Partido (region)

Partido (lit. '"party"') was a Spanish colonial term that referred to a governed local administrative region, roughly equivalent to today's municipality in terms of rural land areas included,[1][2] and used in the Spanish colonies in the Americas during the times of the Spanish Empire. It was "the territory or district composed of a jurisdiction or administration from a main city."[3]

In Ponce, Puerto Rico, creation of the cabildo in 1692, marked the end of the "partido" status and the beginning of the municipality. Today's (2019) Ponce City Hall, above, was built later, in 1846.

The term referred to 18th and 19th-century land regions that consisted of mature dispersed settlements but which had not yet been formally incorporated as hamlets. Though similar to today's municipality, partidos were under the control of a town or city government whose seat was, at times, a day's walk, or longer, away.[4]

Puerto Rico

"Partido" was the term used in Spanish colonial times for various scarcely populated regions in Puerto Rico, including Aguada, Ponce, Arecibo, and Coamo.[5]

In the case of Ponce, the region was a partido in 1670, when a chapel was built and nearby neighbors started to build around it, converting the dispersed settlement into a hamlet.[6][7] However, it continued to depend on the cabildo at the Villa de San Germán for all of its judicial and administrative matters.[8][9] Later, once the hamlet had grown it, was allowed to build its own Cabildo and run its own affairs independent from San German. The forming of its own cabildo represented the founding of a municipal corporation, at which point it was no longer referred to as partido and became a municipality henceforth.[10][11][12][13][14]

See also

References
  1. Fay Fowlie de Flores. Ponce, Perla del Sur: Una Bibliográfica Anotada. Second Edition. 1997. Ponce, Puerto Rico: Universidad de Puerto Rico en Ponce. p. 264. Item 1322. LCCN 92-75480
  2. Francisco A. Scarano. "Inmigración y estructura de clases: los hacendados de Ponce, 1815-1845." Inmigración y Clases Sociales de Puerto Rico del Siglo XIX. pp. 21-66. Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico: Huracán. 1981. (Colegio Universitario Tecnológico de Ponce, CUTPO).
  3. Luis Caldera Ortiz. Nuevos hallazgos sobre el origen de Ponce. Lajas, Puerto Rico: Centro de Estudios e Investigaciones del Suroeste de Puerto Rico. 2019. p. 56. ISBN 9781075058325
  4. Salvador Brau. La fundación de Ponce. Ponce, Puerto Rico: Tipografia Comercial "La Democracia". 1909. pp. 16-17.
  5. Luis Caldera Ortiz. Nuevos Hallazgos sobre el Origen de Ponce. Centro de Estudios e Investigaciones del Sir Oeste de Puerto Rico. 2019. p. 56. ISBN 9781075058325
  6. Dennis DeJesus-Rodriguez. Fundación de Ponce: 1678-1692. In, Hereditas: Revista de genealogía puertorriqueña. San Juan, Puerto Rico: Sociedad de Genealogía de Puerto Rico. Vol. 10. Issue 2. Year 2009. pp. 63-71.
  7. Mariano Vidal Armstrong. Ponce: Notas para su historia. Comité Historia de los Pueblos. San Juan, Puerto Rico. 1986. p. 12.
  8. Lorenzo A. Balasquide, Compendio Intrahistórico de Peñuelas, San Juan, Puerto Rico: Editorial Cordillera, Inc., 1972, p. 51, footnote #23.
  9. Aida R. Caro Costas. El Cabildo or Regimen Municipal Puertorriqueño en el Siglo XVIII: La Gestión Municipal Puertorriqueña, Tomo II, San Juan, Puerto Rico: Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, 1974, p. 38
  10. Francisco Lluch Mora. Orígenes y Fundación de Ponce. San Juan, Puerto Rico: Editorial Plaza Mayor. Segunda Edición. 2006. p. 33.
  11. Mariano Vidal Armstrong. Ponce: Notas para su Historia. San Juan, PR: Comité Historia de los Pueblos, Oficina de Preservación Histórica de Puerto Rico. Second Edition. 1986. p. 17.
  12. Salvador Brau. La fundación de Ponce. Ponce, Puerto Rico: Taller Tipográfico Comercial "La Democracia". 1909. Reprinted at San Juan, Puerto Rico, at a later date. p. 4.
  13. Francisco Luch Mora. Orígenes y Fundación de Ponce. Editorial Plaza Mayor. 2006. pp. 29, 33.
  14. José Leandro Montalvo-Guenard. In, Luis Fortuño Janeiro's Album Histórico de Ponce: 1692-1963 (Section: "Algo Sobre Ponce y su Fundación".) Ponce, Puerto Rico: Imprenta Fortuño, 1963. p. 11.

Further reading
  • Haring, C. H., The Spanish Empire in America. New York, Oxford University Press, 1947.
  • O'Callaghan, Joseph F. A History of Medieval Spain. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. 1975. ISBN 0801408806
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