Versión español

Inmaculada Concepción Parish

During the 18th century, the territory that we now today as Las Piedras was a small settlement known as Ribera de Las Piedras. It was located on top of the mountains at the source of the Humacao River. The small nucleus of the settlement consisted of a church and three houses. The residents, who numbered 1,515, lived on both sides of the mountain. One side faced the towntown, founding: A group of vecinos that wanted to found a town had to grant a power of attorney to one or more other vecinos to represent them before the governor and viceroy. This person could authorize the founding of the town and the establishment of a parish. The grantors of the power of attorney had to be a majority in the given territory and more than ten in number. Once the case had been made, the governor appointed a capitán poblador or settlement official to represent the vecinos and one or more delegates, who usually lived in nearby cabildos vecinos to receive the necessary documentation. Proof was required that the settlement was so far from a church that it was very difficult for the settlers to partake of sacraments and municipal services. In general, proof was provided of the absence or bad condition of roads and bridges. If the petition was approved, it was required that the vecinos mark off the new municipality and build public works such as a church, a parish house, a government house (Casa del Rey), a slaughterhouse, and a cemetery, and to set aside land for the town square or plaza and the commons (ejidos). The vecinos were expected to cover the cost of building these works by levying special assessments. Usually one of the land owners donated some land for the founding. Once the requirements had been met, the governor authorized the founding of the town and the parish, and he appointed a Lieutenant at War who usually was the same capitán poblador. of Caguas and the other faced the town of Humacao. The settlement formed part of the so-called Hatohato: Land used for cattle raising, and to a lesser degree, for raising horses, mules, and pigs. Hatos were granted by the Spanish Crown to people who had rendered special service to the King. The development of hatos substituted mining in the Puerto Rican economy and many other countries in the Americas. The land of the hato was not fenced off, and the division of the hatos among heirs and other owners brought with it the creation of smaller units, hatillos, the origin of many of the wards that exist today. Grande of the Delgado family, which was granted in 1626 by royal order to Sebastián Delgado de Rivera. It covered the area that is today the municipalities of Las Piedras, Caguas, Gurabo and part of San Lorenzo, Juncos and Aguas Buenas. It is believed that the name Las Piedras came from the quantity of enormous rocks found on the hill where it was founded.

By the end of the 18th century, Las Piedras' parish had jurisdiction over all of the territory from Caguas to Humacao. According to historians, the first documentation referring to the population of the Ribera de Las Piedras is from the year 1773, when Brother Fray Iñigo Abbad y Lasierra visited Puerto Rico.

In 1797, an order by the civil government and the church caused the parish to be moved to the Juncos sector. The residents of Las Piedras asked the government to allow construction and creation of a new parish church on the site of the old one. The petition was granted once the residents committed to donating 16 cuerdas of land for the development of the town, paying for the decoration of the temple and gathering 325 pesos a year to pay the priest and the sacristan.

In 1801, the town of Las Piedras was founded and construction of the new parish church, devoted to Nuestra Señora de la Concepción, was begun. In 1827, residents began an effort to buy land and build a Kings House. In 1868, the process of restoring the Kings House was undertaken. It had been destroyed by a storm in 1825, along with the church and the church archives.

Las Piedras was originally divided into the sectors of Las Piedras Pueblo, Río, Montones and Tejas. By 1878, those sectors had been subdivided and the municipality then consisted of the sectors of Pueblo, Río, Boquerón, Collores, Montones, Tejas, Quebrada Arenas and Ceiba. Las Piedras maintained those same divisions until 1898.

On September 12, 1898, Las Piedras was occupied by troops of the United States Army. Because of the precarious economic condition of the town, Las Piedras became part of the municipality of Humacao from 1899 until 1914, when its independence was restored. In 1948, the Puerto Rico Planning Board decided to expand the urban zone of the municipality. The Collores, Montones, Quebrada Arenas and Tejas sectors were annexed to the urban zone of Las Piedras.

During the 1970s, two thirds of the agricultural land of Las Piedras (14,300 cuerdas or 13,888 acres) was dedicated to pasture for cattle and 26 percent (5,300 cuerdas or 5,148 acres) was dedicated to growing crops. Sugar cane was produced almost entirely in the land of the valley, while food crops were grown in the mountainous area. In the central part of the plain in that era 350 cuerdas (340 acres) were planted in pineapples and 100 cuerdas in guava trees. Tobacco was planted mainly on 125 cuerdas (121 acres) in the southern part of the municipality. The municipality's economy also included more than twenty manufacturing industries producing toothpicks, textiles, clothing, children's products, electronic terminals, chemical products, feed for livestock, construction materials, shoes, cardboard tubes, watch faces, winter clothing, hair barrettes, floral arrangements, and other products.

Today, the dominant industries are manufacturing and pharmaceuticals. Agriculture has declined considerably, although there are still 130 farms that produce flour and raise livestock.

Symbols

Flag
The flag of Las Piedras consists of three horizontal bands of equal width: white on top, green in the center and blue below. In the center of the flag is a Taino sun in yellow.

Coat of Arms
The coat of arms has a silver field with the blue monogram of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception, to whom Las Piedras parish church is devoted. In the green border are seven silver stones and, in the bottom at the point, a gold Taino sun called the "Sun of Las Piedras." The silver stones on the green background represent the rocks scattered around the region that gave the municipality its name. The Taino sun is a stylized version of an indigenous petroglyph in the Indian Cave. The figure alludes to the original inhabitants of the site.