title: Dalmatian language

text: As Dalmatian was mainly an oral language, there is not much literature preserved in it; only some fragments collected in a book by Antonio Ive and a few unpublished texts in archives still unknown to the public. But there are some works written in revived Dalmatian, as, for example, the short poetry book "Adi la raipa de mi jeuntut".


title: Dalmatian language

text: The following are examples of the Lord's Prayer in Latin, Dalmatian, Friulian, Italian, Istro-Romanian, Romanian, and Spanish:


title: Walton Group

text: Walton (Bengali: ওয়ালটন) is a Bangladeshi conglomerate based in Gazipur, Bangladesh. It comprises numerous subsidiaries and affiliated businesses, most of them united under the Walton brand. The subsidiaries include Walton Motors, Walton Mobile, Walton Electronics, and Walton Hi-Tech Industries Limited. Walton produces electronics, computers, motor vehicles, and telecommunications products. It is the first Bangladeshi brand to launch mobile phones in the market and also the first fridge compressor manufacturing company in Bangladesh since 2017.


title: Walton Group

text: S.M Nazrul Islam is the founder of Walton Group. Nazrul started his career as a small businessman. After the independence, he started a separate business. In 1977, he founded a new company named after his eldest son S.M Nurul Alam Rezvi called Rezvi & Brothers, abbreviated as R.B. Group. At that time, they used to import televisions. The company made its debut in 2008 as the Walton Group by starting refrigerator manufacture. When S.M Nazrul Islam died in 2017, his eldest son S.M Nurul Alam Rezvi took over as chairman of the company.


title: Walton Group

text: In April 2017, Walton established the country's first-ever and only compressor manufacturing factory. With the inauguration of the plant, Bangladesh has emerged as the world's 15th as well as the Asia's 8th compressor manufacturing country.


title: Walton Group

text: In January 2018, Walton to open first ever computer assembly plant. At the same it became the first ever Bangladeshi company to export locally made laptops to Nigeria.


title: Walton Group

text: In February 2020, for the first time, Walton started exporting handsets to the United States as a Bangladeshi original equipment manufacturer company to a renowned American brand. This kind of production is known as "contract manufacturing".


title: Walton Group

text: In April 2022, Walton bought 3 European brands to make 4.8m compressors a year. Walton Hi-Tech Industries PLC announced the purchase of two more brands – Zanussi Elettromeccanica (ZEM) and Verdichter (VOE) – from Italia Wanbao-ACC. The Bangladeshi electronics giant acquired the rights of more than 50-years old reputed three European electronics brands and its production plant, a trademark, patent, design and software. With the procurement of the more than 50-year-old Italia Wanbao-ACC compressor brand, Walton is now on course to gain a major foothold in European countries.


title: Freethought

text: Freethought (sometimes spelled free thought) is an epistemological viewpoint which holds that beliefs should not be formed on the basis of authority, tradition, revelation, or dogma, and that beliefs should instead be reached by other methods such as logic, reason, and empirical observation. According to the "Oxford English Dictionary", a freethinker is "a person who forms their own ideas and opinions rather than accepting those of other people, especially in religious teaching." In some contemporary thought in particular, free thought is strongly tied with rejection of traditional social or religious belief systems. The cognitive application of free thought is known as "freethinking", and practitioners of free thought are known as "freethinkers". Modern freethinkers consider free thought to be a natural freedom from all negative and illusive thoughts acquired from society.


title: Freethought

text: The term first came into use in the 17th century in order to refer to people who inquired into the basis of traditional beliefs which were often accepted unquestioningly. Today, freethinking is most closely linked with deism, secularism, atheism, agnosticism, humanism, anti-clericalism, and religious critique. The "Oxford English Dictionary" defines freethinking as, "The free exercise of reason in matters of religious belief, unrestrained by deference to authority; the adoption of the principles of a free-thinker." Freethinkers hold that knowledge should be grounded in facts, scientific inquiry, and logic. The skeptical application of science implies freedom from the intellectually limiting effects of confirmation bias, cognitive bias, conventional wisdom, popular culture, urban myth, prejudice, or sectarianism.


title: Freethought

text: Atheist author Adam Lee defines free thought as thinking which is independent of revelation, tradition, established belief, and authority, and considers it as a "broader umbrella" than atheism "that embraces a rainbow of unorthodoxy, religious dissent, skepticism, and unconventional thinking."


title: Freethought

text: The basic summarizing statement of the essay "The Ethics of Belief" by the 19th-century British mathematician and philosopher William Kingdon Clifford is: "It is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence." The essay became a rallying cry for freethinkers when published in the 1870s, and has been described as a point when freethinkers grabbed the moral high ground. Clifford was himself an organizer of free thought gatherings, the driving force behind the Congress of Liberal Thinkers held in 1878.


title: Freethought

text: Regarding religion, freethinkers typically hold that there is insufficient evidence to support the existence of supernatural phenomena. According to the Freedom from Religion Foundation, "No one can be a freethinker who demands conformity to a bible, creed, or messiah. To the freethinker, revelation and faith are invalid, and orthodoxy is no guarantee of truth." and "Freethinkers are convinced that religious claims have not withstood the tests of reason. Not only is there nothing to be gained by believing an untruth, but there is everything to lose when we sacrifice the indispensable tool of reason on the altar of superstition. Most freethinkers consider religion to be not only untrue, but harmful."


title: Freethought

text: However, philosopher Bertrand Russell wrote the following in his 1944 essay "The Value of Free Thought:"


title: Freethought

text: The whole first paragraph of the essay makes it clear that a freethinker is not necessarily an atheist or an agnostic, as long as he or she satisfies this definition:


title: Freethought

text: Fred Edwords, former executive of the American Humanist Association, suggests that by Russell's definition, liberal religionists who have challenged established orthodoxies can be considered freethinkers.


title: Freethought

text: On the other hand, according to Bertrand Russell, atheists and/or agnostics are not necessarily freethinkers. As an example, he mentions Stalin, whom he compares to a "pope":


title: Freethought

text: In the 18th and 19th century, many thinkers regarded as freethinkers were deists, arguing that the nature of God can only be known from a study of nature rather than from religious revelation. In the 18th century, "deism" was as much of a 'dirty word' as "atheism", and deists were often stigmatized as either atheists or at least as freethinkers by their Christian opponents. Deists today regard themselves as freethinkers, but are now arguably less prominent in the free thought movement than atheists.


title: Freethought

text: Among freethinkers, for a notion to be considered true it must be testable, verifiable, and logical. Many freethinkers tend to be humanists, who base morality on human needs and would find meaning in human compassion, social progress, art, personal happiness, love, and the furtherance of knowledge. Generally, freethinkers like to think for themselves, tend to be skeptical, respect critical thinking and reason, remain open to new concepts, and are sometimes proud of their own individuality. They would determine truth for themselves – based upon knowledge they gain, answers they receive, experiences they have and the balance they thus acquire. Freethinkers reject conformity for the sake of conformity, whereby they create their own beliefs by considering the way the world around them works and would possess the intellectual integrity and courage to think outside of accepted norms, which may or may not lead them to believe in some higher power.


title: Freethought

text: The pansy serves as the long-established and enduring symbol of free thought; literature of the American Secular Union inaugurated its usage in the late 1800s. The reasoning behind the pansy as the symbol of free thought lies both in the flower's name and in its appearance. The pansy derives its name from the French word "pensée", which means "thought". It allegedly received this name because the flower is perceived by some to bear resemblance to a human face, and in mid-to-late summer it nods forward as if deep in thought. "Challenging Religious Dogma: A History of Free Thought", a pamphlet dating from the 1880s had this statement under the title "The Pansy Badge": There is . . . need of a badge which shall express at first glance, without complexity of detail, that basic principle of freedom of thought for which Liberals of all isms are contending. This need seems to have been met by the Freethinkers of France, Belgium, Spain and Sweden, who have adopted the pansy as their badge. We join with them in recommending this flower as a simple and inexpensive badge of Freethought...Let every patriot who is a Freethinker in this sense, adopt the pansy as his badge, to be worn at all times, as a silent and unobtrusive testimony of his principles. In this way we shall recognize our brethren in the cause, and the enthusiasm will spread; until, before long, the uplifted standard of the pansy, beneath the sheltering folds of the United States flag, shall everywhere thrill men's hearts as the symbol of religious liberty and freedom of conscience."


title: Freethought

text: Critical thought has flourished in the Hellenistic Mediterranean, in the repositories of knowledge and wisdom in Ireland and in the Iranian civilizations (for example in the era of Khayyam (1048–1131) and his unorthodox Sufi "Rubaiyat" poems), and in other civilizations, such as the Chinese (note for example the seafaring renaissance of the Southern Song dynasty of 1127–1279), and on through heretical thinkers on esoteric alchemy or astrology, to the Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation.


