Las Marías
Municipio de Las Marías
Town and Municipality
Sign for Las Marías on Puerto Rico Highway 129
Sign for Las Marías on Puerto Rico Highway 129
Flag of Las Marías
Flag
Coat of arms of Las Marías
Coat of arms
Nicknames: 
"Pueblo de la China Dulce", "Ciudad de los Cítricos"
Anthem: "Por tus montes y tus aguas cristalinas"
Map of Puerto Rico highlighting Las Marías Municipality
Map of Puerto Rico highlighting Las Marías Municipality
Coordinates: 18°15′5″N 66°59′36″W / 18.25139°N 66.99333°W / 18.25139; -66.99333
Sovereign state United States
Commonwealth Puerto Rico
FoundedJuly 1, 1871
Barrios
16 barrios
Government
 • MayorEdwin Soto Santiago (NPP)
 • Senatorial dist.4 - Mayagüez
 • Representative dist.16
Area
 • Total46.51 sq mi (120.5 km2)
 • Land46.36 sq mi (120.1 km2)
 • Water.11 sq mi (0.3 km2)
Population
 (2020)[1]
 • Total8,874
 • Rank75th in Puerto Rico
 • Density190/sq mi (74/km2)
DemonymMarieños
Time zoneUTC−4 (AST)
ZIP Code
00670
Area code787/939
Major routes

Las Marías (Spanish pronunciation: [las maˈrias], locally [ˌlaʔ maˈɾiaʔ]) is a town and municipality of Puerto Rico located north of Maricao; southeast of Añasco; south of San Sebastián; east of Mayagüez; and west of Lares. Las Marías is spread over 13 barrios and Las Marías Pueblo (the downtown area and the administrative center of the city).

History

Las Marías was founded on July 1, 1871. Don Benito Recio y Moreno was the acting mayor during the founding of Las Marías.

Puerto Rico was ceded by Spain in the aftermath of the Spanish–American War under the terms of the Treaty of Paris of 1898 and became a territory of the United States. In 1899, the United States Department of War conducted a census of Puerto Rico finding that the population of Las Marías was 11,279.[2]

On September 20, 2017 Hurricane Maria struck the island of Puerto Rico. In Las Marías, multiple landslides left highways covered in mud, trees and debris.[3] In some areas of Las Marías there were more than 25 landslides per square mile due to the significant amount of rainfall and wind.[4][5]

Geography

Subdivisions of Las Marías

Las Marías is located on the central western side of Puerto Rico. According to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau, the municipality has a total area of 46.51 square miles (120.5 km2), of which 46.36 square miles (120.1 km2) is land and 0.11 square mile (0.28 km2) is water.[6]

Río Grande de Añasco (also known as Río Guacio) is located in Las Marías.

Barrios

Like all municipalities of Puerto Rico, Las Marías is subdivided into barrios. The municipal buildings, central square and large Catholic church are located near the center of the municipality, in a small barrio referred to as "el pueblo".[7][8][9][10]

  1. Alto Sano
  2. Anones
  3. Bucarabones
  4. Buena Vista
  5. Cerrote
  6. Chamorro
  7. Espino
  8. Furnias
  9. Las Marías barrio-pueblo
  10. Maravilla Este
  11. Maravilla Norte
  12. Maravilla Sur
  13. Naranjales
  14. Palma Escrita
  15. Purísima Concepción
  16. Río Cañas

Sectors

Barrios (which are like minor civil divisions)[11] are further subdivided into smaller areas called sectores (sectors in English). The types of sectores may vary, from normally sector to urbanización to reparto to barriada to residencial, among others.[12][13][14]

Special Communities

Comunidades Especiales de Puerto Rico (Special Communities of Puerto Rico) are marginalized communities whose citizens are experiencing a certain amount of social exclusion. A map shows these communities occur in nearly every municipality of the commonwealth. Of the 742 places that were on the list in 2014, the following 7 sectors were in Adjuntas: Sector La Josefa in Bucarabones, Sector Bryan in Cerróte, Sector Chamorro in Cerróte, Sector Palo Prieto in Palma Escrita, Sector Plato Indio in Río Cañas, Las Juanitas in Furnias, and Sector Santa Rosa in Furnias.[15][16]

Demographics

Historical population
CensusPop.Note%±
190011,279—
191010,046−10.9%
192010,7366.9%
19308,881−17.3%
19409,6268.4%
195010,80712.3%
19609,237−14.5%
19707,841−15.1%
19808,74711.6%
19909,3066.4%
200011,06118.9%
20109,881−10.7%
20208,874−10.2%
U.S. Decennial Census[17]
1899 (shown as 1900)[18] 1910-1930[19]
1930-1950[20] 1960-2000[21] 2010[9] 2020[22]

Tourism

Paradise Camping Coffee Farm is a place for ecotourism and camping in Las Marías.[23]

Landmarks and places of interest

Places of interest in Las Marías include:[24]

  • La Casona de Artemio
  • Hacienda Palma Escrita
  • Hacienda Frontera
  • Finca Enseñat

Economy

Agriculture

Industry

  • Manufacturing: clothing.

