La Perla is a historical shanty town astride the northern historic city wall of Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, stretching about 650 yards along the rocky Atlantic coast immediately east of the Santa Maria Magdalena de Pazzis Cemetery and down the slope from Calle Norzagaray. La Perla was established in the late 19th century. Initially, the area was the site of a slaughterhouse because the law required them and homes of former slaves and homeless non-white servants - as well as cemeteries - to be established away from the main community center; in this case, outside the city walls. Sometime after, some of the farmers and workers started living around the slaughterhouse and shortly established their houses there. Only three access points exist, one through the "Santa Maria Magdalena Cemetery", one on the east side and one through a walkway right in the center of the northern wall.
Utility services
Despite many of the homes being built without proper permits, residents of the neighborhood do have utility services. Garbage pickup is done regularly in La Perla neighborhood, which in 1973 consisted of about 900 houses and 3,300 residents.
Streets
While in the past tourists were deterred from visiting the area, some entrepreneurs have tried to change the image of La Perla and encourage tourism to the area. Despite the area having a reputation for being dangerous, the hugely popular Despacito 2016 music video, which was filmed in La Perla, made La Perla a must-see for many tourists. The six streets in La Perla include:
La Perla was the true site of the fictional "La Esmeralda" barrio depicted in Oscar Lewis's sociological work, "", describing the lives of Puerto Rican slumdwellers and prostitutes from La Perla, through taped interviews with dozens of intertwined family members who lived there in the 1940s-1960s. His award-winning book, written in 1967, would influence the way people viewed Puerto Rican women. "Many who read his book assumed the whores of La Perla were typical of all Puerto Rican women." In 2016, students of architecture at several universities in Puerto Rico, requested children's ideas on an initiative to improve areas of La Perla where children enjoy meeting up with friends.
Census
In terms of the United States 2000 Census, La Perla is composed of Census blocks 3001 through 3010. A population of 338 was reported, 198 housing units, and 169 households, on an area of 80,028 square yards. La Perla belongs to and consists of the northernmost stretches of the subbarriosMercado and San Cristóbal of Old San Juan. The dividing line between the subbarrios is the imagined extension of Calle San Justo to the north beyond the old city wall to the Atlantic coast. The eastern part consists of Census blocks 3002, 3009 und 3010, with a population of 64, 35 housing units, and 31 households, on 41,348 square yards.
Media
La Perla has a community oriented music recording studio, El Estudio D' Oro, which serves as a free of costmusic production workshop for all ages. El Estudio D' Oro is also home to the FM urban radio show, Hip Hop 787 La Verdadera Escuela, which is broadcast live from the studio on WVOZ Mix 107.7 FM. In 1978, salsa singer Ismael Rivera had a hit song, written by composer Catalino Curet Alonso, in honor of this community, and named after it. In 2009 Urban Music groupCalle 13 released another tribute song, also named La Perla, in collaboration with Ruben Blades. In the song, Blades references Rivera's early effort; in the song's video, Blades pays his respects to Curet by visiting his tomb at the community's Santa María Madgalena de Pazzis cemetery. Canadian singer Nelly Furtado along with Calle 13 band member Residente filmed the music video to the remix of Furtado's song No Hay Igual on 26 June 2006 in La Perla. Residente said he hoped that the video would help them both reach new audiences: "It's a good opportunity for us both. More than the North American market, the European market really interests me and her because her family is Portuguese." The video was directed by Israel Lugo and Gabriel Coss, photographed by Sonnel Velazquez and produced by María Estades. The motion picture The Vessel starring Martin Sheen about a tidal wave that destroys a small town was filmed in La Perla in 2013. With more than 6 billion views on YouTube, La Perla became world-known with the music video for the song Despacito being filmed there.
Hurricane damage and response
La Perla "looked like it was hit by a bomb" after Hurricane Maria. "Despacito" highlighted the slow response to the destruction by Hurricanes Irma and Maria to La Perla, where the video was filmed.