title: Freethought

text: French physician and writer Rabelais celebrated "rabelaisian" freedom as well as good feasting and drinking (an expression and a symbol of freedom of the mind) in defiance of the hypocrisies of conformist orthodoxy in his utopian Thelema Abbey (from θέλημα: free "will"), the device of which was "Do What Thou Wilt":


title: Freethought

text: So had Gargantua established it. In all their rule and strictest tie of their order there was but this one clause to be observed, Do What Thou Wilt; because free people ... act virtuously and avoid vice. They call this honor.


title: Freethought

text: When Rabelais's hero Pantagruel journeys to the "Oracle of The Div(in)e Bottle", he learns the lesson of life in one simple word: ""Trinch!"", Drink! Enjoy the simple life, learn wisdom and knowledge, as a free human. Beyond puns, irony, and satire, Gargantua's prologue-metaphor instructs the reader to "break the bone and suck out the substance-full marrow" (""la substantifique moëlle""), the core of wisdom.


title: Freethought

text: The year 1600 is considered a landmark in the era of modern free thought. It was the year of the execution in Italy of Giordano Bruno, a former Dominican friar, by the Inquisition.


title: Freethought

text: Prior to World War II, Australia had high rates of Protestantism and Catholicism. Post-war Australia has become a highly secularised country. Donald Horne, one of Australia's well-known public intellectuals, believed rising prosperity in post-war Australia influenced the decline in church-going and general lack of interest in religion. "Churches no longer matter very much to most Australians. If there is a happy eternal life it's for everyone ... For many Australians the pleasures of this life are sufficiently satisfying that religion offers nothing of great appeal", said Horne in his landmark work "The Lucky Country" (1964).


title: Freethought

text: The Université Libre de Bruxelles and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, along with the two Circles of Free Inquiry (Dutch and French speaking), defend the freedom of critical thought, lay philosophy and ethics, while rejecting the argument of authority.


title: Freethought

text: In 1873 a handful of secularists founded the earliest known secular organization in English Canada, the Toronto Freethought Association. Reorganized in 1877 and again in 1881, when it was renamed the Toronto Secular Society, the group formed the nucleus of the Canadian Secular Union, established in 1884 to bring together freethinkers from across the country.


title: Freethought

text: A significant number of the early members appear to have come from the educated labour "aristocracy", including Alfred F. Jury, J. Ick Evans and J. I. Livingstone, all of whom were leading labour activists and secularists. The second president of the Toronto association, T. Phillips Thompson, became a central figure in the city's labour and social-reform movements during the 1880s and 1890s and arguably Canada's foremost late nineteenth-century labour intellectual. By the early 1880s scattered free thought organizations operated throughout southern Ontario and parts of Quebec, eliciting both urban and rural support.


title: Freethought

text: The principal organ of the free thought movement in Canada was "Secular Thought" (Toronto, 1887–1911). Founded and edited during its first several years by English freethinker Charles Watts (1835–1906), it came under the editorship of Toronto printer and publisher James Spencer Ellis in 1891 when Watts returned to England. In 1968 the Humanist Association of Canada (HAC) formed to serve as an umbrella group for humanists, atheists, and freethinkers, and to champion social justice issues and oppose religious influence on public policy—most notably in the fight to make access to abortion free and legal in Canada.


title: Freethought

text: The term "freethinker" emerged towards the end of the 17th century in England to describe those who stood in opposition to the institution of the Church, and the literal belief in the Bible. The beliefs of these individuals were centered on the concept that people could understand the world through consideration of nature. Such positions were formally documented for the first time in 1697 by William Molyneux in a widely publicized letter to John Locke, and more extensively in 1713, when Anthony Collins wrote his "Discourse of Free-thinking," which gained substantial popularity. This essay attacks the clergy of all churches and it is a plea for deism.


title: Freethought

text: "The Freethinker" magazine was first published in Britain in 1881; it continued in print until 2014, and still exists as a web-based publication.


title: Freethought

text: In France, the concept first appeared in publication in 1765 when Denis Diderot, Jean le Rond d'Alembert, and Voltaire included an article on "Liberté de penser" in their Encyclopédie. The concept of free thought spread so widely that even places as remote as the Jotunheimen, in Norway, had well-known freethinkers such as Jo Gjende by the 19th century.


title: Freethought

text: François-Jean Lefebvre de la Barre (1745–1766) was a young French nobleman, famous for having been tortured and beheaded before his body was burnt on a pyre along with Voltaire's "Philosophical Dictionary". La Barre is often said to have been executed for not saluting a Roman Catholic religious procession, but the elements of the case were far more complex.


title: Freethought

text: In France, Lefebvre de la Barre is widely regarded a symbol of the victims of Christian religious intolerance; La Barre along with Jean Calas and Pierre-Paul Sirven, was championed by Voltaire. A second replacement statue to de la Barre stands nearby the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Paris at the summit of the butte Montmartre (itself named from the "Temple of Mars"), the highest point in Paris and an 18th arrondissement street nearby the Sacré-Cœur is also named after Lefebvre de la Barre.


title: Freethought

text: The 19th century saw the emergence of a specific notion of "Libre-Pensée" ("free thought"), with writer Victor Hugo as one of its major early proponents. French Freethinkers ("Libre-Penseurs") associate freedom of thought, political anti-clericalism and socialist leanings. The main organisation referring to this tradition to this day is the Fédération nationale de la libre pensée, created in 1890.


title: Freethought

text: In Germany, during the period 1815–1848 and before the March Revolution, the resistance of citizens against the dogma of the church increased. In 1844, under the influence of Johannes Ronge and Robert Blum, belief in the rights of man, tolerance among men, and humanism grew, and by 1859 they had established the "Bund Freireligiöser Gemeinden Deutschlands" (literally "Union of Free Religious Communities of Germany"), an association of persons who consider themselves to be religious without adhering to any established and institutionalized church or sacerdotal cult. This union still exists today, and is included as a member in the umbrella organization of free humanists. In 1881 in Frankfurt am Main, Ludwig Büchner established the "Deutscher Freidenkerbund" (German Freethinkers League) as the first German organization for atheists and agnostics. In 1892 the "Freidenker-Gesellschaft" and in 1906 the "Deutscher Monistenbund" were formed.


title: Freethought

text: Free thought organizations developed the "Jugendweihe" (literally "Youth consecration"), a secular "confirmation" ceremony, and atheist funeral rites. The Union of Freethinkers for Cremation was founded in 1905, and the Central Union of German Proletariat Freethinker in 1908. The two groups merged in 1927, becoming the German Freethinking Association in 1930.


title: Freethought

text: More "bourgeois" organizations declined after World War I, and "proletarian" free thought groups proliferated, becoming an organization of socialist parties. European socialist free thought groups formed the International of Proletarian Freethinkers (IPF) in 1925. Activists agitated for Germans to disaffiliate from their respective Church and for seculari-zation of elementary schools; between 1919–21 and 1930–32 more than 2.5 million Germans, for the most part supporters of the Social Democratic and Communist parties, gave up church membership. Conflict developed between radical forces including the Soviet League of the Militant Godless and Social Democratic forces in Western Europe led by Theodor Hartwig and Max Sievers. In 1930 the Soviet and allied delegations, following a walk-out, took over the IPF and excluded the former leaders.


title: Freethought

text: Following Hitler's rise to power in 1933, most free thought organizations were banned, though some right-wing groups that worked with so-called "Völkische Bünde" (literally ""ethnic" associations" with nationalist, xenophobic and very often racist ideology) were tolerated by the Nazis until the mid-1930s.


title: Freethought

text: In the Netherlands, free thought has existed in organized form since the establishment of De Dageraad (now known as De Vrije Gedachte) in 1856. Among its most notable subscribing 19th century individuals were Johannes van Vloten, Multatuli, Adriaan Gerhard and Domela Nieuwenhuis.


title: Freethought

text: In 2009, Frans van Dongen established the Atheist-Secular Party, which takes a considerably restrictive view of religion and public religious expressions.


title: Freethought

text: Since the 19th century, free thought in the Netherlands has become more well known as a political phenomenon through at least three currents: liberal freethinking, conservative freethinking, and classical freethinking. In other words, parties which identify as freethinking tend to favor non-doctrinal, rational approaches to their preferred ideologies, and arose as secular alternatives to both clerically aligned parties as well as labor-aligned parties. Common themes among freethinking political parties are "freedom", "liberty", and "individualism".


