged that most crime cases in Puerto Rico are linked to drug-trafficking and illegal weapons. In mid-July 2005, Gov. Aníbal Acevedo Vilá announced a series of measures aimed at lowering Ponce's high murder rate. Some of those measures included the permanent transfer of 100 agents to the area, the appointment of a ballistics expert from the Institute of Forensic Sciences and of two prosecutors for the Department of Justice in Ponce. Puerto Rico Police Superintendent Pedro Toledo admitted that more than 100 agents are actually needed in the Ponce region in 2005, but that "there would be no additional transfers at the moment to avoid affecting other police areas." Ponce is a convenient transition point for drug smugglers due to its location on the Caribbean Sea and its proximity to
Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...
and
Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...
. From there packages are then transported to the United States by various means including the
United States Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or simply the Postal Service, is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the executive branch of the federal governmen ...
. The city is included in the area's HIDTA region. As most of the crime in Ponce is connected to the drug-trade, police have an eye on illegal smuggling through the Port of Ponce A 2008 government report stated that, "Drug smuggling in containerized cargo is a significant maritime threat to the HIDTA (High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area) region. The vast and increasing quantity of goods transshipped through the region every year provides drug traffickers with ample opportunity to smuggle illicit drugs into, through, and from the area. In July 2005, local police scored some points in their fight against drug-trafficking. By 2007, Ponce had experienced a 61% decline in the rate of violent crimes (''Type I''). In 2010, there was a further reduction of 12 percent in violent crimes over 2009 statistics. In August 2013, the Ponce Area Police Region, which includes Ponce and seven other adjacent municipalities, registered 27 fewer Type I crimes that it had by the same period in 2012. For the Ponce MSA, ''which includes the city of Ponce, its nineteen surrounding municipal barrios, the municipality of Juana Diaz, and the municipality of Villalba'', crime data was tabulated in 2002 (Total MSA Population: 364,849). No data is available for the city or for the municipality of Ponce alone. The following statistics are registered: Notes:
^ Violent crimes include: murder, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault.
^^ Property crimes include: burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft.
^^^ NNMS, non-negligent manslaughter
Source:
FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...


FBI satellite office

There is an
FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...
satellite office located in Ponce.


Education


Grade schools and high schools

Ponce's first school for boys was established in 1820. Today there are over a hundred public and private schools. As with the rest of Puerto Rico, public education in Ponce is handled by the Puerto Rico Department of Education. However, the local government is taking on a greater role in public education. On June 13, 2010, the mayor of Ponce announced the creation of a Municipal Education System and a School Board with the objective of obtaining accreditation for what would be the first free bilingual school in the city.


Colleges and universities

There are also several colleges and universities located in the city, offering higher education, including professional degrees in
architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...
,
medicine Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...
, law, and
pharmacy Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medication, medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it ...
. Some of these are: * Caribbean University - Ponce * Colegio Universitario Tecnologico de Ponce * Interamerican University of Puerto Rico at Ponce * Ponce School of Medicine * Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico ** Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico School of Law ** Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico School of Architecture * Universidad Ana G. Méndez - Ponce * University of Puerto Rico at Ponce There are also several other technical institutions like the Instituto de Banca y Comercio, Trinity College, and the Ponce Paramedical College. Nova Southeastern University, based in
Fort Lauderdale, Florida Fort Lauderdale ( ) is a coastal city located in the U.S. state of Florida, north of Miami along the Atlantic Ocean. It is the county seat of and most populous city in Broward County, Florida, Broward County with a population of 182,760 at the ...
, has a School of Pharmacy campus in Ponce.


Health care

The city is served by several clinics and hospitals. There are four comprehensive care hospitals: Hospital Dr. Pila, Hospital San Cristobal, Hospital San Lucas, and Hospital de Damas. In addition, Hospital Oncológico Andrés Grillasca specializes in the treatment of cancer, and Hospital Siquiátrico specializes in mental disorders. There is also a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic that provides health services to U.S. veterans. The U.S. Veterans Administration will build a new hospital in the city to satisfy regional needs. In 2009, Hospital Damas was listed in the '' U.S. News & World Report'' as one of the best hospitals under the U.S. flag. Ponce has the highest concentration of medical infrastructure per inhabitant of any municipality in Puerto Rico.


