La Perla – 100 years of informal architecture in San Juan, Puerto Rico

Abstract

La Perla, Puerto Rico's most famous informal settlement, developed since the early 1900s outside the fortifications of San Juan's colonial Old Town, the country's main tourist attraction. In the mid-twentieth century, La Perla was a symbol of the poverty and deprivation that development and scientifically informed planning attempted to remove. Since the 1970s, La Perla has been a subject of various improvement plans by the local authority with varying degrees of inhabitant participation. Thus, La Perla is connected with the great hopes and fears of the twentieth century: the promise of modernization and progress and the ensuing disappointments, the limitations of top-down decision-making and expert planning, the distress of poverty and marginalization, the opportunities of self-organization and informality, and the threat of forced relocation imposed by gentrification cycles. Based on previously unpublished archival materials, this article presents an architectural and planning history of La Perla. It compares building types, ownership structures, and municipal policies throughout the 100 years of La Perla's existence. The article challenges the distinction that legitimizes formal housing as the rule and informal abodes as an environment that is fundamentally different from the formal city. In La Perla, formal and informal did not constitute polar opposites, but have to be regarded as two aspects of the same urbanization process. In this sense, La Perla is an intrinsic part of San Juan's architectural heritage.

Keywords:

• informal architecture
• ‘slum' architecture
• ‘slum upgrading'
• architectural history of Puerto Rico

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Florian Urban is Professor and Head of History of Architecture and Urban Studies at the Mackintosh School of Architecture, Glasgow School of Art. He holds a Master of Fine Arts from the University of the Arts in Berlin, an MA in Urban Planning from UCLA, and a Ph.D. in History and Theory of Architecture from MIT. He is the author of Neo-historical East Berlin – Architecture and Urban Design in the German Democratic Republic 1970–1990 (Farnham: Ashgate, 2009) and Tower and Slab – Histories of Global Mass Housing (Abingdon: Routledge, 2012).

Notes

1. This includes historical studies as well as photographs and planning documents in the Archivo General de Puerto Rico.

2. Squats or rescates (‘rescues’ [of land]) occurred since the late 1960s in Puerto Rico and were highly politicized acts. Many of these squats were later legalized. See Liliana Cotto, Desalambrar.

3. Recent studies at a global level either summed up to apocalyptic visions of a planet drowned in misery (e.g. Davis, Planet of Slums) or focused on the slum-dwellers’ energy and entrepreneurialism (e.g. Neuwirth, Shadow cities). The numerous case studies in the last 50 years tended to take the latter perspective, not denying misery and deprivation, but focusing on the solutions that slum-dwellers found for their situation. See, for example, Turner, “Dwelling resources in South America”, Peattie, The view from a barrio, Habraken, Supports, Lloyd, Slums of Hope?, Marvel, Listen to what they say.

4. Authors who stress the intertwining of formal and informal elements in Latin American cities include Epstein, Brasília, and Perlman, The Myth of Marginality.

5. For example, Lewis, La Vida, or Safa, Urban Poor of Puerto Rico. Safa studied other San Juan settlements, not La Perla. See also Stevens, “Los arrabales de San Juan: Una perspectiva histórica.”

6. Taller de Planificación Social, Inventario de comunidades urbanas espontáneas, quoted after Marvel, Listen to what they say, 114.

7. The La Perla ravelin is first mentioned on the 1678 map ‘Puerto Rico’ by Luis Venegas Ossorio, kept in the Archivo de las Indias, Seville, reprinted in de Hostos, Ciudad Murada. The now-ruined structure dates from the late eighteenth century. See reprinted maps in Ramírez de Arellano, La Capital.

8. 1848 census, quoted in Sepúlveda, San Juan, 298. Sepúlveda and Carbonell, San Juan Extramuros, 5.

9. Photo by William Sanger, 1900, reprinted ibid., 5.

10. La Perla in 1913, photograph in Bearss, San Juan Fortifications, reprinted ibid., 5.

11. They might be named after the first residents, since the 1913 tax roll lists a Felicia Silva and a Lucila Silva as house owners. Tax Rolls (Reparto de Contribuciones) Fiscal Year 1912/13, Departamento de la Hacienda, Municipality of San Juan Fondo “Hacienda,” Archvo General de Puerto Rico.