title: Freethought

text: With the introduction of cantonal church taxes in the 1870s, anti-clericals began to organise themselves. Around 1870, a "freethinkers club" was founded in Zürich. During the debate on the Zürich church law in 1883, professor Friedrich Salomon Vögelin and city council member Kunz proposed to separate church and state.


title: Freethought

text: In the last years of the Ottoman Empire, free thought made its voice heard by the works of distinguished people such as Ahmet Rıza, Tevfik Fikret, Abdullah Cevdet, Kılıçzade Hakkı, and . These intellectuals affected the early period of the Turkish Republic. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk –field marshal, revolutionary statesman, author, and founder of the secular Turkish nation state, serving as its first President from 1923 until his death in 1938– was the practitioner of their ideas. He made many reforms that modernized the country. Sources point out that Atatürk was a religious skeptic and a freethinker. He was a non-doctrinaire deist or an atheist, who was antireligious and anti-Islamic in general. According to Atatürk, the Turkish people do not know what Islam really is and do not read the Quran. People are influenced by Arabic sentences that they do not understand, and because of their customs they go to mosques. When the Turks read the Quran and think about it, they will leave Islam. Atatürk described Islam as the religion of the Arabs in his own work titled "Vatandaş için Medeni Bilgiler" by his own critical and nationalist views.


title: Freethought

text: Association of Atheism ("Ateizm Derneği"), the first official atheist organisation in Middle East and Caucasus, was founded in 2014. It serves to support irreligious people and freethinkers in Turkey who are discriminated against based on their views. In 2018 it was reported in some media outlets that the Ateizm Derneği would close down because of the pressure on its members and attacks by pro-government media, but the association itself issued a clarification that this was not the case and that it was still active.


title: Freethought

text: The Free Thought movement first organized itself in the United States as the "Free Press Association" in 1827 in defense of George Houston, publisher of "The Correspondent", an early journal of Biblical criticism in an era when blasphemy convictions were still possible. Houston had helped found an Owenite community at Haverstraw, New York in 1826–27. The short-lived "Correspondent" was superseded by the "Free Enquirer", the official organ of Robert Owen's New Harmony community in Indiana, edited by Robert Dale Owen and by Fanny Wright between 1828 and 1832 in New York. During this time Robert Dale Owen sought to introduce the philosophic skepticism of the Free Thought movement into the Workingmen's Party in New York City. The "Free Enquirer"'s annual civic celebrations of Paine's birthday after 1825 finally coalesced in 1836 in the first national Free Thinkers organization, the "United States Moral and Philosophical Society for the General Diffusion of Useful Knowledge". It was founded on August 1, 1836, at a national convention at the Lyceum in Saratoga Springs with Isaac S. Smith of Buffalo, New York, as president. Smith was also the 1836 Equal Rights Party's candidate for Governor of New York and had also been the Workingmen's Party candidate for Lt. Governor of New York in 1830. The Moral and Philosophical Society published "The Beacon", edited by Gilbert Vale.


title: Freethought

text: Driven by the revolutions of 1848 in the German states, the 19th century saw an immigration of German freethinkers and anti-clericalists to the United States (see Forty-Eighters). In the United States, they hoped to be able to live by their principles, without interference from government and church authorities.


title: Freethought

text: Many Freethinkers settled in German immigrant strongholds, including St. Louis, Indianapolis, Wisconsin, and Texas, where they founded the town of Comfort, Texas, as well as others.


title: Freethought

text: These groups of German Freethinkers referred to their organizations as "Freie Gemeinden", or "free congregations". The first Freie Gemeinde was established in St. Louis in 1850. Others followed in Pennsylvania, California, Washington, D.C., New York, Illinois, Wisconsin, Texas, and other states.


title: Freethought

text: Freethinkers tended to be liberal, espousing ideals such as racial, social, and sexual equality, and the abolition of slavery.


title: Freethought

text: The "Golden Age of Freethought" in the US came in the late 1800s. The dominant organization was the National Liberal League which formed in 1876 in Philadelphia. This group re-formed itself in 1885 as the American Secular Union under the leadership of the eminent agnostic orator Robert G. Ingersoll. Following Ingersoll's death in 1899 the organization declined, in part due to lack of effective leadership.


title: Freethought

text: Free thought in the United States declined in the early twentieth century. By the early twentieth century, most free thought congregations had disbanded or joined other mainstream churches. The longest continuously operating free thought congregation in America is the Free Congregation of Sauk County, Wisconsin, which was founded in 1852 and is still active . It affiliated with the American Unitarian Association (now the Unitarian Universalist Association) in 1955. D. M. Bennett was the founder and publisher of "The Truth Seeker" in 1873, a radical free thought and reform American periodical.


title: Freethought

text: Free thought influenced the development of anarchism in the United States of America. In the U.S., "free thought was a basically anti-Christian, anti-clerical movement, whose purpose was to make the individual politically and spiritually free to decide for himself on religious matters. A number of contributors to "Liberty" were prominent figures in both free thought and anarchism. The American individualist anarchist George MacDonald [(1857–1944)] was a co-editor of "Freethought" and, for a time, "The Truth Seeker." E.C. Walker was co-editor of the freethought/free love journal "Lucifer, the Light-Bearer"." "Many of the anarchists were ardent freethinkers; reprints from free thought papers such as "Lucifer, the Light-Bearer", "Freethought" and "The Truth Seeker" appeared in "Liberty"...The church was viewed as a common ally of the state and as a repressive force in and of itself."


title: Freethought

text: In Europe, a similar development occurred in French and Spanish individualist anarchist circles: "Anticlericalism, just as in the rest of the libertarian movement, in another of the frequent elements which will gain relevance related to the measure in which the (French) Republic begins to have conflicts with the church...Anti-clerical discourse, frequently called for by the French individualist André Lorulot [(1885-1963)], will have its impacts in "Estudios" (a Spanish individualist anarchist publication). There will be an attack on institutionalized religion for the responsibility that it had in the past on negative developments, for its irrationality which makes it a counterpoint of philosophical and scientific progress. There will be a criticism of proselytism and ideological manipulation which happens on both believers and agnostics". These tendencies would continue in French individualist anarchism in the work and activism of Charles-Auguste Bontemps (1893-1981) and others. In the Spanish individualist anarchist magazines "Ética" and "Iniciales" "there is a strong interest in publishing scientific news, usually linked to a certain atheist and anti-theist obsession, philosophy which will also work for pointing out the incompatibility between science and religion, faith, and reason. In this way there will be a lot of talk on Darwin's theories or on the negation of the existence of the soul".


title: Freethought

text: In 1901 the Catalan anarchist and freethinker Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia established "modern" or progressive schools in Barcelona in defiance of an educational system controlled by the Catholic Church.


title: Freethought

text: The schools had the stated goal to "educate the working class in a rational, secular and non-coercive setting". Fiercely anti-clerical, Ferrer believed in "freedom in education", education free from the authority of church and state.


title: Freethought

text: Ferrer's ideas, generally, formed the inspiration for a series of Modern Schools in the United States, Cuba, South America and London. The first of these started in New York City in 1911. Ferrer also inspired the Italian newspaper "Università popolare", founded in 1901.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: Ponce (, , , ) is both a city and a municipality on the southern coast of Puerto Rico. The city is the seat of the municipal government.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: Ponce, Puerto Rico's most populated city outside the San Juan metropolitan area, was founded on 12 August 1692 and is named for Juan Ponce de León y Loayza, the great-grandson of Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León. Ponce is often referred to as "La Perla del Sur" (The Pearl of the South), "La Ciudad Señorial" (The Manorial City), and "La Ciudad de las Quenepas" (Genip City). The city serves as the governmental seat of the autonomous municipality as well as the regional hub for various Government of Puerto Rico entities, such as the Judiciary of Puerto Rico. It is also the regional center for various other Government of Puerto Rico and US Federal Government agencies. Ponce is a principal city of both the Ponce Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Ponce-Yauco-Coamo Combined Statistical Area.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: The Municipality of Ponce, officially the "Autonomous Municipality of Ponce", is located in the southern coastal plain region of the island, south of Adjuntas, Utuado, and Jayuya; east of Peñuelas; west of Juana Díaz; and bordered on the south by the Caribbean Sea. The municipality has 31 barrios, including 19 outside the city's urban area and 12 in the urban area of the city. The historic "Ponce Pueblo" district, located in the downtown area of the city, is shared by several of the downtown barrios, and is located approximately three miles () inland from the shores of the Caribbean. The municipality of Ponce is the second largest in Puerto Rico by land area, and it was the first in Puerto Rico to obtain its autonomy, becoming the "Autonomous Municipality of Ponce" in 1992.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: 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.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: 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.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: 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.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: 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).


