Florida, Puerto Rico: History
Florida was founded first as a barrio of Barceloneta in 1881 when a priest named Father Carrión, the mayor of Barceloneta, and other dignitaries visited a tract of land of almost 4 acres. They decided to establish a new barrio. The owner of the land, Don Manuel Cintrón, granted the land while he retained a piece of it. The barrio was first called Florida Adentro.
During the 20th century, several efforts were made to declare Florida as a municipality. First, on April 14, 1949, House Representative Francisco Díaz Marchand presented a project to create a legislative commission that would study the economic and social conditions of the barrio, to determine the suitability of it as an independent municipality. The project was unsuccessful. In 1960, Manuel Frías Morales presented a law that would permit the study to establish the municipality but it was also unsuccessful.
Finally, on June 14, 1971, the Senate of Puerto Rico and Governor Don Luis A. Ferré approved the law that officially created the municipality of Florida. It is thus the youngest municipality established in the island.
On September 20, 2017, Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico. In Florida, 1400 homes were a total loss and 2,295 homes were partially damaged.