Transportation

Due to its commercial and industrial significance, Ponce has consistently been a hub of transportation to the rest of the island. Puerto Rico Highway 52 provides access to Salinas, Caguas, and San Juan. PR-2 grants access to southwestern and western municipalities as a full-access freeway. The PR-10 highway, which is still under construction as a faster alternative to PR-123, provides access to the interior of the island as well as points north of the island, such as Arecibo. PR-1 provides access to various points east and southeast of Puerto Rico, while PR-14 provides access to Coamo and other points in the central mountain region. PR-132 grants country-side access to the town of Peñuelas. PR-123 is the old road to Adjuntas and, while treacherous, it does provide an appreciation for countryside living in some of the municipality's barrios, such as Magueyes and Guaraguao. The city is served by a network of local highways and freeways. Running entirely within the municipal limits are PR-12, PR-9, PR-133, and PR-163 and a few others. Freeway PR-12 runs northbound starting at the Port of Ponce to connect with PR-14 on the northeastern part of the city. PR-9, also known as the ''Circuito de Circumnavegación de Ponce'' (Ponce's Circumferential Highway), is a highway still partly under construction. It runs mostly north of the city and connects PR-52 to PR-10 in an east-to-west fashion; when completed it will run as a beltway around most of the eastern and northern sections of the city. PR-133 (Calle Comercio) connects PR-2 in west Ponce to PR-132. It is an extension of PR-1 from its PR-2 terminus into the city center. PR-163 crosses the City east-to-west connecting PR-52 and PR-14. The municipality has 115 bridges. Ponce's public transportation system consists of taxicabs and share taxi service providing public cars and vans known as ''públicos'' and a bus-based mass transit system.''Nuevo Sistema de Transporte en Ponce: Guaguas recorreran 26 comunidades del la Perla del Sur.''
Sandra Caquías Cruz. El Nuevo Dia. San Juan, Puerto Rico. Page 34. Retrieved 24 February 2012.
There are five taxi companies in the city. Most ''públicos'' depart from the terminal hub located in downtown Ponce, the ''Terminal de Carros Públicos Carlos Garay''. During the 1990s and 2000s, there was also a trolley system reminiscent of the one the city used in the 19th century and which traveled through the downtown streets, and which was used mostly by tourists. Today it is used mostly during special events. There is also a small train that can bring tourists from the historic downtown area to the Paseo Tablado La Guancha on the southern shore, As with the trolley, today the train is used mostly during special events. A
ferry A ferry is a boat or ship that transports passengers, and occasionally vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A small passenger ferry with multiple stops, like those in Venice, Italy, is sometimes referred to as a water taxi or water bus ...
provides service to Isla de Caja de Muertos. The new intra-city mass transit system, '' SITRAS'', was scheduled to start operating in November 2011, and, after a 3-month delay, the $4 million SITRAS system, was launched with 11 buses and three routes in February 2012. A fourth route was to be added for the El Tuque sector according to a June 30, 2012 news report. Mercedita Airport sits east of downtown Ponce and handles both intra-island and international flights. The airport, used to be a private airfield belonging to Destilería Serralles rum distillery before it became a commercial airport serving the Ponce area in the 1940s. There is daily commercial non-stop air service to points in the United States. Since 1804, Ponce already boasted its own port facilities for large cargo ships. The Port of Ponce is Puerto Rico's chief Caribbean port. It is known as the Port of the Americas and is under expansion to convert it into a major international shipping hub.Ponencia del Gobierno Municipal Autonomo de Ponce Before the Senate of Puerto Rico. By Rafael Cordero Santiago, Alcalde de Ponce. Page 4.
Retrieved 29 March 2010.
It receives both cargo as well as passenger cruise ships. A short-haul freight railroad also operates within the Port facilities.
Brief information and photographs of the Chemex Railroad operation in Ponce.