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: 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).


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: 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.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: 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.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: 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.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: 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.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: 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.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: "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".


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: 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.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: 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.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: 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:


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: At least one author has also blamed the stagnation on "the strife between the U.S. and the local Nationalist Party."


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: 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.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: 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.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: 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


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: 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."


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: 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. 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.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: 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.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: 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.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: Statistics taken from the 2010 census show that 82.0% of Ponceños are white and 9.0% are African-American, with Taínos, Asians, people of mixed race and others making up the rest. At 82.0% vs. 76.2% for the island as a whole, Ponce has the highest concentration of white population of any municipality in Puerto Rico. However, the US Census Bureau changed the definitions of its racial makeup categories for the 2020 Census resulting in 19.0% of Ponceños being classified as white and 13.3% as Black/Afro Puerto Rican', 0.3% as Asian, and people of mixed race making up the rest.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: 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.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: 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


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: 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.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: 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.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: 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.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: 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.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: On September 20, 2017 Hurricane Maria struck the island of Puerto Rico. In Ponce, $1,000 million in damages were the initial estimates. An estimated 3,500 homes were completely or partially destroyed. The hurricane triggered numerous landslides in Ponce.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: The Municipality of Ponce sits on the Southern Coastal Plain region of the Puerto Rico, on the shores of the Caribbean Sea. It is bordered by the municipalities of Adjuntas, Utuado, Jayuya, Peñuelas, and Juana Díaz.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: Ponce is a large municipality, with only Arecibo larger in land area in Puerto Rico. In terms of physical features, the municipality occupies a roughly rectangular area in south-central portion of the Island of approximately wide (east-to-west) by long (north-to-south). It has a surface area of . The main physiographic features of the municipality of Ponce are: (1) the mountainous interior containing the headwaters of the main river systems, (2) an upper plain, (3) a range of predominantly east-west trending limestone hills, (4) a coastal plain, and (5) a coastal flat. The northern two-thirds of the municipality consists of the mountainous interior, with the southern third divided between hills, coastal plains, and the coastal flat.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: Ponce's municipal territory reaches the central mountain range to the north and the Caribbean Sea to the south. Geographically speaking, the southern area of the territory is part of the Ponce-Patillas alluvial plain subsector and the southern coastal plain, which were created by the consolidation of the valleys of the southern side of the central mountain range and the Cayey mountain range. The central area of the municipality is part of the semi-arid southern hills. These two regions are classified as being the driest on the island. The northern part of the municipality is considered to be within the rainy western mountains. Barrio Anón is home to Cerro Maravilla, a peak that at 4,085 feet (1,245 m) is Puerto Rico's fourth highest peak.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: Nineteen barrios comprise the rural areas of the municipality, and the topology of their lands varies from flatlands to hills to steep mountain slopes. The hilly barrios of the municipality (moving clockwise around the outskirts of the city) are these seven: Quebrada Limón, Marueño, Magueyes, Tibes, Portugués Rural, Machuelo Arriba, and Cerrillos. The barrios of Canas, Coto Laurel, Capitanejo, Sabanetas, Vayas, and Bucaná also surround the outskirts of the city but these are mostly flat. The remaining six other barrios are further away from the city and their topology is rugged mountain terrain. These are (clockwise): Guaraguao, San Patricio, Monte Llano, Maragüez, Anón, and Real. The ruggedness of these barrios is because through these areas of the municipality runs the Central Mountain Range of the Island. The remaining barrios are part of the urban zone of the city. There are six barrios in the core urban zone of the municipality named "Primero", "Segundo", "Tercero", "Cuarto", "Quinto", and "Sexto." They are delimetered by streets, rivers, or major highways. For example, Barrio Tercero is bounded in the north by Isabel Street, in the east by the Rio Portugués, in the south by Comercio Street, and the west by Plaza Las Delicias. Barrio Tercero includes much of what is called the historic district.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: There is a seismic detector that the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus, has placed in Barrio Cerrillos.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: Elevations include Cerro de Punta at 4,390 feet (1,338 m), the highest in Puerto Rico, located in Barrio Anón in the territory of the municipality of Ponce. Mount Jayuya, at 4,314 feet (1,315 m) is located on the boundary between Barrio Anón and Barrio Saliente in Jayuya. Cerro Maravilla, at nearly 3,970 feet (1,210 m) above sea level, is located to the east of Barrio Anón. There are many other mountains at lower elevations in the municipality, such as the Montes Llanos ridge and Mount Diablo, at 2,231 feet (680 m) and Mount Marueño, at 2,100 feet (640 m), and Pinto Peak, among others. Part of the Toro Negro Forest is located in Barrio Anón. Coastal promontories include Cuchara, Peñoncillo, Carnero, and Cabullón points. Fifty-six percent of the municipality consists of slopes 10 degrees or greater.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: The 14 rivers comprising the hydrographic system of Ponce are Matilde, Inabón, Bucaná, Jacaguas, Portugués, Cañas, Pastillo, Cerrillos, Chiquito, Bayagan, Blanco, Prieto, Anón and San Patricio The Jacaguas River runs for a brief stretch on the southeast area of the municipality. The Inabón River springs from Anón ward and runs through the municipality for some ; the tributaries of the Inabón are the Anón and Guayo rivers and the Emajagua Brook. The Bucaná River springs from Machuelo Arriba ward and runs for into the Caribbean Sea. The tributaries of the Bucaná are the San Patricio, Bayagán, and Prieto Rivers and Ausubo brook. The Portugués River springs from the ward of that name in Adjuntas, and runs for into the Caribbean sea at Ponce Playa ward. The Matilde River, also known as the Pastillo River, runs for ; its tributaries are the Cañas River and the Limón and del Agua brooks. Lakes in Ponce include Bronce and Ponceña as well as lakes bearing numbers: Uno, Dos, Tres, and Cinco; and the Salinas Lagoon, which is considered a restricted lagoon. Other water bodies are the springs at Quintana and the La Guancha and El Tuque beaches. There is also a beach at Caja de Muertos Island. Lake Cerrillos is located within the limits of the municipality, as will be the future lake resulting from the Portugués Dam. The Cerrillos State Forest is also located in the municipality of Ponce.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: Coastal geographic features in Ponce include Bahía de Ponce, Caleta de Cabullones (Cabullones Cove), and five cays: Jueyes, Ratones, Cardona, Gatas, and Isla del Frio. Caja de Muertos Island and Morrillito islet are located at the boundary between Ponce and Juana Díaz. There is a mangrove covering an area of approximately at Cabullón promontory and Isla del Frio. The Salinas Lagoon, part of Reserva Natural Punta Cucharas, has a mangrove that expands about . The lagoon itself consists of 698 "cuerdas" (678 acres; 274 ha). The Rita cave is located in Barrio Cerrillos.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: Ponce features a tropical savanna climate (Koppen Aw/As). Ponce has summer highs averaging and winter highs, . It has lows averaging in the winter and in the summer. It has a record high of , which occurred on 21 August 2003, and a record low of which occurred on 28 February 2004, tying the record low of from 25 January 1993. The mean annual temperature in the municipality is .


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: During the 19th century, the city was witness to a flourishing architectural development, including the birth of a new architectural style later dubbed Ponce Creole. Architects like Francisco Valls, Manuel Víctor Domenech, Eduardo Salich, Blas Silva Boucher, Agustín Camilo González, Alfredo Wiechers, Francisco Porrata Doria and Francisco Gardón Vega used a mixture of Art Nouveau and neoclassic styles to give the city a unique look. This can be seen in the various structures located in the center of the city like the Teatro La Perla. To showcase its rich architectural heritage, the city has opened the Museum of Puerto Rican Architecture at the Wiechers-Villaronga residence.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: Many of the city's features (from house façades to chamfered street corners) are modeled on Barcelona's architecture, given the city's strong Catalan heritage. In 2020, the National Trust for Historic Preservation named the Ponce Historic Zone as one of America's most endangered historic places.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: With 31 "barrios", Ponce is Puerto Rico's municipality with the largest number of barrios. Ponce's barrios consist of 12 located in the urban area of the city plus 19 outside the urban zone. Of these nineteen, seven were considered suburban in 1999. The suburban barrios were: Canas, Magueyes, Portugués, Machuelo Arriba, Sabanetas, Coto Laurel, and Cerrillos. A 2000 report by the U.S. Census Bureau provides detailed demographics statistics for each of Ponce's barrios.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: The 2000 Census showed that Montes Llanos is the least populated barrio in the municipality. Thanks to its larger area, barrio Canas was by far the most populated ward of the municipality. At 68 persons per square mile, San Patricio was the least populated, while Cuarto was the most densely populated at 18,819 persons per square mile.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: Ponce has nine barrios that border neighboring municipalities. These are Canas, Quebrada Limón, Marueño, Guaraguao, San Patricio, Anón, Real, Coto Laurel, and Capitanejo. Canas and Capitanejo are also coastal barrios, and together with three others (Playa, Bucaná, and Vayas) make up the municipality's five coastal barrios.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: There are also five barrios within the city limits (Canas Urbano, Machuelo Abajo, Magueyes Urbano, Portugués Urbano, and San Antón) that in addition to the original six city core barrios — named Primero, Segundo, Tercero, Cuarto, Quinto, and Sexto — make up the 11 urban zone barrios of the municipality. The historic zone of the city is within these original six core city barrios. These eleven barrios composed what is known as the urban zone of the municipality.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: The remaining eight barrios (Magueyes, Tibes, Montes Llanos, Maragüez, Portugués, Machuelo Arriba, Cerrillos, Sabanetas) are located in the interior of the municipality. These last eight are outside the city limits and are neither coastal nor bordering barrios.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: A summary of all the barrios of the municipality, their population, population density, and land and water areas as given by the U.S. Census Bureau is as follows:


