Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico

Laid Back Town

Trujillo Alto (troo-HEE-yo AHL-to) is known as the “City of Springs,” the “Town of Eight Streets,” the “City in the Country” and the “Town of Learners”.

The municipality of Trujillo Alto is located in the northern part of Puerto Rico. It is bordered by San Juan on the north and west, by Caguas and Gurabo on the south and by Carolina on the east. It is part of the northern coastal plain and the karst zone. The vegetation is typical of tropical humid forests. Trujillo Alto is mostly hilly and the region is humid.

Previously, the municipality’s lands were dedicated mainly to agriculture and raising livestock. Coffee, sugar cane, guava, rice and tobacco, among other crops, were harvested. In recent decades, however, the municipality has experienced accelerated development marked by an increase in the construction of housing and a proliferation of commercial establishments.

The Doña Inés Park in Trujillo Alto was born from a desire to preserve green areas and nature in the town and was a project of the Luis Muñoz Marín Foundation. Its objective is to create an urban lung and to propagate endemic species that are in danger of extinction.

In an effort to preserve rural traditions, the municipality recently began an initiative to create a new musical form, the “seis trujillano“. The verses recorded for the first of these folk songs allude to the neighborhoods, traditions, customs and culture of Trujillo Alto. The municipality is also the site of the a young folksingers school.

Trujillo Alto is the site of an important reservoir that supplies water to various surrounding towns. The Carraízo dam, built in 1954, also provides the principal source of water for the metropolitan area.

Today, the municipality has factories producing food products, wood products, cloth, metal, and electric and electronic machinery. There are also quarries where stone is mined, fruit orchards, and livestock farms. Deposits of marble also exist in the municipality.

Foundation:

During the XVII century the Spanish Crown granted Alonso Pizarro Hermona de Francisco Pizarro, native of the population of Trujillo, in Spain, an ample cattle ranch that extended on both shores of the Grande de Loíza river. The population used his place of birth, as this was the custom at that time, to name the municipality. The neighbors of the wards that today compose the jurisdiction of Trujillo Alto, went to the Bishop and the Governor of Puerto Rico to ask permission to build a chapel with the purpose of giving mass, and of which houses would be built around it, as it was done in those times, there after when there were a sufficient number of neighbors to found the town.

Another one of the reasons were the great swellings of the river that for many weeks prevented the neighbors travel to Río Piedras in order to attend mass and receive comunion. The neighbors of the left (west) side shore were against the idea of populating the right (east) side of the river because during the swells they would not be able to go to the head of the population. The persistence of the neighbors of the right shore together with their representative, Don Juan Francisco Carazo finally overcame, and on January 8, 1801 the new municipality of Trujillo Alto was constituted.

In 1826 the communications of Trujillo Alto remarkably improved with the construction of the first two bridges, the one towards Río Piedras and the other to Río Grande.

In 1831 Trujillo Alto was made up of the following wards: Carraízo, Cuevas, Quebrada Grande, Quebrada Infierno and Trujillo Alto Town.

In 1844 the House of the King was built, and ten years later the first school was founded, with an enrollment of 49 students. In the following two years the population was reduced remarkably by the deaths caused by a cholera epidemic.

In 1902 the Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico approved the Law for the Consolidation of Certain Municipal Terms, which eliminated the municipality of Trujillo Alto and incorporated it with all its wards to Carolina. It was not until 1905, when a new law of the Legislative Assembly countermanded the previous one and restituted to Trujillo Alto to its character of independent municipality.

Location:

Located on the north coast it borders San Juan on the north, Caguas and Gurabo on the south, San Juan on the west and Carolina on the east.

Area:

54.6 sq km / 21.0 sq mi

Population: 75,728 (census 2000)

Population Density:

1,386.9 per sq km / 3,606.0 per sq mi

People are known as:

Trujillanos

Trujillo Alto is also known as:

Pueblo de los Arrecostaos (Laid Back Town)
Ciudad de los Manantiales (City of Springs)
El Pueblo de las Ocho Calles (The Town of the Eight Streets)
La Ciudad En El Campo (The City In The Country)

Wards: Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico

Source: Censo 2000

Patron:

La Santa Cruz
La Santa Cruz Parish
PO Box 1808
Trujillo ALto, PR 00977-1808
Tel. 787-761-0507

Topography:

It is located in the Northern Coastal Plain and in the karst zone. The terrian of Trujillo Alto is mainly made up of humid hills. Their higher elevations can reach between 200 and 500 meters of altitude above sea level.

Hydrography:

It is watered by the Grande de Loíza River which crosses it from south to east; the Colorada, Infierno, Limones, Naranjo, Grande, Pastrana, Haya Fría y Maracuto gorges and the Carraízo dam. This dam or lake is greatest of Puerto Rico as far as area of water-drainage, since it covers 533 square kilometers / 206 square miles. Its original capacity is 20,000 acres/foot, almost 25 million cubic meters. It is used for potable water supply for the metropolitan area of San Juan.

Economy:

Factories that elaborate nutritional products, wood, fabric, metal, electrical and electronic machinery; also the operation of stone quarries, cultivation of fruits and cattle ranching.

Average Salary:

$263.34 weekly (1998)

Flag:

Wilfredo Colón Sánchez from Trujillo Alto informs us; As far as the flag there is much confusion in this town, since it was changed some say that it is square and only with the central part of the shield, but in the 200 year celebration of the I saw the white rectangular flag and the whole shield in the center of the flag. That is the most accepted. The flag as well as the shield were changed by the municipal administration (Hon.Brunilda Soto Echevarria) by means of the decree series 19,1997-98, of May 29,1998.

Coat Of Arms:

In a silver field, three green mountains, a Latin cross of blue centered above the mountains. Bordered in blue with eight spurts of water, in silver. The shield is stamped with a gold crown, heightened with five towers.

Underneath the shield a banner with the inscription: Trujillo Alto. The eight water spurts represent the eight wards of the municipality and symbolize the numerous water-bearing resources of Trujillo Alto like the Grande de Loíza River, the numerous springs, the gorges and the Carraízo Lake. The mountains represent the mountainous topography of the town. The Latin cross is one that is found in Carraízo, the Santa Cruz (Holy Cross).

Distinguished Citizens:

• Emilio Díaz Valcárcel – writer
• Tulio Larrinaga – civil engineer and resident commissioner
• Medardo Carazo – educator
• José Fermín Díaz Viera – historian
• Manuel Rivera Morales – sports announcer and commentator
• Yolandita Monge – singer and actress

Hymn: