San Juan Slaughterhouse

Box 424, Folder 7, Photo 5175

San Juan National Historic Site (NPS) > San Juan NHS Resource Records Collection > Series VIII Visual Materiales 1788-2017, Subseries B Photographs 1890 - 2011 > Box 424 - Folder 7 - 1898 Collection (6) - 1898

San Juan

1898

Title assigned by the cataloging team. The image has a handwritten inscription reading: "The Matadero of Slaugther House o San Juan P.R. - A. Moscion." The general description, date, or geographical coverage has information furnished by the San Juan National Historic Site, Puerto Rico.

First, there was La Perla Fortlet and then there was the slaughterhouse outside the city walls. From within the fortified city, one could access the area through Saint Thomas' gate, also known as the slaughterhouse's gate. Since then, one can see that the city walls served as shelter to a sector of the population, while segregating others. Furthermore, the presence of the slaughterhouse tainted the space and its inhabitants with a stain of poor hygiene, filth and stench. The fetid smell of farm animals and decaying meat added up to the fact that part of the sewage waters from the islet were discharged in the area. What could have initially been an epicenter for commerce, due to its proximity to the islet's old market square, ended up isolated between the walls, the cemetery and the ocean waves. By the end of the nineteenth century, the land was sectioned into smaller lots and by the first decades of the twentieth century, peasants started moving into the area in search of a better life. The increase in the community's population worsened the sanitary issue, as well as the lack of other primary services for the people of La Perla. Addressing these issues became Felisa Rincón de Gautier's priority, even before she became Mayor of the capital city. To a great extent, the social projects brought by Rincón de Gautier from withing the Popular Democratic Party, gave a new shift to the space when she decided to turn the old slaughterhouse into a community center in order to mitigate the hygiene situation. Likewise, she procured those residents had access to better construction materials for their houses, as well as improved the children's access to the education system. Despite these government efforts and other modernization projects, La Perla keeps fighting against menaces like gentrification, which keeps gaining ground in Old San Juan's tourist zone.

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Fundación Luis Muñoz Marín

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