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: Due to its historical importance throughout the years, Ponce features many points of interest for visiting tourists. The downtown area contains the bulk of Ponce's tourist attractions. Tourism has seen significant growth in recent years. In 2007, over 6,000 tourists visited the city via cruise ships. Passenger movement at the Mercedita Airport in FY 2008 was 278,911, a 1,228% increase over fiscal year 2003 and the highest of all the regional airports for that 5-year period. Though not all of these were tourists, it represents a volume larger than the population of the city itself.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: To support a growing tourist industry, around the 1970s, and starting with the Ponce Holiday Inn, several hotels have been built. Newer lodging additions include the Ponce Hilton Golf & Casino Resort, home to the new Costa Caribe Golf & Country Club, featuring a 27-hole PGA championship golf course. The Hotel Meliá has operated in the city continuously since the early 20th century. It has also been studied that the Intercontinental Hotel, which opened in February 1960 and closed in 1975, could be refurbished and re-opened atop the hill near Cruceta del Vigía as the "Magna Vista Resort". The Ponce Ramada also opened in 2009, and other hotel projects in the works include the Four Points by Sheraton, and Marriott Courtyard, among others. In 2013, the downtown Ponce Ramada Hotel added a casino to its 70-room structure. Ponce is part of the Government of Puerto Rico's Porta Caribe tourist region.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: In recent years an intensive $440 million revitalization project called ""Ponce en Marcha"" ("Ponce on the Move") has increased the city's historic area from 260 to 1,046 buildings. The "Ponce en Marcha" project was conceived in 1985 by then governor Rafael Hernández Colón during his second term in La Fortaleza and Ponce mayor Jose Dapena Thompson. The plan was approved by the Ponce Municipal Legislature on 14 January 2003. It was signed by Governor Sila Calderon via Executive Order on 28 December 2003, and went into effect on 12 January 2004. The plan incorporates a one billion dollars in spending during the period of 2004 through 2012. A significant number of buildings in Ponce are listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The nonprofit "Project for Public Places" listed the historic downtown Ponce city center as one of the "60 of the World's Great Places", for its "graciously preserved showcase of Caribbean culture". The revitalized historic area of the city goes by various names, including "Ponce Centro" (Ponce Center), "Historic Ponce", and "Historic District." The name "Ponce en Marcha" comes from the revitalization plan of "Zona Atocha" in Madrid called "Atocha en Marcha".


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: The city has been christened as "Museum City" for its many quality museums. All museums in Ponce are under municipal government administration. On 15 September 2004, the last four museums not under local control were transferred from the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture to the Ponce Municipal Government by act of the Puerto Rico Legislature. However, these four museums (Casa Armstrong Poventud, Casa Wiechers-Villaronga, Museo de la Música Puertorriqueña, and Casa de la Masacre) continue to be controlled by the ICP. Downtown Ponce in particular features several museums and landmarks.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: Plaza Las Delicias, the town's main square, features a prominent fountain (namely, the "Lions Fountain"), the Ponce Cathedral, and Parque de Bombas, an old fire house, now a museum, that stands as an iconic symbol of the city and a tribute to the bravery of its firefighters. This plaza is also a usual gathering place for "ponceños". Other buildings around Ponce's main plaza include the Casa Alcaldía (Ponce City Hall), the oldest colonial building in the city, dating to the 1840s, and the Armstrong-Poventud Residence, an example of the neoclassical architectural heritage of the island.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: Just north of downtown Ponce lies the Castillo Serrallés and the Cruceta del Vigía, a observation tower which overlooks the city. The Serralles castle is reported to receive nearly 100,000 visitors every year. The hill on which the Cruceta is located was originally used by scouts to scan for incoming mercantile ships as well as invading ones. The invasion of American troops in 1898 was first spotted from there.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: Ponce is home to Puerto Rico's oldest cemetery; in fact, it is the oldest cemetery in the Antilles. In the city outskirts, the Tibes Indigenous Ceremonial Center was discovered in 1975 after hurricane rains uncovered pottery. The center is the site of the oldest cemetery uncovered up to date in the Antilles. With some 200 skeletons unearthed from the year 300 AD, it is considered the largest and the most important archaeological finding in the West Indies. Two other cemeteries in Ponce worth noting are the Panteón Nacional Román Baldorioty de Castro and the Cementerio Catolico San Vicente de Paul, both of which are listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The Cementerio Catolico San Vicente de Paul has the most eye-catching burial constructions of any cemetery for the wealthiest families, both local and foreign-born, of southern Puerto Rico.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: Also in the city outskirts is Hacienda Buena Vista, an estate built in 1833 originally to grow fruits. It was converted into a coffee plantation and gristmill in 1845. It remained in operation until 1937, then fell into disrepair, but was restored by the government's "Fideicomiso de Conservación de Puerto Rico". All the machinery works (the metal parts) are original, operated by water channeled from the 360m Vives waterfall; there is a hydraulic turbine which makes the corn mill work.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: Paseo Tablado La Guancha is located in the town's sea shore. It features kiosks with food and beverages, an open-space stage for activities, and a marina called Club Náutico de Ponce. From the observation tower on the boardwalk, Cardona Island Light can be seen. A 45-minute boat ride is also available to Isla de Caja de Muertos (Coffin Island), a small island with several beaches and an 1887 lighthouse.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: , the city had also engaged in the development of a convention center with a capacity for 3,000 people. It is also to include two major hotels, apartment buildings and recreational facilities. Puerto Rico Route 143 (PR-143), known as the "Panoramic Route", runs edging near the municipality's northern border.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: The city is home to a long list of cultural assets including libraries, museums, galleries, and parks, hundreds of buildings of historical value including schools, residences, bridges, and estates, and frequent activities such as festivals and carnivals. The municipality invests close to half a million dollars in promoting its cultural assets. It established its first library in 1894 and, had a new central library with seven other branches scattered throughout the municipality.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: The city values its cultural traditions as evidenced by the revitalization project "Ponce en Marcha." It is deeply rooted in its traditional cultural, artistic, and musical heritage. The love for art and architecture, for example, can be appreciated at its museums of art, music, and architecture.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: "Over the last century or so, the north [i.e., San Juan] willingly accepted the influence of western culture with its tendency toward large sprawling metropolises, and the displacement of old values and attitudes. Ponce, on the other hand, has been content to retain its old traditions and culture. Ponce is not concerned about losing its long standing position as the second largest city in population after San Juan. On the contrary, she prefers to maintain her current size, and stick to its old traditions and culture."


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: "Ponceños have always been a breed apart from other Puerto Ricans. Their insularity and haughtiness are legendary, and some Puerto Ricans claim that even the dialect in Ponce is slightly different from that spoken in the rest of the Island. They are also racially different: you'll see more people of African descent in Ponce than anywhere else in the Island except Loiza."Others claim that Ponceños exhibit considerable more civic pride than do residents of other locales. Luis Muñoz Rivera, the most important statesman in the Island at the close of the 19th century, referred to Ponce as "the most Puerto Rican city of Puerto Rico."


