Florida, Puerto Rico
Encyclopedia


Florida is a municipality
Municipality
A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

 of Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

 located north of Ciales
Ciales, Puerto Rico
Ciales is a municipality of Puerto Rico, located on the Central Mountain Range, northwest of Orocovis; south of Florida and Manatí; east of Utuado and Jayuya; and west of Morovis. Ciales is spread over eight wards and Ciales Pueblo...

, south of Barceloneta
Barceloneta, Puerto Rico
Barceloneta is a municipality in Puerto Rico and is located in the north region, bordering the Atlantic Ocean, north of Florida, east of Arecibo and west of Manati. Barceloneta is spread over 3 wards and Barceloneta Pueblo...

, east of Arecibo
Arecibo
Arecibo may refer to:*Arecibo, Puerto Rico, a municipality located by the Atlantic Ocean*Arecibo Observatory, a very sensitive radio telescope located approximately south-southwest from the city of Arecibo...

, and west of Manatí
Manatí, Puerto Rico
Manatí is a municipality of Puerto Rico in the northern coast, north of Morovis and Ciales; east of Florida and Barceloneta; and west of Vega Baja. Manatí is spread over 8 wards and Manatí Pueblo...

. Florida is spread over one ward and Florida Pueblo (The downtown area and the administrative center of the city). It is part of the San Juan-Caguas-Guaynabo Metropolitan Statistical Area.

History

Florida was founded first as a barrio
Barrio
Barrio is a Spanish word meaning district or neighborhood.-Usage:In its formal usage in English, barrios are generally considered cohesive places, sharing, for example, a church and traditions such as feast days...

 of Barceloneta
Barceloneta, Puerto Rico
Barceloneta is a municipality in Puerto Rico and is located in the north region, bordering the Atlantic Ocean, north of Florida, east of Arecibo and west of Manati. Barceloneta is spread over 3 wards and Barceloneta Pueblo...

 in 1881 when a priest, Father Carrión, the mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....

 of Barceloneta, and other dignitaries arrived at a terrain of almost 4 acre
Acre
The acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and U.S. customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre. The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land.The acre is related...

s. They decided to establish a new barrio and the owner of the place, Don Manuel Cintrón granted the land while he retained a piece of it. The barrio was first called "Florida Adentro".

During the 20th century, several efforts were made to declare Florida as a municipality
Municipality
A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

. First, on April 14, 1949, House Representative Francisco Díaz Marchand presented a project to create a legislative commission that would study the economic and social conditions of the barrio, to determine the suitability of it as an independent municipality. The project was unsuccessful. On 1960, Manuel Frías Morales presented a law that would permit the study to establish the municipality but it didn't succeed either.

Finally, on June 14, 1971, the Senate of Puerto Rico
Senate of Puerto Rico
The Senate of Puerto Rico is the upper house of the Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico, the territorial legislature of Puerto Rico. The Senate is composed of 27 senators, representing eight constituent senatorial districts across the commonwealth, with two senators elected per district; an...

 and Governor Don Luis A. Ferré
Luis A. Ferré
Don Luis Alberto Ferré Aguayo was a Puerto Rican engineer, industrialist, politician, philanthropist, and a patron of the arts. He was the third Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico from 1969 to 1973, and the founding father of the New Progressive Party which advocates for Puerto Rico...

 approved the law that officially created the municipality of Florida. It is thus the youngest municipality established in the island.

Flag

It consists of three horizontal stripes, with the following colors and widths: green the superior and white the inferior, with five modules of width each one, the center one red, with a width of one module.

Coat of Arms

Field of silver, in an abyss, a gules
Gules
In heraldry, gules is the tincture with the colour red, and belongs to the class of dark tinctures called "colours". In engraving, it is sometimes depicted as a region of vertical lines or else marked with gu. as an abbreviation....

 (red) anchored cross, like the one in the Asturian
Asturian
Asturian may refer to:* Something of, from, or related to Asturias, in Northern Spain* Asturian language* Asturian people* Asturcón, also known as an Asturian pony...

 district of Llanes
Llanes
Llanes a municipality of the province of Asturias, in northern Spain. Stretching for about 30 km along the coast at the extreme east of the province, Llanes is bounded to the south by the high ridge of the limestone Sierra del Cuera, which rises to over 1,100 m...

. The cross is anchored between two branches of bloomed poinsettias (Poinsettia Pulcherrima). A green terrace represents the hilly terrain of the town, with a stripe forming waves outlined in silver which represents the underground river of Encantado. At the top, a three tower gold crown distinct in municipalities coat of arms. The shield can be surrounded, to its flanks and bottom by two crossed coffee
Coffee
Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...

 tree branches with fruits.

Names

Florida derives its name from the abundant flowers and natural resources on its land. It is also known as "La Tierra del Río Encantado" due to an underground river called Encantado. Another nickname is the "Pueblo de la Piña Cayenalisa" due to its pineapple
Pineapple
Pineapple is the common name for a tropical plant and its edible fruit, which is actually a multiple fruit consisting of coalesced berries. It was given the name pineapple due to its resemblance to a pine cone. The pineapple is by far the most economically important plant in the Bromeliaceae...

 crops.

Geography

Florida is the second smallest municipality of Puerto Rico, with an area of 10 square miles. The municipality belongs to the coastal plains of the north of Puerto Rico and it's surrounded by small hills. Several caves are formed in the town like Román Cave, Miró Cave, and Juana Gómez Cave.

Barrios

The town of Florida is divided itself into several barrios or districts:
{|
|----- valign="top"
|
  • Aguacate
  • Ceiba
  • Comisión
  • Florida Adentro
  • Florida Pueblo
  • Fogones
  • Los Guanos
  • Los Vázquez
  • Pajonal
  • Parcelas Arroyo
  • Parcelas Selgas
  • Pueblo Viejo
  • San Agustín
  • Perol
  • Tosas

Economy

Florida's economy has mostly relied on agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...

