SOCIETY OF PONCE IN THE LATE 19TH AND EARLY 20TH CENTURY

Between the 1840s and 1880s, Puerto Rico’s two main export, sugar and coffee, made Ponce its economic axis. The sugar and coffee industry, drove vigorous urban growth and urban development. Ponce grew exponentially and by 1899, its population had surpassed San Juan’s, Puerto Rico’s capital, population. The vertiginous population growth, the economic progress and constant immigration gave Ponce a significant and consequential standing within the Caribbean.

The importance of non-Spanish foreign immigrants in the economic development of Ponce at the beginning of the 19th century was fundamental for its evolution. Their incorporation into Ponce and Puerto Rico’s society was facilitated by the fact that Ponce represented a new cosmopolitan society.

Ponce, in its accelerated population growth, clustered a society that was composed of Creoles from different regions of the country with immigrants, both businessmen and workers. In the numerous biographical books of Ponce at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, these immigrants and their offspring are addressed as Ponceños, marking them as full members of Ponce’s society.

In the mid-nineteenth century, Ponce became the new organic capital of Puerto Rico. The one born from economic growth, agriculture, and culture, unlike San Juan who was born out of bureaucracy and Colonialism. Ponce became the most documented city of Puerto Rico, and the most given to the celebration of its history in writings, festivals, monuments, and squares. This exponential growth occurs in less than forty years.

This new and cosmopolitan society gave birth to a juxtaposition. The powerful groups in Ponce incorporated men of the lower classes into their political and cultural projects. This resulted in a complex yet dynamic social structure: the bourgeois in favor of their subordinates, workers, and peasants.

The distinction between Ponce and San Juan was unequivocal. In An Island grows, memoirs of Albert E. Lee, the author describes the cultural meaning between these two cities. Lee depicts San Juan as a conservative and Catholic city, while Ponce is described as liberal and modern. He explains that this might have been the consequence of San Juan being the imposed capital by the Spanish, while Ponce was the center of an emerging new community, a particular new type of Puerto Rican.

Ponce became the epitome of Puerto Rican character in the 19th century, so much so that for all that mattered – culture, economy, politics and social – Ponce had become the alternate capital. 

During this time, Ponce saw an influx of buildings, infrastructure, and overall progress. As it happens around the world, people who had the means to build their own houses, commerce buildings, private clubs, did so with the utmost elegance, polished finishes, and quality. This high-end style of designing and building translated to the lower classes of the city as well.

This is especially true within the Historic Downtown of Ponce, where most of the buildings from mid 1800s and forward are still standing.