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: Artistic development also flourished during this period. The surging of popular rhythms like Bomba and Plena took place in the south region of the island, mainly in Ponce. Barrio San Antón is known as one of the birthplaces of the rhythm. Every July, Ponce celebrates an annual festival of Bomba and Plena, which includes various musicians and parades.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: Immigrants from Spain, Italy, France, Germany, and England came to Ponce to develop an international city that still maintains rich Taíno and African heritage. The African personality, belief, and music add flavor and colorful rhythm to Ponce's culture. Part of this are the influences of the Bomba and Plena rhythms. These are a combination and Caribbean and African music.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: Ponce has also been the birthplace of several singers and musicians. From opera singers like Antonio Paoli, who lived in the early 20th century, to contemporary singers like Ednita Nazario. Also, Salsa singers like Héctor Lavoe, Cheo Feliciano, and Ismael Quintana also come from the city.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: Dating back to 1858, Ponce's Carnival is the oldest in Puerto Rico, and acquired an international flavor for its 150th anniversary. It is one of the oldest carnivals celebrated in the Western Hemisphere. It features various parades with masked characters representative of good and evil.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: The Museum of Puerto Rican Music, located at the Serrallés-Nevárez family residence in downtown Ponce, illustrates music history on the Island, most of which had its origin and development in Ponce.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: No discussion of music in Ponce would be complete without rendering honor to the great performances of King of Tenors Antonio Paoli and danza master Juan Morel Campos, both from Ponce. Today, there is a statue of Juan Morel Campos that adorns the Plaza Las Delicias city square, and the home where Paoli was born and raised functions as the Puerto Rico Center for Folkloric Research, a research center for Puerto Rican culture.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: A municipal band presents concerts every Sunday evening, and a Youth Symphony Orchestra also performs.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: Ponce's love for the arts dates back to at least 1864 when the Teatro La Perla was built. Ponce is also the birthplace of artists like Miguel Pou, Horacio Castaing, and several others in the fields of painting, sculpture, and others. The City is one of only seven cities in the Western Hemisphere (the others being Mexico City, Havana, Valparaíso, Buenos Aires, Mar del Plata, and Rosario) in the Ruta Europea del Modernisme, an international non-profit association for the promotion and protection of Art Nouveau heritage in the world.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: Today, Ponce has more museums (nine) than any other municipality in the Island. Ponce is home to the Museo de Arte de Ponce (MAP), founded in 1959 by fellow "ponceño" Luis A. Ferré. The museum was operated by Ferré until his death at the age of 99, and it is now under the direction of the Luis A. Ferré Foundation. Designed by Edward Durell Stone, architect of Radio City Music Hall and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, MAP is the only museum of international stature on the Island, the only one that was accredited by the American Alliance of Museums (AAM), and the only one that has received a design prize of honor from the American Institute of Architects (AIA). It houses the most extensive art collection in the Caribbean.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: Most of Ponce's professional teams are called the "Leones de Ponce" ("Ponce Lions", or "Ponce Lionesses" as the case may be) regardless of the sport. The Leones de Ponce basketball team is one of the leading teams of the island, winning 12 championships during their tenure. The team's venue is the Juan Pachín Vicéns Auditorium. The Leones de Ponce (men's) baseball and the Leonas de Ponce (women's) baseball teams have also been fairly successful. The baseball teams' venue is the Francisco Montaner Stadium. The stadium is located next to the Juan Pachín Vicéns Auditorium.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: In 1993 the city hosted the Central American and Caribbean Games, from 19 November through 30 November.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: The city also hosts two international annual sporting events. In the month of May, it hosts the Ponce Grand Prix, a track and field event in which over 100 athletes participate. During the Memorial Day Weekend in the month of September, the city hosts Cruce a Nado Internacional, a swimming competition with over a dozen countries represented. Also, the Ponce Marathon takes place every December, sometimes as part of the "Las Mañanitas" event on 12 December.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: The Francisco "Pancho" Coimbre Sports Museum, named after the baseball player of the same name, was dedicated to the honor of Puerto Rico's great sports men and women. It is located on the grounds of the Charles H. Terry Athletic Park on Lolita Tizol Street, just north of the entrance to Historic Ponce at Puente de los Leones (Lions' Bridge) and the Ponce Tricentennial Park. In 2012 the city commenced construction of the multi-sport complex Ciudad Deportiva Millito Navarro. No date has been announced for its completion yet, but its skateboarding section opened in March 2013.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: The municipality is home to several parks and beaches, including both passive and active parks. Among the most popular passive parks are the Julio Enrique Monagas Family Park on Ponce By-pass Road (PR-2) at the location where the Rio Portugués feeds into Bucaná. The Parque Urbano Dora Colon Clavell, another passive park is in the downtown area. Active parks include the Charles H. Terry Athletic Field, and several municipal tennis courts, including one at Poly Deportivos with 9 hard courts, and one at La Rambla with six hard courts. There are also many public basketball courts scattered throughout the various barrios of the municipality.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: The municipality has 40 beaches including 28 on the mainland and 12 in Caja de Muertos. Among these, about a dozen of them are most notable, including El Tuque Beach in the El Tuque sector on highway PR-2, west of the city, La Guancha Beach at the La Guancha sector south of the city, and four beaches in Caja de Muertos: Pelicano, Playa Larga, Carrucho, and Coast Guard beach. A ferry must be boarded at La Guancha for transportation to the Caja de Muertos beaches.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: During and after colonization, the Roman Catholic Church became the established religion of the colony. Gradually African slaves were converted to Christianity, but many incorporated their own traditions and symbols, maintaining African traditions as well. Ponce Cathedral, listed in the National Register of Historic Places, was built in 1839. The Royal Decree of Graces of 1815 allowed for non-Catholics to immigrate legally to Puerto Rico, but it required those who wanted to settle on the island to make a vow of alliance to the Catholic Church. Ponce was the first city in Puerto Rico where Protestant churches were built.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: With the U.S. invasion, there was a significant change in the religious landscape in the City and in Puerto Rico. "The Protestant missionaries followed the footprints of the United States soldiers, right after the Treaty of Paris was ratified and Puerto Rico was ceded to the American government." By March 1899, eight months after the occupation, executives from the Methodists, Episcopalians, Baptists, Presbyterians, and others, had arranged for an evangelical division whereby Ponce would have Evangelical, Baptist, and Methodist "campaigns". With the passing of the Foraker Act in 1900, which established total separation between Church and State, the absolute power of the Catholic Church eroded quickly.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: Various Protestant churches were soon established and built in Ponce; today many are recognized as historic sites. Among them are the McCabe Memorial Church (Methodist) (1908), and the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church (Methodist) (1907).


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: The bell of the Episcopalian Holy Trinity Church in Barrio Cuarto, rang again when the Americans arrived on 25 July 1898. Built in 1873, the church was allowed to function by the Spanish Crown under the conditions that its bell would not be rung, its front doors would always remain closed, and its services would be offered in English only.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: Today, Ponce is home to a mix of religious faiths: both Protestants and Catholics, as well as Muslims, have places of worship in Ponce. Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Pentecostals, Adventists, Evangelicals, Disciples of Christ, and Congregationalists are among the Protestant faiths with a following in Ponce. Catholicism is the faith of the majority of "ponceños." In 2009, the Catholic Church had 18 parishes in the municipality, two bishops and 131 priests. In his "Memoirs", Albert E. Lee summed up Ponce's attitude towards religion:


