La Playa de Ponce, Ponce Playa, La Playa, or simply Playa is one of the thirty-one barrios that comprise the municipality of Ponce, Puerto Rico. This barrio, or ward, has its own plaza giving it the character of a municipality within a municipality. It has a residential area, a tourist area called La Guancha, and a harbor, Puerto de Ponce.

La Playa is the site of Paseo Tablado La Guancha, the Puerto Rico Iron Works foundry, and historic customs house.

La Playa has the most important Caribbean seaport in Puerto Rico, called Port of the Americas.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] History

A significant fire occurred in La Playa in 1845. This moved the Conde de Marisol, ruler of the Puerto Rico at the time, to create a new voluntary fire-fighting organization.

In 1929, La Playa was also the place where Dr. Manuel De la Pila Iglesias worked for the U.S. federal government with such distinction as to earn him the title "physician of physicians."

La Playa is a mostly poor barrio of Ponce, and thus this is where Isolina Ferré founded her Centro De Orientacion De La Playa hospital and school that would earn her the U.S.Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1999. The Ponce Playa Diagnostic and Treatment Center is also located in Playa de Ponce.

[edit] Distinguished Playeros

People from La Playa are called "playeros". Probably the most distinguished is Churumba, who was a very well-liked and popular mayor of Ponce from 1988 until his death in 2004.

[edit] References