Florida, Puerto Rico


Florida is a municipality of Puerto Rico located north of Ciales, south of Barceloneta, east of Arecibo, and west of Manatí. Florida is not like other municipalities of Puerto Rico with multiple subdivisions called barrios. It has one barrio called Florida Adentro and two other subdivisions: Florida Zona Urbana and Pajonal comunidad. It is part of the San Juan-Caguas-Guaynabo Metropolitan Statistical Area.

History

Florida was founded first as a barrio of Barceloneta in 1881 when a priest, Father Carrión, the mayor of Barceloneta, and other dignitaries arrived at a terrain of almost 4 acres. 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. 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. In 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 and Governor Don Luis A. Ferré approved the law that officially created the municipality of Florida. It is thus the youngest municipality established in the island.

Symbols

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 anchored cross, like the one in the Asturian district of Llanes. The cross is anchored between two branches of bloomed poinsettias. 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 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 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. Balcon Cave is located in Florida.

Barrios

Like all municipalities of Puerto Rico, Florida is subdivided into administrative units called barrios. A newer municipality of Puerto Rico, Florida has one barrio called Florida Adentro and two subbarrios: Florida Zona Urbana and Pajonal and it does not have a barrio-pueblo like most of the other municipalities of Puerto Rico.
The following areas are neighborhoods in Florida:
Barrios are subdivided into smaller local populated place areas/units called sectores. The types of sectores may vary, from sector to urbanización to reparto to barriada to residencial, among others.

Special Communities

Of the 742 places on the list of Comunidades Especiales de Puerto Rico, the following barrios, communities, sectors, or neighborhoods were in Florida: Sector El Hoyo in Comunidad San Agustín, Comunidad Arroyo, Sector Polvorín in Comunidad La Ceiba, Comunidad La Fuente, Estancias de Arroyo in La Joya, Sector El Cerro in Pajonal, and Sectors La Charca and Los Quemaos in Parcelas Selgas.

Culture

Festival and events

Florida celebrates its patron saint festival in September. The Fiestas Patronales de Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes is a religious and cultural celebration that generally features parades, games, artisans, amusement rides, regional food, and live entertainment.
Other festivals and events celebrated in Florida include:
Florida's economy had mostly relied on agriculture, specifically pineapple, crops and other fruit related products. Today that's history with the high taxes impose on small vendors, there had been a few of manufacturing plants establishing in the area. There are pharmaceuticals in Florida.

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 of 1,236.7 people per square mile. After its establishment in 1974, the population has steadily increased over the years, with 7,232 people in the 1980 census.
Statistics taken from the 2000 census shows that 86.0% of Florideños are of White origin, 4.9% are black, 0.2% are Amerindian etc.

Government

After its initial establishment, Florida belonged to the Barceloneta region. In 1949 and 1960 there were some attempts to separate the barrio from Barceloneta, but these were unsuccessful. However, in 1974, Governor Luis A. Ferré and the Puerto Rican Senate officially declared Florida an independent municipality. Its first mayor was Jorge L. Pérez Piñeiro. The current mayor is José Gerena Polanco, of the New Progressive Party. He was elected at the 2012 general elections.
The city belongs to the Puerto Rico Senatorial district III, which is represented by two Senators. In 2008, José Emilio González and Angel Martínez were elected as District Senators.

Education

There are several public and private schools, serving students in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade, distributed throughout the municipality of Florida. Public education is handled by the Puerto Rico Department of Education.
These are some of the schools in Florida, as of 2020:
provides access to Road #140, which leads to Florida from the cities of Mayagüez in the west, or San Juan in the north.
Like most other towns in the island, it has a public transportation system consisting of public cars.
There is only one bridge in Florida.

Mayors of Florida