Guayama barrio-pueblo

Guayama barrio-pueblo is a barrio and the administrative center of Guayama, a municipality of Puerto Rico. Its population in 2010 was 16,891.
As was customary in Spain, in Puerto Rico, the municipality has a barrio called pueblo which contains a central plaza, the municipal buildings, and a Catholic church. Fiestas patronales are held in the central plaza every year. The historic downtown area of Guayama was added to the Puerto Rico Register of Historic Sites and Zones in 1992.

History

Guayama barrio-pueblo was in Spain's gazetteers until Puerto Rico was ceded by Spain in the aftermath of the Spanish–American War under the terms of the Treaty of Paris of 1898 and became an unincorporated territory of the United States. In 1899, the United States Department of War conducted a census of Puerto Rico finding that the population of Guayama Pueblo was 5,334.

The central plaza is a place for official and unofficial recreational events and a place where people can gather and socialize from dusk to dawn. The Laws of the Indies, Spanish law, which regulated life in Puerto Rico in the early 19th century, stated the plaza's purpose was for "parties", and that the square should be proportionally large enough for the number of neighbors. These Spanish regulations also stated that nearby streets should be comfortable portals for passersby, protecting them from the elements: sun and rain.
The Guayama patron saint festival, in honor of Saint Anthony of Padua, is celebrated at the Plaza de recreo Cristóbal Colón in Guayama barrio-pueblo every June.
Located across from the central plaza in Guayama barrio-pueblo is Iglesia de San Antonio de Padua, or the Parroquia San Antonio de Padua, a Roman Catholic church. A hermitage built in the area was in ruins by 1823. The first church after that was inaugurated in 1872. Parts of the church were destroyed by the 1899 San Ciriaco hurricane. In the 1920s the church underwent reconstruction.