Ponce

Ponce, the second largest city in Puerto Rico outside of the San Juan metropolitan area is named after the grandson of Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León. It is located a few miles from the Caribbean coastline of the island. Ponce is often referred to as "The Pearl of the South."

Ponce, nicknamed The City of Los Leones after Ponce de León, has one of Puerto Rico's richest histories, dating back to the 17th century.It was founded in 1692 by Loíza Ponce de León, Juan Ponce de León's great-grandson.

In 1883, Ponce was ravaged by an enormous fire. The fire threatened to destroy much of the south coast, but thanks to the firemen of Ponce (who operated from Ponce's Parque de Bombas fire station), after an historic and dramatic battle with the fire, Ponce and the South were saved. The Parque de Bombas fire station in the central plaza has since become a museum and tourist attraction to all Puerto Ricans and tourists from abroad. The station continued serving the Ponce community until 1990, when it was closed and the building's activities were entirely dedicated to a museum, which is still open to the general public.

In 1937, Ponce was the scene of an incident dubbed the "Ponce Massacre" in which many unarmed Nationalist protesters, peacefully celebrating the 64th Anniversary of the Abolition of Slavery, were fatally shot by police.

Ponce's tourist appeal did not go unnoticed, and since the 1970s, the Holiday Inn hotel branch located there has become almost as famous as Ponce's touristic attractions. International flights were once flown there into Mercedita Airport, coded PSE, by Eastern Airlines and American Airlines, while intra-island operations were conducted by Prinair. These days Mercedita is strictly a domestic airport, with Cape Air dba Continental Connection flying from Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in Carolina, Puerto Rico and JetBlue flying nonstop from JFK Airport in New York City. They fly large A320 jets into PSE. Continental will initiate service to Newark in November 2005. Connections from SJU are easily available. Among other sites worth visiting are the Seralles mansion overlooking the city and the chamfered street corners and well-preserved nineteenth century domestic architecture in the blocks surrounding the central plaza.

Ponce is also the home of the Ponce Museum of Art, which was operated by Puerto Rico's former Governor Luis A. Ferré until his death at the age of 99, the Don Q rum distillery and the Leones de Ponce, Puerto Rico's national basketball champions eleven times.

Ponce in October 1985 suffered a great tragedy, when at least 129 people lost their lives to an mud avalanche in an area known as Mameyes. International help was needed to rescue people and corpses. The United States and many foreign countries, such as Mexico, France, and Venezuela, sent economic, human, and machinery relief. Ponce, and all of Puerto Rico, has always been thankful of the countries that helped.

Famous Ponceños include former world boxing light heavyweight champion José Torres, former world champion Carlos Ortiz, international singer Ednita Nazario, former governors Luis A. Ferré and Rafael Hernández Colón, former Menudo Roy Rosselló, Ferré's sister, Sor Isolina Ferré, and teacher Lourdes Pamela Pop.

Ponce's mayor for fifteen years (since 1989), Rafael Cordero, died on the morning of January 17, 2004, as a consequence of three brain strokes.