12. Tax Rolls 1912/13 San Juan, Archivo General de Puerto Rico.

13. Riera is listed as the owner of these lands in the 1913 tax roll, but not yet in that of 1905. San Juan Municipality, Revenue Office, Tax Rolls 1905, 1912/13, and 1932/33, entries “José D. Riera” and “Josefina Bengoechea viuda de Riera” (Riera's widow).

14. Puerto Rico Employment Office, Report on housing conditions, 52.

15. The rate was about 1.3% of the value per year, varying little between 1913 and 1933.

16. This was the case, for example, in 1989, in the Alto de Cabro neighbourhood in Santurce, where the heirs of landowner Balbás-Peña attempted to evict the residents. See Duodécima Asamblea Legislativa de Puerto Rico, meeting on 9 December 1993, online at the website of the Oficina de Servicios Legislativos at http://www.oslpr.org/files/docs/%7B085D0C56-98AE-4E6A-8F20-0AB9C4565D19%7D.pdf (accessed December 2013).

17. Puerto Rico Employment Office, Report on housing conditions, 11. The description refers not to La Perla but to the comparable Puerta de Tierra area.

18. Ibid. 10.

19. Tax Rolls 1924/25, entry “José Riera.”

20. The origin of the name ‘Guaypao’ is unclear. Legend has it that it is a colloquialism of ‘wipe-out’, related to the destruction from which the area suffered during one of many floods and hurricanes.

21. List of owners and tenants of La Perla, compiled by Departamento del Interior, División de Terrenos Públicos y Archivo, Archivo General de Puerto Rico, Departamento de Obras Públicas, Serie Propiedad Pública, Caja 256 “La Perla” 1933.

22. The picture is kept at Archivo General de Puerto Rico, Fondo Obras Públicas, Serie Propiedad Pública, Caja 256 “La Perla” 1933. The date 1925 is an approximation based on the fact that most, but not all, structures mentioned in the 1933 plan are visible. The area is still slightly less dense; most ranchones are not yet there.

23. The house was valued at $2,400 in 1924 and $1,500 in 1933. Tax 1924/25 and List of La Perla tenants and owners 1933.

24. List of La Perla tenants and owners, 1933. Fernández in 1932 paid $379 in property tax for ‘one house and one ranchón’ in La Perla, valued at $28,050. She is also listed as the owner of the plot in 1933, but no longer in 1951. Most likely Angela Caldas, who the 1913 tax rolls referred to as ‘wife of Miró’ and owner of three buildings in La Perla, had the building erected but later sold it to Fernández. In the 1933 plan, Caldas's name appears as the owner of the Miró building's land, but her name is crossed out. Caldas does own, though, an adjacent plot of 976 square metres, situated south of the cattle square, with two ranchones and several houses. By 1951, the ranchones had apparently disappeared, but Caldas is the owner. San Juan Municipality, Revenue Office, Tax Rolls 1932/33, and 1950/51 entries “Caldas, Angela”, and “Fernández, Mercedes.”

25. San Juan Municipality, Revenue Office, Tax Rolls 1924/25, entry ‘José Riera’. For inhabitants and rents in Puerta de Tierra, see list “Relación de las casas existentes en los sitios denominados ‘Riera’, ‘Vista Alegre’ y ‘Miranda’, Puerta de Tierra” [probably 1933], Archvo General de Puerto Rico, Departamento de Obras Públicas, Serie Propiedad Pública, Caja 256 “La Perla” 1933.

26. List of owners and tenants of La Perla, 1933. He did, though, only pay property tax for four houses, valued between 100 and 800 dollars each. Tax Rolls 1932/33, entry “Rondón, Marcos.”

27. 1935 census data in Pérez, Vida en los Arrabales de San Juan, 4.

28. Fifty percent of the inhabitants had lived one year or less in their house when interviewed. About a quarter of the population had lived in the community for less than a year. Ibid., 11.

29. Puerto Rico Administration, Departamento del Interior [Interior Department], La Perla Plan, 1933.

30. There are 219 houses on Riera land and 261 on state land. “Plano de las Barriadas Guaypao, La Perla, Nueva Perla y San Miguel”, Archivo General de Puerto Rico, 1933.

31. Ibid.

32. Tax roll 1925 and 1950, entry “Josefina Bengoechea, viuda de Riera.”

33. List of La Perla tenants and owners, 1933, and Tax Rolls 1932/33, and 1950/51, entry “Infanzón, Amador.”

34. For example, Angela Caldas, see footnote 21, or José Calvino, for the first time listed as landowner in the 1950 tax roll.

