Guaynabo, Puerto Rico

Guaynabo (pronounced as IPA: [ˌɡwaiˈnabo]; also known as Guaynabo City or GC) is a municipality in the northern part of Puerto Rico, located in the northern coast of the island, north of Aguas Buenas; south of Cataño; east of Bayamón; and west of San Juan. Guaynabo is spread over 9 wards and Guaynabo Pueblo (the downtown area and the administrative center of the city).

Guaynabo is considered, along with its neighbors -- San Juan and the municipalities of Bayamón, Carolina, Cataño, Toa Alta, Canovanas, Caguas, Toa Baja, and Trujillo Alto -- to be one of the cities of the Área Metropolitana (Metropolitan Area) of San Juan (the largest MSA in Puerto Rico; many Puerto Ricans erroneously consider it the only metropolitan area in the Commonwealth). The municipio has a land area of 70.26 km² (27.13 sq mi) and a population of 100,053 as of the 2000 census.

1 History
2 Barrios (Districts/Wards)^[1]
3 Anthem
4 Economy
5 Mayors
- 5.1 The Recent Mayors of Guaynabo
- 5.2 Mayors of Guaynabo from 1782 to 1969
6 Tourism
- 6.1 Landmarks and places of interest
- 6.2 Festivals and events
7 Sports
8 Notable "Guaynabeños"
9 Diplomacy
10 References
11 External links

[edit] History

Guaynabo was founded in 1769 by Pedro R. Davila (P.R.), after a struggle for division from the municipality of Bayamón. Previously, the city was known as "Buinabo", a name that means in Taíno "He aquí otro lugar de agua dulce" or "Here is another place of fresh water."

[edit] Barrios (Districts/Wards)^[1]

Camarones
Frailes
Guaraguao
Guaynabo Pueblo
Hato Nuevo

Mamey
Pueblo Viejo
Río
Santa Rosa
Sonadora

[edit] Anthem

By Rafael Velázquez Pericas

Guaynabo, pueblo querido,
yo no te olvido, eres mi amor...
Guaynabo, eres mi encanto,
te quiero tanto, de corazón.

Tu gente, sencilla y noble,
tus hombres son recordados
por sus hazañas,
por su lealtad...

Recuerdo a Baldorioty,
hombre valiente
y sin igual.
Luchando por los esclavos
allá en las cortes
supo ganar.

Su nombre es respetado,
alláien los campos
y en la cuidad.

Guaynabo, eres mi pueblo
lleno de ensueños
y de bondad

[edit] Economy

Long considered to be just a mostly rural, drive-by town for drivers who were going from San Juan to the western part of Puerto Rico, Guaynabo went through a large economic revitalization in the 1950s and 1960s. As a consequence, parts of the city have also served as a San Juan suburb preferred by upper-middle and high-income families. Today, Guaynabo has the highest per capita income in Puerto Rico. The urbanizations Garden Hills, Torrimar, San Patricio and Tintillo are among the upper class neighborhoods located in Guaynabo that where built in the 1950s and 1960s, with the notable exception of Villa Caparra and Suchville, San Juan's first wealthy suburbs, which were built in the 1920s. Residential construction continued between the 1970s and 1990s, where hundreds of new upper middle class developments were built: Parkville, Mallorca, Tierra Alta, Villas Reales, Ext. Villa Caparra, Mansiones de Guaynabo, Mansiones Reales, and Palmas Reales, among many others.

As a result of the proliferation of upper middle class and wealthy neighborhoods, several prominent private schools were founded in Guaynabo, including Colegio San Ignacio de Loyola, Academia San José, Academia María Reina and Colegio San Ignacio de Loyola, Colegio Marista, and which mainly instruct in Spanish, although most private schools extensively cover English to levels comparable to those of the mainland; and Parkville School, American Military Academy, Baldwin School, in the Guaynabo-Bayamón border, and Wesleyan Academy, which mainly instruct in English. The first modern shopping mall built in the Caribbean and Latin America, San Patricio Plaza, was built in Guaynabo in 1963, in the San Patricio sector next to Villa Caparra.

Guaynabo's skyline is filled with over a hundred high-rise buildings. Most are residential condominiums, but the buildings also include various major headquarters for banks and other businesses.

When Alejandro Cruz was Guaynabo's mayor, many sport facilities were built, such as Mario "Quijote" Morales Coliseum (then called Mets Pavilion). In addition, many manufacturing plants, such as the Hanes' plant, were established in Guaynabo. Guaynabo has, at different times, been voted the Most Picturesque and Cleanest Town in Puerto Rico^{[citation needed]}.

Several businesses have their headquarters or local Puerto Rican branches in Guaynabo. El Nuevo Día, Santander Securities, Puerto Rico Telephone and many sales offices for large US firms (such as Texaco, Microsoft, American Airlines, Dell and others) have their Puerto Rican headquarters in Guaynabo. WAPA-TV (Televicentro) and Univisión de Puerto Rico have their main studios in Guaynabo.

[edit] Mayors

[edit] The Recent Mayors of Guaynabo

Mayor	Term	Party
Santos Rivera	1969-1979	New Progressive Party
Alejandro Cruz Ortiz	1979-1993	New Progressive Party
Héctor O'Neill García	1993-present	New Progressive Party

[edit] Mayors of Guaynabo from 1782 to 1969

Term	Name
1782	Cayetano de la Sarna
1800	Pedro Dávila
1812	Dionisio Cátala
1816	Angel Umpierre
1818	Juan José González
1821	Joaquín Goyena
1822	José María Prosis
1823	Simón Hinonio
1825	José R. Ramírez
1827	Antonio Guzmán
1828	Genaro Oller
1836	Andrés Degal
1836	Agustín Rosario
1840	Francisco Hiques
1844	Martínez Díaz
1848	Tomás Cátla
1849	Andrés Vega
1852	Justo García
1856	José Tomás Sagarra
1857	Manuel Manzano
1859	Juan Floret
1859	José Francisco Chiques
1862	Segundo de Echeverte
1862	José de Murgas
1869	Juan J. Caro
1873	Benito Gómez
1874	Manuel Millones
1876	José Otero
1891	Juan Díaz de Barrio
1914	José Ramón
1914	José Carazo
1919	Narciso Val Llovera
1924	Zenón Díaz Valcárcel
1936	Dolores Vldivieso
1944	Augosto Rivera
1948	Jorge Gavillán Fuentes
1956	Juan Román
1964	José Rosario Reyes

[edit] Tourism

[edit] Landmarks and places of interest

Baldorioty de Castro Statue
Bellas Artes Center
Caparra Ruins
Caribe Recreational Center
Mets Pavilion
San Patricio Plaza

[edit] Festivals and events

Three Reyes Festival - January
Mabó Carnival - march
Mothers Tribute - May
Patron Festivities - May
Salsa National Day - June
Bellas Artes Camp - June
Bomba & Plena Festival - October
Christmas Lighting - November

[edit] Sports

Guaynabo's BSN team, the Guaynabo Mets, won national championships in 1980, 1982 and 1989, commanded by the player after whom the coliseum was named, Mario "Quijote" Morales.