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La Perla is a historical community astride the northern historic city wall of Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, stretching about 650 yards (600 m) along the rocky Atlantic coast immediately east of the Santa Maria Magdalena de Pazzis Cemetery and down the slope from (north of) Calle Norzagaray.
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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.
Local Salsa and Hip Hop concerts are held each week with the intention of shedding the historically bad image of the community. Art shows and an oceanfront community arts-and-crafts fair occur yearly.
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. The Puerto Rico police department conducted a raid as late as July 2011, where several high-profile community leaders were arrested for heroin distribution. The Drug Enforcement Administration estimates that the drug trade in La Perla is a twenty million dollar enterprise.
Media
La Perla has a community oriented music recording studio, El Estudio D' Oro, which serves as a free of cost music 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, Reggaeton group Calle 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.
Streets
The streets of La Perla are not indicated on most city maps in order to deter tourists from walking into the high crime area:
- Calle Tiburcio Reyes (western border, along the outside of the old city wall)
- Calle San Miguel (mostly in the western part, along the north)
- Calle Bajada Matadero (mostly in the western part, along the south)
- Calle Lucila Silva (mostly in the western part, east-west through the middle, too narrow for cars)
- Calle Augustin O Aponte (eastern part)
La Perla was the true site of the fictional "La Esmeralda" barrio depicted in Oscar Lewis's sociological work "La Vida" describing the lives of Puerto Rican slumdwellers through taped interviews with dozens of intertwined family members who lived there in the 1940s-1960s.
Census
In terms of the United States 2000 Census, La Perla is composed of Census blocks 3001 through 3010 (Block group 3, Census tract 4, San Juan, Puerto Rico). A population of 338 was reported, 198 housing units (29 unoccupied), and 169 households, on an area of 80,028 square yards (16.53 acres; 66,914 m²).
La Perla belongs to and consists of the northernmost stretches of the sub-barrios Mercado (west) and San Cristóbal (east) 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 (4 unoccupied), and 31 households, on 41,348 square yards (8.5 acres; 34,572 m²).