Plaza Degetau Street, Ponce
Description
Plaza Degetau Street in Ponce. The Hotel Meliá, the tramway, and part of the Parque de Bombas can be seen at the plaza. There are two horse-drawn carriages in front of the hotel. Persons are seen in the carriages, in the plaza, and on the sidewalks. A policeman is located near the plaza.| Origin Name |
CJHO0368
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| Relation |
Fundación Luis Muñoz Marín > Sección X, Serie 3, Colección José H. Orraca
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| Geographical Coverage |
Ponce
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| Date |
[fecha de publicación no identificada]
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| Descriptive Notes |
Title assigned by the cataloging team.
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| Descripción decolonial |
The Plaza Degetau scene in Ponce offers a visual narrative of entwined colonialism, economic growth, and capitalist development in Puerto Rico. The poorly constructed line, indicative of colonial negligence makes evident the early ambition and subsequent decline of the island's first tramway, initiated in 1879, faced by financial ruin only four years later. Fast-forwarding to the early twentieth century, the US firm Stone & Webster's electric tramway project (also eventually doomed to failure) mirrors Puerto Rico's transition from Spanish colony to US territory, embodying economic shifts and capitalist initiatives as a continuation of colonial ambitions. Nearby, the Hotel Meliá, born in 1895, stands as a testament to colonialist economic structures. Its evolution, from a small grocery store to a bustling hotel, echoes Puerto Rico's economic journey, and a longer history of colonial aesthetics in the modern tourist industry, dating back to the late nineteenth century and continuing into the present.
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| Historical Background | |
| Architectural Subject |
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| Decolonial Subject | |
| Rights |
English Rights. (hyperlink)
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| Editor |
Fundación Luis Muñoz Marín
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| Resource Format |
JPEG
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| Resource Type |
Image
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