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: Traditionally the city's economy had depended almost entirely on the sugarcane industry. Since around the 1950s, however, the town's economy has diversified and today its economy revolves around a mixed-industry manufacturing sector, retail, and tourism. The building of a mega port, anticipated to be completed in 2012, is expected to add significantly to the area's economy. Agriculture, retail, and services are also significant players in the local economy. It is considered an agricultural, trade, and distribution center, with manufacturing that includes electronics, communications equipment, food processing, pharmaceutical drugs, concrete plants, scientific instruments and rum distilling as well as an established gourmet coffee agricultural industry. The city, though, suffers from an unemployment rate that hovers around the 15 percent mark.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: The municipality is considered one of the most developed municipalities in Puerto Rico. Its manufacturing sectors include electronic and electrical equipment, communications equipment, food processing, pharmaceutical drugs, concrete plants, and scientific instruments. It also produces leather products, needlework, and fish flour to a lesser extent. Ponce is home to the Serralles rum distillery, which manufactures Don Q, and to Industrias Vassallo, a leader in PVC manufacturing. Other important local manufacturers are Ponce Cement, Cristalia Premium Water, Rovira Biscuits Corporation, and Café Rico. Ponce was once the headquarters for Puerto Rico Iron Works, Ponce Salt Industries, and Ponce Candy Industries.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: In the agricultural sector, the most important products are coffee, followed by plantains, bananas, oranges, and grapefruits. A mix of public and private services, as well as finance, retail sales, and construction round up Ponce's economic rhythm. Cafe Rico, which metamorphosed from coffee-grower Cafeteros de Puerto Rico, has its headquarters in Ponce.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: For many years commercial retail activity in Ponce centered around what is now Paseo Atocha. This has shifted in recent years, and most retail activity today occurs in one of Ponce's various malls, in particular Plaza del Caribe. Centro del Sur Mall is also a significant retail area, as is Ponce Mall.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: Ponce is home to Puerto Rico's chief Caribbean port, the Port of Ponce. The port is expanding to transform it into a mega port, called the Port of the Americas that will operate as an international transshipment port. When fully operational, it is expected to support 100,000 jobs.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: Ponce has consistently ranked as one of the most populous cities in Puerto Rico. Ponce's population, according to the 2010 census, stands at 166,327, with a population density of 1,449.3 persons per square mile (278.4/km²), ranking third in terms of population among Puerto Rican municipalities.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: The municipal government has its seat in the city of Ponce. Since its foundation in 1692, the city of Ponce has been led by a mayor. Its first mayor was Don Pedro Sánchez de Matos. The 2008 election of María Meléndez Altieri (PNP), brought Ponce the first woman to be elected to the mayoral office in the city's history. She was re-elected in 2012 and again in 2016, and serve as mayor until 2021. In the 2020 election Luis Irizarri Pabón (PPD) was elected as mayor and is currently serving as mayor. Ponce's best known mayor of recent years is perhaps Rafael "Churumba" Cordero Santiago (PPD), who held office from 1989 until his sudden death on the morning of 17 January 2004, after suffering three successive brain strokes.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: The city also has a municipal legislature that handles local legislative matters. Ponce has had a municipal council since 1812. The municipal legislature is composed of 16 civilians elected during the general elections, along with the mayor, state representatives and senators. The delegations are, until the 2020 general election, distributed as follows: 13 legislators of the Popular Democratic Party, two legislators of the New Progressive Party, and one legislator from the Movimento Victoria Ciudadana.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: The Ponce City Hall has one of the most unusual histories of any city hall throughout the world. "Originally built in the 1840s as a public assembly hall, Ponce's City Hall was a jail until the end of the 19th century. Current galleries were former cells, and executions were held in the courtyard. Four U.S. presidents spoke from the balcony - Theodore Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover, Franklin Roosevelt and George Bush." It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: In 2005, the municipality's budget was US$152 million. In 2010-2011 it was $158 million. In 2016-2017 the proposed budget was $140 million. From a business perspective, the Ponce municipal government is generally praised for its efficiency and speediness, thanks to its adoption of the Autonomous Municipality Law of 1991.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: The municipality of Ponce is the seat of the Puerto Rico Senatorial district V, which is represented by two senators. During the 2020 Puerto Rico Senate election, Marially González and Ramón Ruiz, both from the Popular Democratic Party, were elected as District Senators and are currently serving.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: The coat of arms of the municipality is based on the design of the official mayoral seal that was adopted in 1844 under the administration of mayor Salvador de Vives.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: The coat of arms of Ponce consists of an escutcheon (shield) in the Spanish tradition. This shield has a field with a party per bend division. The division runs from top left to bottom right. The field is red and black, bordered with a fine golden line. In the center of the shield is the figure of an erect lion standing on a bridge. The top of the bridge is a golden, the middle is red bricks, and the base foundation is gray rocks. Under the bridge there are gray wavy lines. Over the shield rests a five-tower golden stone wall with openings in the form of red windows. To the left of the shield is a coffee tree branch with its fruit, and to the right of the shield is a sugarcane stalk. The symbols of the shield are as follows: The field represents the flag of the municipality of Ponce, divided diagonally in the traditional city colors: red and black. The lion over the bridge alludes to the last name of the conqueror and first governor of Puerto Rico, Juan Ponce de Leon. The waves under the bridge allude to the Rio Portugues, on the banks of which the city was born. The coronet in the form of a five-tower mural crown above the shield allude to the Spanish crown, through which the settlement obtained its city charter. The coffee tree branch and the sugarcane stalk represent the main agricultural basis of the economy of the young municipality.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: Ponce has two official flags, one for the municipality and one for the city proper. The municipal flag, "the 1692 flag", was adopted in 1967 via a municipal ordinance. This flag, designed by Mario Ramirez, was selected from among a number of public proposals. It consisted of a rectangular cloth divided by a diagonal line into two equal isosceles triangles. The line ran from the top right-hand corner to the bottom left-hand corner. The top triangle was black; the bottom right triangle was red. On the top triangle was the figure of a lion over a bridge. On the bottom triangle was the word "Ponce" with the number "1692", the date when the municipality was founded. Ponce Municipal Assembly Order No. 5, Section 5, of Municipal Assembly Year 1966-1967 established that the last Sunday in April is "Día de la Bandera de Ponce" (Ponce Flag Day).


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: Ten years later, in 1977, a new municipal ordinance introduced a flag, "the 1877 city flag" to commemorate the one 100th anniversary of the declaration of the "city" charter. This (1977) flag consisted of a rectangular cloth divided by a diagonal line, creating two equal isosceles triangles, starting from the top left hand corner and ending on the lower right hand corner. The top triangle is red; the bottom triangle is black. In the center of the flag sits the shield of the municipality. Under this shield is the number "1877", the year of the founding of the city, and above the shield is the word "PONCE". Some flags have the "1877" date on the left border of the bottom triangle and the name of the city on the right border of the triangle, as illustrated in the insert on the left.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: The city's fire department has a history of firsts, including being the first organized fire department in the Island. As the largest city in the island at the time, and "de facto" economic and social center of Puerto Rico, this in effect also created the first Puerto Rico Fire Department. The Ponce Fire Department also built the first fire station in the Island, which still stands to this day, and is now open as the Parque de Bombas museum. Also, in 1951, Ponce's Fire Chief Raúl Gándara-Cartagena, wrote a book on the firemen's service, which became a firemen's manual in several Latin American countries. In recognition of the service rendered by its fire fighters, the City of Ponce built them homes resulting in the creation of the 25 de Enero Street near the city's historic district.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: A major fire took place on 27 February 1820, that "almost destroyed the early Ponce settlement". It destroyed 106 "of the best homes in town." In 1823, then Governor of Puerto Rico, Miguel de la Torre mandated that "every male from 16 to 60 years old must be a firefighter". Those firefighters had to supply their own fire fighting equipment (essentially picks, buckets, and shovels). Unfortunately, once De la Torre left office, this first fire fighting institution started to decay.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: Another major fire occurred in La Playa in March, 1845, that destroyed "most of the Ponce vicinity." It significantly damaged the Spanish Customs House in Ponce, this being one of the few buildings left standing after the fire. The fire burned down the major buildings of the "Marina de Ponce". After this fire, then governor of Puerto Rico Conde de Mirasol (born Rafael de Aristegui y Velez), created a new fire fighting organization staffed by volunteers. In 1862, the Ponce Firefighters Corps was reorganized under the administration of Ponce mayor Luis de Quixano y Font, and Tomás Cladellas was named fire chief. In 1879 the Ponce Fire Corps reorganized again, with a new fire chief, the local architect Juan Bertoli.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: On 25 September 1880 another fire, took place destroying most of the older civil records (births, baptisms, marriages, etc.) of the Ponce parish. In 1883, the Ponce firefighter corps reorganized once more, this time in a more definitive fashion when Máximo Meana was mayor of Ponce. During this time the Ponce Fire Corps was made up of 400 firefighters. Its leadership consisted of Julio Steinacher, fire chief, Juan Seix, second fire chief, Oscar Schuch Olivero, Chief of Brigade, and Fernando M. Toro, Supervisor of the Gymnastics Academy. Concurrent with this, the firefighter corps music band was organized. In September 1883, Juan Morel Campos formally organized the Ponce Fire Corps Municipal Band which exists to this day.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: The fourth Ponce fire of large proportions occurred on 25 January 1899. The fire was fought by a group of firefighters among whom was Pedro Sabater and the civilian Rafael Rivera Esbrí, who would later become mayor of the city. The fire started at the U.S. munitions depot on the lot currently occupied by the Ponce High School building and grounds. The heroes in that fire, believed to have saved the city from certain annihilation, are remembered to this day with monuments on their tombs as well as in a monument in the city square Plaza Las Delicias. As a further gesture of gratitude, a neighborhood of distinctive Victorian-style cottages were constructed to house the firefighters and their families. These houses, painted in the red and black colors of the city, are located along a street named Calle 25 de Enero ("25 de Enero street"); they are still owned and occupied by the descendants of these firefighters and are a scenic attraction in Ponce's historic center.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: The Ponce Municipal Police consists of a force of some 500 officers. This force is complemented by the Puerto Rico Police force. The Ponce Municipal Police has its headquarters at the southwest corner of the intersection of PR-163 (Las Americas Avenue) and PR-2R (Carretera Pámpanos). In addition it has three precincts as follows: Cantera, La Guancha, and Coto Laurel, plus specialized units at Port of the Americas (maritime unit), Mariani (transit unit), Belgica (motorcycle unit), and Parque Dora Clavell (tourism unit).


