Santurce

Cangrejos: the settlement of free Black people

The history of Santurce begins under another name: 'Cangrejos'. During the Spanish colonial era, the area the neighborhood occupies today, east of the San Juan islet, was a territory of mangroves, crab flats and lowlands known as San Mateo de Cangrejos. Its most singular and defining feature was its population: Cangrejos established itself as a settlement of free Black people, a notable case in the colonial Caribbean.

This had to do with the Spanish Crown's policy in the region. Through the 17th and 18th centuries, enslaved people who fled other European colonies in the Caribbean (especially from the neighboring non-Spanish islands) were granted freedom in Spanish territory in exchange, among other things, for converting to Catholicism and serving in the defense. Many of those free men and women settled in Cangrejos, which thus became an Afro-descendant community with an identity of its own.

The inhabitants of Cangrejos played an important role in the defense of San Juan. The most remembered episode is their part in the resistance against the British attack of 1797, when an English fleet under Ralph Abercromby besieged the city: the Cangrejos militias, along with other forces, helped harass and repel the invaders. That Afro-descendant and combative heritage is one of the deepest roots of the identity of Santurce and of the whole northeast of the island, extending toward Loíza, another great center of Afro-Puerto Rican culture.

From Cangrejos to Santurce: the marquis Ubarri and the tram (19th century)

The change of name from Cangrejos to Santurce is tied to a specific 19th-century figure: Pablo Ubarri Capetillo, a businessman and nobleman of Basque origin who came to Puerto Rico and became one of the most influential men in the area. Ubarri received from the Spanish Crown the title of Count of Santurce, in reference to his hometown in the Basque Country (Santurtzi/Santurce, near Bilbao).

Ubarri drove the modernization and development of the old Cangrejos area. His most remembered contribution was the introduction, in the second half of the 19th century, of a steam tram system that connected the area with the city of San Juan, hugely easing transport and opening the way to the neighborhood's urbanization. In recognition of his push, and because of his noble title, the area came to be called Santurce, a name that prevailed over the old 'Cangrejos'.

This change of name also marks a change of era: from a rural, Afro-descendant community on the colonial periphery, Santurce began to integrate into San Juan's growth and to turn into an expanding suburb. The improvement of connections with the capital laid the groundwork for the spectacular urban development the neighborhood would experience in the following century, when it would become the heart of modern San Juan.

The rise of modern San Juan: the commercial and cultural heart (20th century)

The 20th century was Santurce's great era of splendor. As San Juan grew and modernized, especially after the 1898 change of sovereignty, when Puerto Rico passed from Spain to the United States, Santurce became the nerve center of modern San Juan: its commercial, financial, residential and cultural heart.

Its two great arteries, Avenida Ponce de León and Avenida Fernández Juncos, filled with shops, banks, offices, cinemas, theaters and buildings in styles ranging from art deco to modernism. Santurce concentrated a good part of the capital's urban life: it was where you went shopping, to the cinema, to the theater and to work. The neighborhood grew enormously in population and became the most populous in San Juan, with sub-neighborhoods and communities with identities of their own.

That golden age went into decline in the last decades of the 20th century. The growth of shopping malls on the outskirts, the expansion toward the suburbs and the departure of shops and offices emptied many of the streets that had once bustled with activity. Historic buildings fell out of use and the neighborhood went through a period of deterioration. But that very decline, with its available spaces and lower rents, would end up opening the door to a new life for Santurce, this time through art and culture.

The rebirth: cultural district and street art capital

In recent decades, Santurce has experienced a remarkable rebirth that turned it into San Juan's cultural and artistic district. Several factors came together: the presence of major cultural institutions, the availability of urban space in the neighborhood and a new generation of artists, cooks and entrepreneurs who found in Santurce the ideal place to create.

One pillar of that rebirth was the museums. The Museum of Art of Puerto Rico (MAPR), opened at the start of the 21st century in the old Municipal Hospital, and the Museum of Contemporary Art (MAC), in a historic school, established Santurce as the island's museum hub, joining the Luis A. Ferré Performing Arts Center, opened in 1981 as the country's main stage for the performing arts.

But perhaps the most visible transformation came from street art. From the 2010s on, the 'Santurce es Ley' festival began bringing together local and international artists to intervene on the neighborhood's facades with monumental murals, turning streets like Cerra into an open-air museum. In parallel, Calle Loíza flourished as a food and bohemian corridor, and La Placita de Santurce, the old market, reinvented itself as one of the epicenters of the city's nightlife. So the neighborhood that had been born as Cangrejos, had grown as Santurce and had declined at the end of the 20th century, re-emerged in the 21st as the creative, culinary and festive heart of the Puerto Rican capital.

📚 Bibliography

• Wikipedia (EN) — «Santurce, San Juan, Puerto Rico»: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santurce,_San_Juan,_Puerto_Rico
• Wikipedia (ES) — «Santurce (San Juan)»: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santurce_(San_Juan)
• Wikipedia (ES) — «San Juan (Puerto Rico)»: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Juan_(Puerto_Rico)
• Discover Puerto Rico (official) — «Santurce»: https://www.discoverpuertorico.com/region/santurce
• Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico (official): https://www.mapr.org/
• Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico (official): https://www.mac-pr.org/
• Centro de Bellas Artes Luis A. Ferré (official): https://www.cba.gobierno.pr/
• Wikipedia (EN) — «San Mateo de Cangrejos» (la comunidad de negros libres origen de Santurce): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Mateo_de_Cangrejos
• Enciclopedia de Puerto Rico (Fundación Puertorriqueña de las Humanidades): https://enciclopediapr.org/