San Juan, Puerto Rico

San Juan, Saint John, officially Municipio de la Ciudad Capital San Juan Bautista (Municipality of the Capital City, Saint John the Baptist), is the capital and most populous municipality in Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2000 census, it has a population of 420,326 making it the 42nd-largest city under the jurisdiction of the United States. San Juan was founded by Spanish colonists in 1521, who called it Ciudad de Puerto Rico ("Rich Port City"). Puerto Rico's capital is the second oldest European-established city in the Americas, after Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic. Several historical buildings are located in San Juan; among the most notable are the city's former defensive forts, Fort San Felipe del Morro and Fort San Cristóbal, and La Fortaleza, the oldest executive mansion in continuous use in the Americas.

Today, San Juan is one of Puerto Rico's most important seaports, and is the island's manufacturing[citation needed], financial, cultural, and tourism center. The population of the Metropolitan Statistical Area, including San Juan and the municipalities of Bayamón, Guaynabo, Cataño, Canóvanas, Caguas, Toa Alta, Toa Baja, Carolina and Trujillo Alto, is about 2 million inhabitants; thus, about half the population of Puerto Rico now lives and works in this area.

In 1919, Felix Rigau Carrera, "El Aguila de Sabana Grande" (The Eagle from Sabana Grande), the first Hispanic fighter pilot in the United States Marine Corps and first Puerto Rican pilot, became the first native Puerto Rican to fly an aircraft in the island when he flew his Curtiss JN-4 from Las Casas. At the time, the area was used by the military as an air base and it was also Puerto Rico's first commercial airport, and Rigau Carrera was allowed to perform his historic flight from the air field. Camp Las Casas was eventually closed down, and in 1950 a public housing project by the name of Residencial Fray Bartolome de Las Casas was constructed on its former location.

On January 2, 1947, the people of San Juan elected Felisa Rincón de Gautier (also known as Doña Fela) (1897–1994) as their mayor. Thus, she became the first woman to be elected as the Mayor of a capital city in any of The Americas. During the Cold War era, she ordered the establishment of the island's first Civil Defense system under the directorship of Colonel Gilberto Jose Marxuach (Teofilo's son). Rincón de Gautier served as mayor until January 2, 1969.

On March 8, 1948 the city government of San Juan officially adopted as the city's first flag an orange field, in the center of which is the Coat of Arms of the City. The orange color was based and taken from Father Diego de Torres Vargas' text and it reads : "Escudo de armas dado a Puerto Rico por los Reyes Católicos en el año de 1511, siendo Procurador un vecino llamado Pedro Moreno. Son : un cordero blanco con su banderilla colorada, sobre un libro, y todo sobre una isla verde, que es la de Puerto Rico, y por los lados una F y una I, que quiere decir Fernando e Isabel, los Reyes Católicos que se las dieron, y hoy se conservan en el estandarte real, que es de damasco anaranjado, con que se ganó la ciudad" ("Coat of Arms given to Puerto Rico by the Catholic Monarchs in the year 1511 being Procurator a neighbor named Pedro Moreno. They are: a white lamb with its red flag, on top of a book, and everything above a green island, which is Puerto Rico...which is an orange damask, with which the city was won"). It appears that this orange was changed to white at some point.

Old San Juan occupies the western end of a rocky islet at the mouth of San Juan Bay. During the 20th century, the main population centers surged well beyond the walls of the old city and onto Puerto Rico's main island, and merged with the existing settlements east and south of Old San Juan. As a result, the city is now composed of a variety of neighborhoods.

San Juan is the largest city in Puerto Rico in population. From 1899 to 1950 the municipality of San Juan excluded the township of Río Piedras. For this reason, population data and land area for the period make reference only to the Antiguo San Juan and Santurce barrios, or subdivisions, of San Juan. The old municipality of Río Piedras constituted the third most populated city of Puerto Rico at the time of its annexation in 1951. Its strategic location south of the capital served as a junction for all the principal ways of transportation of the island and as a geographical entry to San Juan, which are factors that prompted Río Piedras's dramatic urban development in the 20th century.

According to the 2006-2008 Puerto Rico Community Survey, a United States Census Bureau-generated study similar to the American Community Survey, the racial composition of San Juan was as follows:

White: 63.1% (Non-Hispanic Whites: 3.6%)

Black or African American: 19.4% (Non-Hispanic Blacks: 3.1%)

American Indian: 0.4%

Asian: 1.7%

Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0.0%

Some other race: 10.3%

Two or more races: 5.1%

Hispanic or Latino (of any race): 92.9%

Among the Hispanic and Latino population, Puerto Ricans are, unsurprisingly, the largest group; they make up 87.5% of San Juan's Hispanic population. People of Dominican descent made up 12.2% of the Hispanic population, while those of Cuban descent formed 1.7% of the Hispanic populace. Other Hispanic and Latino groups collectively formed 3.2% of San Juan's Hispanic population.

Economy

San Juan experienced significant economic growth following World War II. During this period the city underwent an industrial revolution. The city's economy relies mostly on companies dedicated to the manufacture of several products, including: Chemical substances (bleach and house cleaning products); medicines; rum and other beverages; fertilizers; electric tools; electronic devices; plastics, textiles, and food-based products.Tourism is also a key industry, based on San Juan's proximity to Puerto Rico's main airport, the Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport. The tourism focus of the city is located in the district of Condado Beach where there are numerous luxurious hotels. Historical locations such as El Morro, Old San Juan and El Cuartel de Ballaja are promoted in tourism campaigns. The district of Hato Rey contains a corporate sector known as "La Milla de Oro," (The Golden Mile) which serves as the headquarters of numerous local and international banks. San Juan's Hato Rey district is often referred to as the "Wall Street of the Caribbean," due to the influence of the area on Puerto Rico and the Caribbean's economy.

Tourism

Technological advances after World War II in the development of the airliner, coupled with the island's climate and natural setting, have transformed San Juan into the springboard for tourism around the island, and has made the rest of the Caribbean known throughout the world during the last fifty years. Today the capital features numerous hotels, museums, historical buildings, restaurants, beaches and shopping centers. In San Juan there are numerous tourist attractions, including: Old San Juan, Ocean Park, Isla Verde and Condado.

Places and monuments emphasized in tourism campaigns include: Old San Juan, promoting the historic nature of its colonial buildings and narrow streets covered by adoquine, a blue stone cast from furnace slag; they were brought over as ballast on Spanish ships. This includes the city's ancient defensive wall and forts, most notably El Morro and the Castle of San Cristóbal. On January 23, 1984 both of these edifices were catalogued as being part of humanity's cultural patrimony. The numerous restaurants and art galleries in the zone are frequently visited by tourists. The local universities are promoted as historic places, most notably the campus of University of Puerto Rico located in Río Piedras, which is the oldest university on the island being founded in 1903.