Florida, Puerto Rico facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Florida Municipio de Florida
Town and Municipality
Building in Florida with flags out front
Flag Coat of arms
Nicknames:  "Pueblo de la Piña Cayenalisa", "La Tierra del Río Encantado", "Tierra de los Mogotes"
Anthem: "Florida jardín hermoso (1961)"
Map of Puerto Rico highlighting Florida Municipality
Commonwealth	Puerto Rico
Founded	1971
Barrios	1 barrio Florida Adentro
Area
• Total	26 km2 (10 sq mi)
Population  (2020)
• Total	11,692
• Density	450/km2 (1,165/sq mi)
Demonym(s)	Florideños
Time zone	UTC-4 (AST)
ZIP Code	00650
Area code(s)	787/939
Major routes

Florida is a town and municipality of Puerto Rico located in the karst region north of Ciales, south of Barceloneta, east of Arecibo, and west of Manatí. Florida is not like other municipalities of Puerto Rico with multiple subdivisions called barrios. It has one barrio called Florida Adentro and two other subdivisions: Florida Zona Urbana and Pajonal comunidad. It is part of the San Juan-Caguas-Guaynabo Metropolitan Statistical Area.

History

Florida was founded first as a barrio of Barceloneta in 1881 when a priest, Father Carrión, the mayor of Barceloneta, and other dignitaries arrived at a terrain of almost 4 acres. They decided to establish a new barrio and the owner of the place, Don Manuel Cintrón granted the land while he retained a piece of it. The barrio was first called "Florida Adentro".

During the 20th century, several efforts were made to declare Florida as a municipality. First, on April 14, 1949, House Representative Francisco Díaz Marchand presented a project to create a legislative commission that would study the economic and social conditions of the barrio, to determine the suitability of it as an independent municipality. The project was unsuccessful. On 1960, Manuel Frías Morales presented a law that would permit the study to establish the municipality but it didn't succeed either.

Finally, on June 14, 1971, the Senate of Puerto Rico and Governor Don Luis A. Ferré approved the law that officially created the municipality of Florida. It is thus the youngest municipality established in the island.

Symbols

Flag

It consists of three horizontal stripes, with the following colors and widths: green the superior and white the inferior, with five modules of width each one, the center one red, with a width of one module.

Coat of Arms

Field of silver, in an abyss, a gules (red) anchored cross, like the one in the Asturian district of Llanes. The cross is anchored between two branches of bloomed poinsettias (Poinsettia Pulcherrima). A green terrace represents the hilly terrain of the town, with a stripe forming waves outlined in silver which represents the underground river of Encantado. At the top, a three tower gold crown distinct in municipalities coat of arms. The shield can be surrounded, to its flanks and bottom by two crossed coffee tree branches with fruits.

Names

Florida derives its name from the abundant flowers and natural resources on its land. It is also known as "La Tierra del Río Encantado" due to an underground river called Encantado. Another nickname is the "Pueblo de la Piña Cayenalisa" due to its pineapple crops.

Geography

Florida is the second smallest municipality of Puerto Rico, with an area of 10 square miles. The municipality belongs to the coastal plains of the north of Puerto Rico and it's surrounded by small hills. Several caves are formed in the town like Román Cave, Miró Cave, and Juana Gómez Cave.

Cityscape

Barrios

The town of Florida is divided itself into several barrios or districts:

Culture

Tourism

• Enchanted Cave

Demographics

Florida is one of the least populated municipalities of Puerto Rico, perhaps due to its small size. The population, according to the 2000 census, was 12,237 with a population density of 1,236.7 people per square mile (475.6/km²). After its establishment in 1974, the population has steadily increased over the years, with 7,232 people in the 1980 census.

Statistics taken from the 2000 census shows that 86.0% of Florideños are of White origin, 4.9% are black, 0.2% are Amerindian etc.

Transportation

Puerto Rico Highway 22 provides access to PR-140, which leads to Florida from the cities of Mayagüez in the west, or San Juan in the north.

Like most other towns in the island, it has a public transportation system consisting of public cars.

There is only one bridge in Florida.

Notable Florideños

• Charlie Montoyo - Current Manager of the Toronto Blue Jays and former Major League Baseball player
• Alexis Mateo - Drag queen and contestant on Season 3 of RuPaul’s Drag Race.
• Danny A. Viera Carrero- Primer puertorriqueño como jefe de tripulación en el avión del Secretario de Defensa de los Estados Unidos 2008-2011 y Primer Crewchief y jefe de comunicaciones del jefe de Operaciones Navales de los Estados Unidos 2011–2015.

Economy

Sign for Florida Pharmaceuticals and PR-140, Exit 57 from PR-2

Florida's economy had mostly relied on agriculture, specifically pineapple, crops and other fruit related products. Today that's history with the high taxes impose on small vendors, there had been a few of manufacturing plants establishing in the area. There are pharmaceuticals in Florida.

Education

There are several public and private schools, serving students in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade, distributed throughout the municipality of Florida. Public education is handled by the Puerto Rico Department of Education. These are some of the schools in Florida, as of 2020:

• Adolfo Egüen School
• Juanita Ramírez González School
• Juan Ponce De León II School
• Francisco Frías Morales School
• Ricardo Rodríguez Torres School
• Early Head Start

Images for kids

• 

  Florida.

See also

In Spanish: Florida (Puerto Rico) para niños