35. None of the owners listed as living in these zones in 1933 have a record of property tax payment. List of La Perla tenants and owners, 1933, and tax rolls 1932/1933.

36. For example, Pedro Torres owned house no. 23 on the 1933 plan, which he inhabited himself. He also owned an adjacent hut of the same size, which he rented out. Isidra Meléndez, owner of a 32-square metre house, no. 28 on the 1933 plan, did not live in the building but rented it out to 13 people. Both structures were built against the city walls. List of owners and tenants of La Perla, 1933, and Puerto Rico Administration, La Perla Plan.

37. List of La Perla tenants and owners, 1933.

38. “Relación de las casas existentes en los sitios denominados ‘Riera’, ‘Vista Alegre’ y ‘Miranda’ in Puerta de Tierra, con nombre de Ocupantes y valor de las mismas [probably 1933]. Archivo General de Puerto Rico, Departamento de Obras Públicas, Serie Propiedad Pública, Caja 256 “La Perla” 1933.

39. List of owners and tenants of La Perla, 1933.

40. Caption of a photograph dated 15 March 1934, from the Bettmann-Corbis collection, showing Eleanor Roosevelt in La Perla. Online at http://www.corbisimages.com/stock-photo/rights-managed/BE061831/eleanor-roosevelt-touring-poor-area-of-san (accessed June 2014)

41. Mignucci, “Modern urbanism in Puerto Rico,” 134–5.

42. Rodríguez, “[Re]visión de la vivienda social en San Juan,” 167–8.

43. Barañano, Regional Plan for the San Juan Metropolitan Area.

44. Many of them were in fact drawn by Europeans; for example, the Buenos Aires plans by Joseph Bouvard (1907), Jean-Claude Nicholas Forestier (1910–1925), and Carlos Noel (1923–1925); Karl Brunner's plans for Santiago de Chile (1934) and Bogotá (1934–1948); or the plans by Norbert Maillard for Montevideo (1920); by Forestier for Havanna (1925–1930); by Eugène Hébrard for Guayaquil; by Alfred Agache for Rio de Janeiro (1930); by Le Corbusier for Rio de Janeiro (1929) and Buenos Aires (1937); and by Maurice Rotival for Caracas (1938–1950). For a history of these plans, see Almandoz, Planning Latin America's Capital Cities 1850–1950.

45. See, for example, Epstein, Brasília, or Urban, Tower and Slab, chapter “Brasília.”

46. Lapp, “The Rise and Fall of Puerto Rico as a Social Laboratory,” 169–99.

47. Mignucci, “Modern urbanism in Puerto Rico,” 128–55.

48. This is outlined in Clark, “Our Own Puerto Rico,” 389. See also Rodríguez, “[Re]visión de la vivienda social en San Juan,” 176.

49. The areas were bought by the insular government in 1937. See “Progresa rápidamente derrumbe; de las viviendas de la barriada ‘Riera’.” See also http://www.puertadetierra.info/edificios/arrabls/miranda/miranda.htm (accessed November 2013).

50. Charles Rotkin, 1947, “Sector of La Perla Slum cleared in preparation for insular housing project”, Archivo General de Puerto Rico, Archivo Fotográfico, Cb22-6302. See also “Un parque en La Perla” and “Hogares continúa gestión para compra propiedades en La Perla.”

51. Ibid.

52. Cancel, “Inician destrucción casas en La Perla.”

53. Cruz, “La Perla foco de suciedad, miseria.”

54. “Activan el programa para la eliminación de los arrabales.”

55. Babosa, “La Perla, sombrío arrabal, cae al embate del progreso.”

56. Hernández, “Habitantes de La Perla Plan es llevarlos a caseríos.”

57. “CRUV intensifica saneamiento arrabal.”

58. Miranda, “Combatirá obras clandestinas.”

59. The study was carried out by CRUV and quoted in Margenat, “Gobierno descarta renovar sector residencial de La Perla.”

60. Lewis, La Vida. In the book, La Perla is given the name La Esmeralda. Lewis received much criticism for his book. This may be explained by the moral standards at the time. Many regarded it as offensive that Lewis was not bothered by what he described as the norm in La Perla: sex with different partners and couples in free union.

61. Lapp, “The Rise and Fall of Puerto Rico as a Social Laboratory,” 171.

62. Safa, Urban Poor of Puerto Rico.

63. Turner, “The Squatter Settlement,” 355. Other authors who pioneered the new view on informal neighbourhoods include Stokes, “A theory of slums,” 187–97; Abrams, Man's Struggle for Shelter; as well as the authors mentioned in the first paragraph.

