Aguirre is a

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 ...

in the municipality of

Salinas, Puerto Rico Salinas (, ) is a Salinas barrio-pueblo, town and Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality in the southern part of Puerto Rico located in the southern coast of the island, south of Aibonito, Puerto Rico, Aibonito and Cayey, Puerto Rico, Caye ...

. Its population in 2010 was 14,005.

History

Aguirre was in Spain's

gazetteer A gazetteer is a geographical dictionary or wikt:directory, directory used in conjunction with a map or atlas.Aurousseau, 61. It typically contains information concerning the geographical makeup, social statistics and physical features of a co ...

s until Puerto Rico was ceded by

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

in the aftermath of 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 ...

under the terms of the

Treaty of Paris of 1898 The Treaty of Peace between the United States of America and the Kingdom of Spain, commonly known as the Treaty of Paris of 1898, was signed by Restoration (Spain), Spain and the United States on December 10, 1898, and marked the end of the ...

and became an

unincorporated territory of the United States Unincorporated may refer to: * Unincorporated area, land not governed by a local municipality * Unincorporated entity, a type of organization * Unincorporated territories of the United States, territories under U.S. jurisdiction, to which Congress ...

. In 1899, the

United States Department of War The United States Department of War, also called the War Department (and occasionally War Office in the early years), was the United States Cabinet department originally responsible for the operation and maintenance of the United States Army, als ...

conducted a

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of Puerto Rico finding that the population of Aguirre barrio was 1,291. Aguirre was once a municipality, until it was merged into Salinas during the 1990s. Before that, Aguirre was Puerto Rico's smallest municipality, a distinction now held by Cataño near

San Juan San Juan, Spanish for Saint John (disambiguation), Saint John, most commonly refers to: * San Juan, Puerto Rico * San Juan, Argentina * San Juan, Metro Manila, a highly urbanized city in the Philippines San Juan may also refer to: Places Arge ...

. The

Central Aguirre Historic District The Central Aguirre Historic District, in Aguirre, Salinas, Puerto Rico was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002. Following the acquisition of Puerto Rico by the U.S. government in 1898, as a colonial consequence of the Span ...

was listed on the U.S.

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 2002. For many years, Aguirre's main economical support came from the Central Azucarera de Aguirre, a local sugar factory. Aguirre still has a "central" but this one is operated by the Autoridad de Energía Eléctrica de Puerto Rico, a government energy company. On Monday, July 25, 2016, there was a fire at the plant when there was an unnoticed petroleum leak. No one was injured, but the central's plants were unworkable for the following three weeks. The Central Azucarera de Aguirre was placed on the 2020 World Monuments Watch by the World Monuments Fund organization. The organization will use the site as a focal educational resource to train people in Puerto Rico on building with wood.

Transportation

Aguirre, like the rest of Salinas, is accessible by car and other wheeled vehicles through

Puerto Rico Highway 1 Puerto Rico Highway 1 (PR-1) is a highway in Puerto Rico that connects the city of Ponce to San Juan. Leaving Ponce, the road heads east and follows a somewhat parallel route along the southern coast of the island heading towards Salinas. At ...

, which connects the country's two largest cities of San Juan and Ponce. The nearest commercial airport is

Mercedita Airport Mercedita International Airport (AIM) () is an international airport located three nautical miles (6 km) east of the central business district of Ponce, Puerto Rico. The airport covers 270 '' cuerdas'' (approx. 262.2 acres) of land ...

in Ponce, while the nearest airport with multiple international flights is

Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Aeropuerto Internacional Luis Muñoz Marín'') , previously known as Isla Verde International Airport (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Aeropuerto Internacional de Isla Verde''), ...

in San Juan.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aguirre, Puerto Rico Barrios of Salinas, Puerto Rico 1991 disestablishments in Puerto Rico Former cities Populated places disestablished in 1991

History

Transportation

See also

References