Indies comes in the year 1573 and establishes the criteria to these parcels, San Juan is already

taking form and the mistakes are already in place. Amongst all forms in the city, the Spanish

inculcate the importance of two elements, the street and the plaza as part of the quotidian life.

Spaniards use the outdoor spaces to flaunt their riches and be seen by others. This is how men

met women and men discussed business. This could be a direct determinant of the Latin

American and Caribbean fascination with the outdoor landscape.

 A brief depiction of the colonial city establishes a sense of origin to what today's urban

landscape is. A tie to the colonial city still remains and even though some of it has been damaged

through modernization, the core of the city still remains. The footprint of the colonial city allows

us to depict that we come from somewhere and someone, whether that has positive or negative

implications to our history, its existence permits our mortality (Figure 6-1). This demonstrates

how the metropolitan area truly depicts a binary urban landscape, the colonial and contemporary.

I include this portion of the history in my creative project due to the importance the Puerto Rican

population places onto these monuments of the initial colonial city. The attachment to these

monuments comes to no surprise and it should not surprise you either (Figure 6-2). We all yearn

the belonging of something and someone else; it is part of our nature.