Template:Wp-Ponce, Puerto Rico-History

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Early settlers

The region of what is now Ponce belonged to the Taíno Guaynia region, which stretched along the southern coast of Puerto Rico. Agüeybaná, a cacique 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, 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 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 17 September 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. 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).^[1]

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 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 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 of 1791–1804. The effect of this mass migration was not felt significantly until the 1820s. These French Creole entrepreneurs were attracted to the area because of its large flatlands, and they came with enough capital, slaves, and commercial connections to stimulate Ponce's sugarcane 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.^[2]

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 faith and agreed to work in the agricultural 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, immigrated from a variety of nations. On 29 July 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, banking and finance, 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, 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 cable connections with Jamaica and the West Indies, 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 27 July, American troops, aboard the Cincinnati, Dixie, , and Gloucester, 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 Cuban markets "The Spanish American War had paralyzed the trade of the Island of Puerto Rico and when Spain surrendered the sovereignty she closed her [Spain's] ports 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 21 March 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.

The march turned into a bloody event when the Insular Police, a force somewhat resembling the National Guard 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.^[3]

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, 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.^[4] The event has since been known as the Ponce massacre. 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.^[4]

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.

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.

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 1 January 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 7 October 1985, Ponce was the scene of a major tragedy, when at least 129 people lost their lives to a mudslide in a sector of Barrio Portugués Urbano called Mameyes. International help was needed to rescue people and recover corpses. The United States and many other countries, including Mexico, France, and Venezuela, 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 of Ponce became the first in Puerto Rico to obtain its autonomy on 27 October 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 17 January 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 that 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.