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: The Puerto Rico Police had its Ponce area regional headquarters from 1970 until 2011 on Hostos Avenue. In 2011 it moved its command center to a new and larger facility further west on Urbanizacion Los Caobos in Barrio Bucana. It commands five precincts in the city: Villa, Playa, Morel Campos, La Rambla, and El Tuque. The Ponce municipal coverage of the Puerto Rico Police force is as follows:


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: In 2002, most of the homicides in Puerto Rico were occurring in San Juan and the greater metropolitan areas of Bayamón, Carolina and Caguas, but Ponce also had a high homicide rate. Also in 2002, Puerto Rico law enforcement officials drafted plans to increase the number of forensic investigators by 25%. The investigators, assigned to the Institute of Forensic Sciences in San Juan, covered homicides in about 65 percent of the island, but the Institute was considering assigning Ponce its own unit. By mid-year 2005, there had been 25 more murder cases in Ponce than for all of 2004, a significant increase.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: The police acknowledged that most crime cases in Puerto Rico are linked to drug-trafficking and illegal weapons. In mid-July 2005, Gov. Aníbal Acevedo Vilá announced a series of measures aimed at lowering Ponce's high murder rate. Some of those measures included the permanent transfer of 100 agents to the area, the appointment of a ballistics expert from the Institute of Forensic Sciences and of two prosecutors for the Department of Justice in Ponce. Puerto Rico Police Superintendent Pedro Toledo admitted that more than 100 agents are actually needed in the Ponce region in 2005, but that "there would be no additional transfers at the moment to avoid affecting other police areas."


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: Ponce is a convenient transition point for drug smugglers due to its location on the Caribbean Sea and its proximity to Colombia and Venezuela. From there packages are then transported to the United States by various means including the United States Postal Service. The city is included in the area's HIDTA region.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: As most of the crime in Ponce is connected to the drug-trade, police have an eye on illegal smuggling through the Port of Ponce A 2008 government report stated that, "Drug smuggling in containerized cargo is a significant maritime threat to the HIDTA (High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area) region. The vast and increasing quantity of goods transshipped through the region every year provides drug traffickers with ample opportunity to smuggle illicit drugs into, through, and from the area. In July 2005, local police scored some points in their fight against drug-trafficking.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: By 2007, Ponce had experienced a 61% decline in the rate of violent crimes ("Type I"). In 2010, there was a further reduction of 12 percent in violent crimes over 2009 statistics. In August 2013, the Ponce Area Police Region, which includes Ponce and seven other adjacent municipalities, registered 27 fewer Type I crimes that it had by the same period in 2012.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: For the Ponce MSA, "which includes the city of Ponce, its nineteen surrounding municipal barrios, the municipality of Juana Diaz, and the municipality of Villalba", crime data was tabulated in 2002 (Total MSA Population: 364,849). No data is available for the city or for the municipality of Ponce alone. The following statistics are registered:


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: Ponce's first school for boys was established in 1820. Today there are over a hundred public and private schools. As with the rest of Puerto Rico, public education in Ponce is handled by the Puerto Rico Department of Education. However, the local government is taking on a greater role in public education. On 13 June 2010, the mayor of Ponce announced the creation of a Municipal Education System and a School Board with the objective of obtaining accreditation for what would be the first free bilingual school in the city.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: There are also several colleges and universities located in the city, offering higher education, including professional degrees in architecture, medicine, law, and pharmacy. Some of these are:


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: There are also several other technical institutions like the Instituto de Banca y Comercio, Trinity College, and the Ponce Paramedical College.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: Nova Southeastern University, based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, has a School of Pharmacy campus in Ponce.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: The city is served by several clinics and hospitals. There are four comprehensive care hospitals: Hospital Dr. Pila, Hospital San Cristobal, Hospital San Lucas, and Hospital de Damas. In addition, Hospital Oncológico Andrés Grillasca specializes in the treatment of cancer, and Hospital Siquiátrico specializes in mental disorders. There is also a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic that provides health services to U.S. veterans. The U.S. Veterans Administration will build a new hospital in the city to satisfy regional needs. In 2009, Hospital Damas was listed in the "U.S. News & World Report" as one of the best hospitals under the U.S. flag.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: Ponce has the highest concentration of medical infrastructure per inhabitant of any municipality in Puerto Rico.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: Due to its commercial and industrial significance, Ponce has consistently been a hub of transportation to the rest of the island.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: Puerto Rico Highway 52 provides access to Salinas, Caguas, and San Juan. PR-2 grants access to southwestern and western municipalities as a full-access freeway. The PR-10 highway, which is still under construction as a faster alternative to PR-123, provides access to the interior of the island as well as points north of the island, such as Arecibo. PR-1 provides access to various points east and southeast of Puerto Rico, while PR-14 provides access to Coamo and other points in the central mountain region. PR-132 grants country-side access to the town of Peñuelas. PR-123 is the old road to Adjuntas and, while treacherous, it does provide an appreciation for countryside living in some of the municipality's barrios, such as Magueyes and Guaraguao.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: The city is served by a network of local highways and freeways. Running entirely within the municipal limits are PR-12, PR-9, PR-133, and PR-163 and a few others. Freeway PR-12 runs northbound starting at the Port of Ponce to connect with PR-14 on the northeastern part of the city. PR-9, also known as the "Circuito de Circumnavegación de Ponce" (Ponce's Circumferential Highway), is a highway still partly under construction. It runs mostly north of the city and connects PR-52 to PR-10 in an east-to-west fashion; when completed it will run as a beltway around most of the eastern and northern sections of the city. PR-133 (Calle Comercio) connects PR-2 in west Ponce to PR-132. It is an extension of PR-1 from its PR-2 terminus into the city center. PR-163 crosses the City east-to-west connecting PR-52 and PR-14. The municipality has 115 bridges.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: Ponce's public transportation system consists of taxicabs and share taxi service providing public cars and vans known as "públicos" and a bus-based mass transit system. There are five taxi companies in the city. Most "públicos" depart from the terminal hub located in downtown Ponce, the "Terminal de Carros Públicos Carlos Garay". During the 1990s and 2000s, there was also a trolley system reminiscent of the one the city used in the 19th century and which traveled through the downtown streets, and which was used mostly by tourists. Today it is used mostly during special events. There is also a small train that can bring tourists from the historic downtown area to the Paseo Tablado La Guancha on the southern shore, As with the trolley, today the train is used mostly during special events. A ferry provides service to Isla de Caja de Muertos. The new intra-city mass transit system, "SITRAS", was scheduled to start operating in November 2011, and, after a 3-month delay, the $4 million SITRAS system, was launched with 11 buses and three routes in February 2012. A fourth route was to be added for the El Tuque sector according to a 30 June 2012 news report.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: Mercedita Airport sits east of downtown Ponce and handles both intra-island and international flights. The airport, used to be a private airfield belonging to Destilería Serralles rum distillery before it became a commercial airport serving the Ponce area in the 1940s. There is daily commercial non-stop air service to points in the United States.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: Since 1804, Ponce already boasted its own port facilities for large cargo ships. The Port of Ponce is Puerto Rico's chief Caribbean port. It is known as the Port of the Americas and is under expansion to convert it into a major international shipping hub. It receives both cargo as well as passenger cruise ships. A short-haul freight railroad also operates within the Port facilities.


title: Ponce, Puerto Rico

text: The following dates hold special significance for Ponceños and are motive for annual celebrations and/or memorials:


title: Cabaret Voltaire (band)

text: Cabaret Voltaire was an English music group formed in Sheffield in 1973 and initially composed of Stephen Mallinder, Richard H. Kirk, and Chris Watson. The group was named after the Cabaret Voltaire, the Zürich nightclub that served as a centre for the early Dada movement.


title: Cabaret Voltaire (band)

text: The early work of Cabaret Voltaire consisted primarily of experimentation with DIY electronics and tape machines, as well as Dada-influenced performance art, helping to pioneer industrial music in the mid-1970s. Finding an audience during the post-punk era, they integrated their experimental sensibilities with dance and pop styles. They are often characterized as among the most innovative and influential electronic groups of their era.