64. Margenat, “Gobierno descarta renovar sector residencial de La Perla.

65. The project received the Annual Design Award by the journal Progressive Architecture. Wampler, “La Puntilla,” 90–7.

66. Ahlers, “La Perla Residents Say ‘La Puntilla or Rebuild Here’ – Scrapped Puntilla Plan Draws Ire”, Arrieta, “La Perla: Se niegen a que le cambien la cara, “San Juan necesita a La Perla para vivir” El Nuevo Día 11 December 1978.

67. See photograph by Mandín Rodríguez in the collection from the newspaper El Mundo, Biblioteca Digital Puertorriqueña of the University of Puerto Rico, call number 103971, online at www.bibliotecadigital.uprrp.edu (accessed November 2013).

68. Lewis, La Vida, 662–8.

69. For information on La Perla residents’ occupation, see ibid., xxxiv–xxxv.

70. Ibid. Lewis mentioned that 33% of the families he surveyed had a history of prostitution.

71. In some other informal settlements in San Juan in 1938, the number was over 80%. See, for example, in Pérez, Estudio Preliminar de Vida en los Arrabales de San Juan, 26. For La Perla numbers, see Departamento de Vivienda, Study on La Perla, 1977, quoted in Puerto Rico Administration, Departamento de la Vivienda [Housing Department], Concurso para el Desarrollo del Vecindario La Perla, 11.

72. In 1951, the Riera widow still paid $930 property tax. Tax Rolls 1950/51 (the last year available at the archive). After that there is no mention of land rent in any report.

73. Power poles are clearly visible on a postcard titled ‘Barriada La Perla in San Juan, 1943’, Collection Lucilla and Tom Marvel. Cables to many individual houses are visible in a photograph by Charles Rotkin, 1947, “Sector of La Perla Slum cleared in preparation for insular housing project,” Archivo General de Puerto Rico, Archivo Fotográfico, Cb22-6301.

74. The San Conrado chapel, financed through a $1000 donation by hotel owner Conrad Hilton, was opened in 1950 in a wooden, one-storey structure in the San Miguel area, and serviced by Capuchin monks. Tooker, “La modesta capilla de San Conrado ofrece el pan espiritual a los residentes de La Perla.”

75. Rojas, “En La Perla no todo es crimen y miseria.”

76. Tax Rolls 1950/51.

77. García, “En La Perla inauguran Escuela Maternal y Dispensario”, Spaulding, “Incluyen parque atlético; auguran mejoramiento social obras de renovación en barriada La Perla.”

78. Lewis, La Vida, xxxii.

79. The average rent rose from $5.20 per month and family in 1938 to $15 in 1964. Calculated in 2013 dollars, this is an increase from $86.35 to $113.30. Pérez, Estudio Preliminar de Vida en los Arrabales de San Juan, 26 and Lewis, La Vida, xxv.

80. Ibid. xxiv. The 1938 number has a certain margin of error, as it was extrapolated from weekly income, and most individuals did not have work all year long. Pérez, Estudio Preliminar de Vida en los Arrabales de San Juan, 18.

81. This is evidenced by the Villa Palmeras neighbourhood. Quiles, La ciudad de los balcones, 71–90 and Edwin Quiles, conversation with the author, San Juan, 2 December 2013.

82. Edwin Quiles, conversation with the author, San Juan, 2 December 2013.

83. Similar parallels in American vernacular architecture are described in Upton, “The Power of Things,” 16.

84. An important analysis of this type in its different versions can be found in Quiles, La ciudad de los balcones. Quiles bases his analysis on the San Juan neighbourhood of Villa Palmeras. According to John Vlach, the Creole house was developed from the Yoruba houses of African slaves. The subtype ‘shotgun house’ originated in Haiti and was brought to the USA and later to Puerto Rico by hacienda owners who fled with their slaves after the Haitian revolution. Vlach, Sources of the Shotgun House. Similar claims are made by Roberto Segre, who also stresses the influence of the native Caribbean bohío, Segre, “Continuidad y renovación,” 113–38. Thanks to Edwin Quiles for these references.

85. Lewis, La Vida, xxxii.

86. Pala, “Elan, scepticism mark Pierluisi visit to La Perla”, Ramírez, “Debate over La Perla's fate resurfaces.”

87. Puerto Rico Administration, Departamento de la Vivienda [Housing Department], Concurso para el Desarrollo del Vecindario La Perla.