Notable ''Ponceños''


International relations

The
Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...
maintains a consular office in the city.


Twin towns – sister cities

Ponce is twinned with: *
Zaragoza Zaragoza (), traditionally known in English as Saragossa ( ), is the capital city of the province of Zaragoza and of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributaries, the ...
, Spain


Commemorative dates

The following dates hold special significance for Ponceños and are motive for annual celebrations and/or memorials: * January 25: '' El Polvorín fire''. Often remembered with a service at the mausoleum of the Ponce firefighters at Cementerio Civil de Ponce. * March 21: '' Ponce massacre''. Often memorialized with a get-together and service at the tomb of the victims at Cementerio Civil de Ponce * March 22: ''Abolition of slavery in Puerto Rico.'' Often remembered with a memorial service at the Monumento a la abolición de la esclavitud. * April 26 (or, last Sunday of April): ''Día de la Bandera Ponceña.'' * August 12: '' Día de la Fundación de Ponce (Founding Date).''Mariano Vidal Armstrong. ''Ponce: Notas para su Historia.'' San Juan, PR: Comité Historia de los Pueblos, Oficina de Preservación Histórica de Puerto Rico. Second Edition. 1986. p. 17. Often celebrated on the first Sunday of September. * October 7: '' Mameyes Landslide.'' Often remembered with a get-together and memorial service at the site of the landslide in Barrio Portugués Urbano. * December 12: '' Las Mañanitas''. Celebrated yearly with a pre-dawn festival parade, followed by a Catholic
Mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...
, and a popular town breakfast.''Vuelven a Ponce las Fiestas Patronales.''
Carmen Cila Rodríguez. La Perla del Sur. Ponce, Puerto Rico. 5 December 2012. Retrieved 24 January 2015
Archived at WayBack Machine
on 1 February 2015.


See also

* Timeline of the history of Ponce, Puerto Rico *
List of Puerto Ricans This is a list of notable people from Puerto Rico which includes people who were born in Puerto Rico (Borinquen) and people who are of full or partial Puerto Rican people, Puerto Rican descent. Puerto Rican citizens are included, as the governm ...
* History of Puerto Rico * Did you know-Puerto Rico?


Notes


Footnotes


References


External links

* Photos of Ponce: *
Photos of Ponce at Getty Images
*
Photos of Ponce at Flickr
*
1930s Panoramic view of the city of Ponce
*Tourism *
Information about Ponce's tourist attractions
*
Centro Ceremonial Indígena de Tibes Video & Contact Info.
*
Historic Places in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, a National Park Service Discover Our Shared Heritage Travel Itinerary
*
Management Plan for La Esperanza Nature Preserve in Ponce, Puerto Rico.
Matthew Bourque, Drew Digeser, Stephen Partridge, and Hussein Yatim. Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Worcester, Massachusetts. 2 May 2012. Retrieved 4 August 2013. * Autonomous Municipalities Laws: *
Commonwealth Laws Regarding Autonomous Municipalities
*
Text of Autonomous Municipalities Law (in Spanish)
* Ponce History *
Official website of Municipality of Ponce. Ponce y su Importancia Historica
*

** ttp://www.lexjuris.com/lexjuris/tspr2000/lex2000194b.htm 29 December 2000 'Ponce en Marcha' Dissent Opinion from Associate P.R. Sup. Court Justice Honorable Efraín Rivera Pérez (page 1)*
29 December 2000 'Ponce en Marcha' Dissent Opinion from Associate P.R. Sup. Court Justice Honorable Efraín Rivera Pérez (page 2)
* Census: *
Ponce and its barrios, United States Census Bureau
* Others: *
Autonomous Municipality of Ponce official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ponce, Puerto Rico Municipalities of Puerto Rico 1692 establishments in Puerto Rico 1690s establishments in the Spanish West Indies 1692 establishments in the Spanish Empire Ponce metropolitan area Populated coastal places in Puerto Rico Populated places established in 1692 Port cities in Puerto Rico Port cities in the Caribbean