Residencial Las Casas
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Residencial Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas, more commonly known as Residencial Las Casas, Caserio Las Casas or Las Casas, is a public housing complex located in
San Juan, Puerto Rico San Juan (, , ; Spanish for "Saint John") is the capital city and most populous municipality in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2020 census, it is the 57th-largest city under the jur ...
consisting of 417 housing units. It is under the management of the Puerto Rico Housing Authority (''Administración de Vivienda Pública'' in Spanish) and is under the federal housing program of the
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It administers federal housing and urban development laws. It is headed by the Secretary of Housing and Urb ...
. It was named after the famous
Spaniard Spaniards, or Spanish people, are a Romance ethnic group native to Spain. Within Spain, there are a number of national and regional ethnic identities that reflect the country's complex history, including a number of different languages, both ind ...
Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
Fray
Bartolomé de Las Casas Bartolomé de las Casas, OP ( ; ; 11 November 1484 – 18 July 1566) was a 16th-century Spanish landowner, friar, priest, and bishop, famed as a historian and social reformer. He arrived in Hispaniola as a layman then became a Dominican friar ...
, who also has a town named after him in Mexico, namely
San Cristóbal de las Casas San Cristóbal de las Casas (), also known by its native Tzotzil name, Jovel (), is a town and municipality located in the Central Highlands region of the Mexican state of Chiapas. It was the capital of the state until 1892, and is still consid ...
. The Complex is located in an area that was used by the United States military beginning in 1908, as a training camp for the Porto Rico Regiment of Infantry that saw action in World War I and World War II. During that era, the area was known as "
Camp Las Casas Camp Las Casas was a United States military installation established in Santurce, Puerto Rico in 1904. The camp was the main training base of the "Porto Rico Regiment of Infantry," On January 15, 1899, the military government changed the name of ...
". It also was Puerto Rico's first commercial air field, with the first Puerto Rican pilot,
Félix Rigau Carrera Félix Rigau Carrera (August 30, 1894 – October 13, 1954), known as (The Eagle from Sabana Grande), was the first Puerto Rican pilot and the first Puerto Rican pilot to fly on air mail carrying duties in Puerto Rico. Early years Rigau Carrer ...
, taking off on the first inter-island flight from the air field, and Aerovías Nacionales de Puerto Rico offering
airline An airline is a company that provides civil aviation, air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or Airline alliance, alliances with other airlines for ...
service during the 1930s. Residencial Las Casas was built during the 1950s, after the military had left the area, with middle class customers in mind. Many of San Juan's affluent families bought property there. One of its earliest residents was Puerto Rican actress
Míriam Colón Míriam Colón Valle (August 20, 1936 – March 3, 2017) was a Puerto Rican actress. She was the founder and director of New York City's Puerto Rican Traveling Theater. Beginning her career in the early 1950s, she performed on Broadway and on ...
and activist
Antonia Pantoja Antonia Pantoja (September 13, 1922 – May 24, 2002), was a Puerto Rican educator, social worker, feminist, civil rights leader and the founder of ''ASPIRA'', the Puerto Rican Forum, Boricua College and ''Producir''. In 1996, she was the fi ...
. During the late 1970s, on September 26, 1978, resident Luciano Rivera made the headlines nationally, as he was one of a few survivors of an aviation crash,
Air Caribbean Flight 309 Air Caribbean Flight 309 was a domestic, non-scheduled airline flight by Puerto Rican airline Air Caribbean, which on September 26, 1978, crashed as it was preparing to land at Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport (then known, unofficially, ...
, that happened nearby; six people were killed when a
Beech 18 The Beechcraft Model 18 (or "Twin Beech", as it is also known) is a 6- to 11-seat, twin-engined, low-wing, tailwheel light aircraft manufactured by the Beech Aircraft Corporation of Wichita, Kansas. Continuously produced from 1937 to November ...
belonging to Air Caribbean airlines crashed in Barrio Obrero, at a bar in front of the residencial, trying to land at Isla Verde after a domestic flight from
Aguadilla Aguadilla (, ), founded in 1775 by Luis de Córdova, is a city and municipality located in the northwestern tip of Puerto Rico, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, north of Aguada, and Moca and west of Isabela. Aguadilla i ...
. By the early 1980s,
salsa Salsa most often refers to: * Salsa (Mexican cuisine), a variety of sauces used as condiments * Salsa music, a popular style of Latin American music * Salsa (dance), a Latin dance associated with Salsa music Salsa or SALSA may also refer to: ...
singer
Cano Estremera Carlos Enrique Estremera Colón (2 September 1958 – 28 October 2020) was a Puerto Rican Salsa singer who was a native of Santurce, Puerto Rico. Estremera was nicknamed "" () and later "" (), for his uncanny ability to improvise lyrics to Salsa ...
, a resident,La ametralladora del soneo
/ref> began bringing his musician friends over to practice at Las Casas. Estremera would go on to become a legendary singer and international super-star who, in 2003, made a CD commemorating his twenty years in the music industry.


See also

*
Public housing in Puerto Rico Public housing in Puerto Rico is a subsidized system of housing units, mostly consisting of housing projects (, , or ), which are provided for low-income families in Puerto Rico. The system is mainly financed with programs from the US Department o ...
* For other meanings of Las Casas, see:
Las Casas (disambiguation) Las Casas commonly referred to as Bartolomé de las Casas (1484–1566), Spanish historian, social reformer and Dominican friar. Las Casas may also refer to: People * Alberto de las Casas (died 1544), Catholic church figure * Arán de las Casas ...
*
Isla Guachinanga Isla Guachinanga is a small island located in Santurce, San Juan, Puerto Rico. The island, which has a number of trees and ecological areas, was reportedly littered with trash as of 2013. Isla Guachinanga is near Barrio Obrero and Residencial ...
, an island steps away from the residencial *
Residencial Luis Lloréns Torres Residencial Luis Lloréns Torres, also commonly known as Lloréns Torres, is a public housing complex in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It is located a few minutes driving distance from both the tourist and hotels areas of the Condado and Isla Verde neigh ...


References

{{Coord, 18.4363, -66.0443, display=title Public housing in Puerto Rico Buildings and structures in San Juan, Puerto Rico Economic history of Puerto Rico