88. Arrieta, “Renovarán La Perla para sus vecinos.” In November 1978, three second prizes were awarded. The first prize was not awarded since none of the proposals were perceived as completely acceptable. Babb, “First Prize Goes Unawarded in Architects’ Contest.”

89. Marvel et al., La Perla (San Juan, 1978) [competition entry by Thomas Marvel and Pedro Miranda Corrada, each in combination with engineers and consultants, which included Rafael Pumarada, Antonio Cobian, Lucilla Marvel, and José Villamil], collection Lucilla and Tom Marvel.

90. The French grandes ensembles programme was stopped in 1973 by Gaullist minister Olivier Guichard; the urban renewal policies in West Berlin faced the opposition of both radical leftists and conservatives and were finally stopped under the conservative government from 1981.

91. Edwin Quiles, conversation with the author, San Juan, 2 December 2013.

92. For example, the self-help schemes of Ayuda Mutua y Esfuerzo Propio put forward in the 1930s, Rodríguez, “[Re]visión de la vivienda social en San Juan,” 176.

93. Bermúdez, “De la tábula rasa a la rehabilitación del barrio,” 202–27.

94. Pala, “Elan, scepticism mark Pierluisi visit to La Perla”, “La Perla renovation goes forward”, Ramírez, “Debate over La Perla's fate resurfaces.”

95. “The Urban Renewal and Housing Corp. has completed construction of a road.”

96. Lucilla Marvel, conversation with the author, 22 November 2013, see also Marvel, Listen to what they say, 153.

97. Out of an estimated 350 homeowners, 120 received land titles by 2000. Ibid., 159.

98. The land titles were awarded under Law 132 of 1975, which legalized squats if they had occurred before 1973.

99. Survey taken by Lucilla Marvel. Marvel, Listen to what they say, 157.

100. Arrieta, “Renovarán La Perla para sus vecinos.”

101. “San Juan necesita a La Perla para vivir.”

102. Beardley, “La Perla: comunidad en vía de mejorar.”

103. Fajardo, “Chávez: No plan to clear La Perla for development.”

104. Rivera, “Santini se compromete con residentes de La Perla” El Nuevo Día, 5 July 2011.

105. María Vera,“‘Bajo Amenaza’” [Under Threat], Miranda, “La Perla residents face specter of eviction.”

106. López, “Denuncian un plan articulado para desalojar La Perla”, Tellado, “Residentes defienden a la Perla”, Suárez, “Fallo de culpabilidad para Cara de Truck.” The length of the sentence was related to two previous convictions on drug charges. Gómez had previously rejected a deal that would have reduced his sentence to less than 10 years if he had pled guilty.

107. “Organizan junta vecinos La Perla.”

108. Figueroa, “Unión comunitaria en apoyo a La Perla.”

109. The oldest evidence of a concrete building dates from 1933, in the mention of a dilapidated concrete ranchón on Angela Caldas's land. List of La Perla tenants and owners, 1933, penultimate page.

110. An important analysis of this type in its different versions can be found in Quiles, La ciudad de los balcones. Quiles bases his conclusions on the San Juan neighbourhood of Villa Palmeras.

111. “Long building 140 homes every day in Puerto Rico – seeks rate of 250” The News and Courier (Charleston, South Carolina), 23 May 1948, p. 17. On Puerto Nuevo and the suburbanization of Puerto Rico, see also Gallart, “Ahora seremos felices,” 51–6, and Sepúlveda “Viejos cañaverales, casas nuevas,” 166–207.

112. The difference was only in the materials; in La Perla, cheap aluminium louvers were most popular, whereas in Puerto Nuevo the slightly more expensive glass versions were used.

113. www.thegalleryinn.com (accessed December 2013).

114. Puerto Rico Administration, Departamento del Interior [Interior Department], La Perla Plan, 1933, La Perla Building Map with state of building and number of floors, 1978, Collection Lucilla and Tom Marvel and La Perla Building Map, 2013, Taller de Estudios Graduados “Arquitectura y Communidad”, Universidad de Puerto Rico.

115. Martinez, “La Perla – poor but still beautiful to residents”, Rivas, “Estreno entre brincos y risas infantiles.”

116. Author's observations, October 2013.

117. Author's notes, community meeting on 23 August 2013 at the former slaughterhouse.