, specifically pineapple
Pineapple
Pineapple is the common name for a tropical plant and its edible fruit, which is actually a multiple fruit consisting of coalesced berries. It was given the name pineapple due to its resemblance to a pine cone. The pineapple is by far the most economically important plant in the Bromeliaceae...

 crops and other fruit related products. In recent years, there has been a spurt of manufacturing plants establishing in the area, some of them dedicated to plastic
Plastic
A plastic material is any of a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic organic solids used in the manufacture of industrial products. Plastics are typically polymers of high molecular mass, and may contain other substances to improve performance and/or reduce production costs...

s.

Demographics

Florida is one of the least populated municipalities of Puerto Rico, perhaps due to its small size. The population, according to the 2000 census, was 12,237 with a population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...

 of 1,236.7 people per square mile (475.6/km²). However, according to the 1970 census when the town wasn't founded yet, there was only one person living in the region. After its establishment in 1974, the population has steadily increased over the years, with only 7,232 people in the 1980 census.

Statistics taken from the 2000 census shows that 86.0% of Florideños have Spanish
Spanish people
The Spanish are citizens of the Kingdom of Spain. Within Spain, there are also a number of vigorous nationalisms and regionalisms, reflecting the country's complex history....

 or White
White people
White people is a term which usually refers to human beings characterized, at least in part, by the light pigmentation of their skin...

 origin, 4.9% are black
Black people
The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...

, 0.2% are Amerindian etc.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!colspan=3|Race - Florida, Puerto Rico - 2000 Census
|-----
! Race
! Population
! % of Total
|-----
| White
White people
White people is a term which usually refers to human beings characterized, at least in part, by the light pigmentation of their skin...

||11,381||92.0%
|-----
| Black/African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

||305||2.5%
|-----
| American Indian
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

 and Alaska Native
||43||0.3%
|-----
| Asian
Asian people
Asian people or Asiatic people is a term with multiple meanings that refers to people who descend from a portion of Asia's population.- Central Asia :...

||31||0.3%
|-----
| Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander
Pacific Islander
Pacific Islander , is a geographic term to describe the indigenous inhabitants of any of the three major sub-regions of Oceania: Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia.According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, these three regions, together with their islands consist of:Polynesia:...

||0||0.0%
|-----
| Some other race||409||3.3%
|-----
| Two or more races||198||1.6%
|}

Government

After its initial establishment, Florida belonged to the Barceloneta
Barceloneta, Puerto Rico
Barceloneta is a municipality in Puerto Rico and is located in the north region, bordering the Atlantic Ocean, north of Florida, east of Arecibo and west of Manati. Barceloneta is spread over 3 wards and Barceloneta Pueblo...

 region. In 1949 and 1960 there were some attempts to separate the barrio from Barceloneta, but these were unsuccessful. However, on 1974, Governor Luis A. Ferré
Luis A. Ferré
Don Luis Alberto Ferré Aguayo was a Puerto Rican engineer, industrialist, politician, philanthropist, and a patron of the arts. He was the third Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico from 1969 to 1973, and the founding father of the New Progressive Party which advocates for Puerto Rico...

 and the Puerto Rican Senate
Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a legislature or parliament. There have been many such bodies in history, since senate means the assembly of the eldest and wiser members of the society and ruling class...

 officially declared Florida an independent municipality. Its first mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....

 was Jorge L. Pérez Piñeiro.

Education

Florida counts with several public and private schools distributed through several regions. Public education is handled by the Puerto Rico Department of Education
Puerto Rico Department of Education
The Puerto Rico Department of Education is the department of Puerto Rico's government which manages state-operated schools in the United States commonwealth. The department is the equivalent of a state department of education and only one of two composed of a single school district...

.

Transportation

Puerto Rico Highway 22
Puerto Rico Highway 22
PR-22 is a 51-mile long toll road in the north coast of Puerto Rico that connects the cities of San Juan and Hatillo. The road is also known as the José de Diego Expressway , and is part of unsigned Interstate PR-2...

 provides access to Road #140, which leads to Florida from the cities of Mayagüez
Mayagüez, Puerto Rico
Mayagüez is the eighth-largest municipality of Puerto Rico. Originally founded as "Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria" it is also known as "La Sultana del Oeste" , "Ciudad de las Aguas Puras" , or "Ciudad del Mangó"...

 in the west, or San Juan
San Juan, Puerto Rico
San Juan , officially Municipio de la Ciudad Capital San Juan Bautista , is the capital and most populous municipality in Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 395,326 making it the 46th-largest city under the jurisdiction of...

 in the north.

Like most other towns in the island, it counts with a public transportation system consisting of public cars. Taxis are also available around the town.

Mayors of Florida

1974-1981 - Jorge Luis Pérez Piñeiro

1981-1984 - Heriberto González Vélez

1984-1992 - Juan Ramon De León Vélez [Johnny]

1992-2004 - Maria Dolores Guzmán Cardona [Maggie]

2004–Presente - José Aaron Pargas Ojeda

Notable Floridians

Dr.Leonardo Valentin Tirado - teacher and physician, who was Founder of the Yanes Cultural Centre. The Dr.Leonardo Valentin Tirado school is named after him, as well as the Professional Hospital
Professional Hospital
Professional Hospital is a private general hospital in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. It encompasses the Vascular Institute of Puerto Rico—site where the first vascular stent in Puerto Rico was placed. The institution has been treating vascular conditions in Puerto Rico since 1988...

in Guaynabo.

Celia Arenas - poet and author of Florida's Municipal Anthem

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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