San Lorenzo 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

Morovis, Puerto Rico Morovis (, ) is a Morovis barrio-pueblo, town and Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality of Puerto Rico located in the central region of the island, north of Orocovis, south of Manatí, Vega Baja and Vega Alta; east of Ciales, and west of C ...

. San Lorenzo has six sectors and its population in 2010 was 1,209.

History

San Lorenzo 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. 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 San Lorenzo barrio was 884. Clandestine car races took place in San Lorenzo for many years until an accident on July 18, 1998, claimed the lives of five people. Legal action was taken against police for not having stopped the races from occurring. The races had been very popular, with 5,000 to 6,000 spectators on hand, until they were ended. San Lorenzo in Morovis was one of the areas of Puerto Rico heavily impacted by

Hurricane Maria Hurricane Maria was an extremely powerful and devastating tropical cyclone that affected the northeastern Caribbean in September 2017, particularly in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, which accounted for 2,975 of the 3,059 deaths. It is the ...

on September 20, 2017, with washed away bridges and loss of power for months. San Lorenzo was left isolated when Hurricane Maria washed away their main bridge with the PR-567 highway, into and out of the barrio. An old highway which sits directly on the waters of the river is sometimes passable albeit dangerous. The old road always being washed by the river, was at times passable and was being used by residents, (including school buses), until the construction of a temporary bridge was completed in April, 2018. The alternative to traversing the bridge, or the old highway over the river, is an hour-long drive. The construction of a bridge for the isolated community was completed in April 2018 and the bridge was named (Hope) in 2019.

Geography

San Lorenzo barrio is south of Torrecillas, west of Morovis Sur and Río Grande and north of

Pasto Pasto, officially San Juan de Pasto (; "Saint John of Pasto"), is the capital of the department of Nariño, in southern Colombia. Pasto was founded in 1537 and named after indigenous people of the area. In the 2018 census, the municipality ...

and

Vaga VAGA is an artists collective dedicated to improving mental health and fighting cognitive decline through art therapy. The organisation brings together artists, clinicians and academic psychologists to foster research collaboration and the develo ...

barrios. San Lorenzo's west border is with the municipality of Ciales.

Sectors

Barrios (which are, in contemporary times, roughly comparable to minor civil divisions) in turn are further subdivided into smaller local populated place areas/units called sectores (''sectors'' in English). The types of ''sectores'' may vary, from normally ''sector'' to ''urbanización'' to ''reparto'' to ''barriada'' to ''residencial'', among others. The following sectors are in San Lorenzo barrio: , and .

Gallery

Barrios of Morovis, Puerto Rico locator map.png, Barrios of Morovis Unfinished racetrack in San Lorenzo barrio, Morovis, Puerto Rico.jpg, Racetrack in San Lorenzo where clandestine car races took place until July 18, 1998 Unfinished racetrack in San Lorenzo, Morovis, Puerto Rico.jpg, Old racetrack tower in San Lorenzo A Rapid Deployment Gauge in San Lorenzo, Morovis, Puerto Rico.jpg, Bridge destroyed by Hurricane Maria in 2017

References

External links