Culture

Festivals and events

Las Marías celebrates its patron saint festival in December. The Fiestas Patronales Inmaculada Concepción de María is a religious and cultural celebration that generally features parades, games, artisans, amusement rides, regional food, and live entertainment.[6][25]

Other festivals and events celebrated in Las Marías include:

  • January - Three King's Festival
  • March - Orange Festival (Festival de las Chinas). At the 2019 festival, a big name band, El Gran Combo performed at the festival, and a group of troubadours from Cuba performed with local Puerto Rican troubadours.[26][27]
  • March - Festival to commemorate the founding of Las Marías (Festival de Las Marías)[26]

Government

Like all municipalities in Puerto Rico, Las Marías is administered by a mayor. The current mayor is Edwin Soto Santiago, from the New Progressive Party (PNP). Soto Santiago was elected during the 2016 general election, having previously served office from 1997 to 2013.

The municipality belongs to the Puerto Rico Senatorial District IV, which is represented by two senators. In 2016, Luis Daniel Muñiz Cortés and Evelyn Vázquez were elected as District Senators.[28]

Transportation

There are 13 bridges in Las Marías.[29]

Symbols

The municipio has an official flag and coat of arms.[30]

Flag

The flag is divided by an imaginary diagonal line whose ends are the upper left angle of the flag and the opposite lower angle. The upper part is yellow and the lower half is green. The yellow portion represents the sun bathing the town and the green portion represents the nature and vegetation of the municipality.[6][31]

Coat of arms

The shield is divided into six parts with three in silver and three in blue. A María tree (Calophylum brasiliense antillanum), with a pair of coffee tree branches to the sides of its trunk, adorns each silver part. The monogram and crown of Nuestra Señora la Santísima Virgen de Plata is placed in the top center portion of the shield. The shield's border is red with a broken chain at the bottom. Above the shield resides three tower crown in gold.[6][31]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Bureau, US Census. "PUERTO RICO: 2020 Census". The United States Census Bureau. Retrieved August 25, 2021.
  2. ↑ Joseph Prentiss Sanger; Henry Gannett; Walter Francis Willcox (1900). Informe sobre el censo de Puerto Rico, 1899, United States. War Dept. Porto Rico Census Office (in Spanish). Imprenta del gobierno. p. 164. Archived from the original on November 15, 2012. Retrieved March 21, 2020.
  3. ↑ "María, un nombre que no vamos a olvidar. Las Marías: el desplome de la montaña" [Maria, a name we will never forget. Las Marías: the mountain came down]. El Nuevo Día (in Spanish). June 13, 2019. Retrieved September 11, 2022.
  4. ↑ "Preliminary Locations of Landslide Impacts from Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico". USGS Landslide Hazards Program. USGS. Archived from the original on March 3, 2019. Retrieved March 3, 2019.
  5. ↑ "Preliminary Locations of Landslide Impacts from Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico" (PDF). USGS Landslide Hazards Program. USGS. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 3, 2019. Retrieved March 3, 2019.
  6. 1 2 3 4 "Las Marías Municipality". enciclopediapr.org. Fundación Puertorriqueña de las Humanidades (FPH).
  7. ↑ Picó, Rafael; Buitrago de Santiago, Zayda; Berrios, Hector H. (1969). Nueva geografía de Puerto Rico: física, económica, y social, por Rafael Picó. Con la colaboración de Zayda Buitrago de Santiago y Héctor H. Berrios. San Juan Editorial Universitaria, Universidad de Puerto Rico,1969. Archived from the original on December 26, 2018. Retrieved December 28, 2018.
  8. ↑ Gwillim Law (May 20, 2015). Administrative Subdivisions of Countries: A Comprehensive World Reference, 1900 through 1998. McFarland. p. 300. ISBN 978-1-4766-0447-3. Retrieved December 25, 2018.
  9. 1 2 Puerto Rico:2010:population and housing unit counts.pdf (PDF). U.S. Dept. of Commerce Economics and Statistics Administration U.S. Census Bureau. 2010. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 20, 2017. Retrieved December 28, 2018.
  10. ↑ "Map of Las Marías at the Wayback Machine" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on March 24, 2018. Retrieved December 29, 2018.
  11. ↑ "US Census Barrio-Pueblo definition". factfinder.com. US Census. Archived from the original on May 13, 2017. Retrieved January 5, 2019.
  12. ↑ "Agencia: Oficina del Coordinador General para el Financiamiento Socioeconómico y la Autogestión (Proposed 2016 Budget)". Puerto Rico Budgets (in Spanish). Archived from the original on June 28, 2019. Retrieved June 28, 2019.
  13. ↑ Rivera Quintero, Marcia (2014), El vuelo de la esperanza: Proyecto de las Comunidades Especiales Puerto Rico, 1997-2004 (first ed.), San Juan, Puerto Rico Fundación Sila M. Calderón, ISBN 978-0-9820806-1-0
  14. ↑ "Leyes del 2001". Lex Juris Puerto Rico (in Spanish). Archived from the original on September 14, 2018. Retrieved June 24, 2020.
  15. ↑ Rivera Quintero, Marcia (2014), El vuelo de la esperanza: Proyecto de las Comunidades Especiales Puerto Rico, 1997-2004 (1st ed.), San Juan, Puerto Rico Fundación Sila M. Calderón, p. 273, ISBN 978-0-9820806-1-0
  16. ↑ "Comunidades Especiales de Puerto Rico" (in Spanish). August 8, 2011. Archived from the original on June 24, 2019. Retrieved June 24, 2019.
  17. ↑ "U.S. Decennial Census". United States Census Bureau. Archived from the original on February 13, 2020. Retrieved September 21, 2017.
  18. ↑ "Report of the Census of Porto Rico 1899". War Department Office Director Census of Porto Rico. Archived from the original on July 16, 2017. Retrieved September 21, 2017.
  19. ↑ "Table 3-Population of Municipalities: 1930 1920 and 1910" (PDF). United States Census Bureau. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 17, 2017. Retrieved September 21, 2017.
  20. ↑ "Table 4-Area and Population of Municipalities Urban and Rural: 1930 to 1950" (PDF). United States Census Bureau. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 30, 2015. Retrieved September 21, 2014.
  21. ↑ "Table 2 Population and Housing Units: 1960 to 2000" (PDF). United States Census Bureau. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 24, 2017. Retrieved September 21, 2017.
  22. ↑ Bureau, US Census. "PUERTO RICO: 2020 Census". The United States Census Bureau. Retrieved August 25, 2021.
  23. ↑ "Paradise Camping Coffee Farm, Paradise Camping, PR: 20 Photos". Archived from the original on July 11, 2019. Retrieved July 6, 2019.
  24. ↑ "Las Marías". Discover Puerto Rico. Retrieved December 26, 2021.
  25. ↑ "Puerto Rico Festivales, Eventos y Actividades en Puerto Rico". Puerto Rico Hoteles y Paradores (in Spanish). Archived from the original on February 26, 2020. Retrieved July 17, 2020.
  26. 1 2 Rí, Melissa Cruz; Vocero, El (March 16, 2019). "Descubre Las Marías el pueblo de la china". El Vocero de Puerto Rico (in Spanish). Archived from the original on August 17, 2019. Retrieved August 17, 2019.
  27. ↑ "Cancelación de eventos por coronavirus". Primera Hora (in Spanish). March 13, 2020. Archived from the original on July 18, 2020. Retrieved July 18, 2020.
  28. ↑ Elecciones Generales 2012: Escrutinio General Archived 2013-01-15 at the Wayback Machine on CEEPUR
  29. ↑ "Las Marías Bridges". National Bridge Inventory Data. US Dept. of Transportation. Archived from the original on February 21, 2019. Retrieved February 20, 2019.
  30. ↑ "Ley Núm. 70 de 2006 -Ley para disponer la oficialidad de la bandera y el escudo de los setenta y ocho (78) municipios". LexJuris de Puerto Rico (in Spanish). Retrieved June 15, 2021.
  31. 1 2 "LAS MARIAS". LexJuris (Leyes y Jurisprudencia) de Puerto Rico (in Spanish). February 19, 2020. Archived from the original on February 19, 2020. Retrieved September 17, 2020.
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