On September 20, 2017
Hurricane Maria struck the island of Puerto Rico. In Las Marías, multiple landslides left highways covered in mud, trees and debris.[3] In some areas of Las Marías there were more than 25 landslides per square mile due to the significant amount of rainfall and wind.[4][5]
Geography
Las Marías is located on the central western side of Puerto Rico. According to the 2010
U.S. Census Bureau, the municipality has a total area of 46.51 square miles (120.5 km2), of which 46.36 square miles (120.1 km2) is land and 0.11 square mile (0.28 km2) is water.[6]
Like all municipalities of Puerto Rico, Las Marías is subdivided into
barrios. The municipal buildings, central square and large Catholic church are located near the center of the municipality, in a small barrio referred to as "el pueblo".[7][8][9][10]
Barrios (which are like
minor civil divisions)[11] are further subdivided into smaller areas called sectores (sectors in English). The types of sectores may vary, from normally sector to urbanización to reparto to barriada to residencial, among others.[12][13][14]
Comunidades Especiales de Puerto Rico (Special Communities of Puerto Rico) are marginalized communities whose citizens are experiencing a certain amount of
social exclusion. A map shows these communities occur in nearly every municipality of the commonwealth. Of the 742 places that were on the list in 2014, the following 7 sectors were in Adjuntas: Sector La Josefa in Bucarabones, Sector Bryan in Cerróte, Sector Chamorro in Cerróte, Sector Palo Prieto in Palma Escrita, Sector Plato Indio in Río Cañas, Las Juanitas in Furnias, and Sector Santa Rosa in Furnias.[15][16]
Las Marías celebrates its
patron saint festival in December. The Fiestas Patronales Inmaculada Concepción de María is a religious and cultural celebration that generally features parades, games, artisans, amusement rides, regional food, and live entertainment.[6][26]
Other festivals and events celebrated in Las Marías include:
March - Orange Festival (Festival de las Chinas). At the 2019 festival, a big name band,
El Gran Combo performed at the festival, and a group of
troubadours from
Cuba performed with local Puerto Rican troubadours.[27][28]
March - Festival to commemorate the founding of Las Marías (Festival de Las Marías)[27]
The municipio has an official flag and coat of arms.[31]
Flag
The flag is divided by an imaginary diagonal line whose ends are the upper left angle of the flag and the opposite lower angle. The upper part is yellow and the lower half is green. The yellow portion represents the sun bathing the town and the green portion represents the nature and vegetation of the municipality.[6][32]
Coat of arms
The shield is divided into six parts with three in silver and three in blue. A María tree (Calophylum brasiliense antillanum), with a pair of coffee tree branches to the sides of its trunk, adorns each silver part. The monogram and crown of Nuestra Señora la Santísima Virgen de Plata is placed in the top center portion of the shield. The shield's border is red with a broken chain at the bottom. Above the shield resides three tower crown in gold.[6][32]
^Rivera Quintero, Marcia (2014), El vuelo de la esperanza: Proyecto de las Comunidades Especiales Puerto Rico, 1997-2004 (first ed.), San Juan, Puerto Rico Fundación Sila M. Calderón,
ISBN978-0-9820806-1-0
^"Leyes del 2001". Lex Juris Puerto Rico (in Spanish). Archived from
the original on September 14, 2018. Retrieved June 24, 2020.
^Rivera Quintero, Marcia (2014), El vuelo de la esperanza: Proyecto de las Comunidades Especiales Puerto Rico, 1997-2004 (1st ed.), San Juan, Puerto Rico Fundación Sila M. Calderón, p. 273,
ISBN978-0-9820806-1-0
^"Las Marías Bridges". National Bridge Inventory Data. US Dept. of Transportation.
Archived from the original on February 21, 2019. Retrieved February 20, 2019.
^
ab"LAS MARIAS". LexJuris (Leyes y Jurisprudencia) de Puerto Rico (in Spanish). February 19, 2020.
Archived from the original on February 19, 2020. Retrieved September 17, 2020.