Puerta de Tierra, Puerto Rico: Precarious Urban Development, Public Health Emergencies and the Struggle against Exclusion, c.1880-1920

• In Event: Invited Session - Storms, worms, and other plagues: government control and local response in Puerto Rico, c. 1880-1920

Abstract

The neighborhood of Puerta de Tierra (today part of San Juan, Puerto Rico) began to be populated in the mid-19th century as a result of excessive residential crowding in the adjacent walled city of San Juan. Although its population was diverse, Puerta de Tierra was primarily a working class area, many of whose residents were Afro-Puerto Rican. While the city of San Juan was being reimagined and partly transformed along lines of European urbanism, and there was some official planning for Puerta de Tierra itself, by the late 19th century the area was known for its extremely inadequate, overcrowded housing, and as a place to dispose of urban waste. The neighborhood was notoriously insalubrious: tuberculosis, leprosy, malaria, measles and diphtheria were some of the most commonly reported illnesses in the area.
This paper explores the causes of the precarious health and environmental situation of the residents of Puerta de Tierra from approximately 1880 to 1920 under Spanish and US control, which began in 1898. The people of the neighborhood frequently faced health emergencies, and were sometimes blamed for creating them, as in the 1912 bubonic plague epidemic, which was first detected in the area. But, my presentation also explores how residents of all races and socio-economic statuses rejected the degradation of their neighborhood and their exclusion from urban decision making by organizing to demand better medical care and improved environmental conditions.

Author

• Ann L Zulawski, Smith College