Portugués Rural or, more commonly, simply Portugués (Barrio Portugués), is one of the 31 barrios in the municipality of Ponce, Puerto Rico. Along with Magueyes, Tibes, Montes Llanos, Maragüez, Machuelo Arriba, Sabanetas, and Cerrillos, Portugués is one of the municipality's eight rural interior barrios. It was founded in 1831.^[3]

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Portugués
Barrio
Scene in Barrio Portugués on Highway PR-503 heading northbound
Location of barrio Portugues within the municipality of Ponce shown in red
Portugués Location of Puerto Rico
Coordinates: 18°03′26″N 66°36′50″W[1]
Commonwealth	Puerto Rico
Municipality	Ponce
Area [1]
• Total	3.57 sq mi (9.2 km2)
• Land	3.55 sq mi (9.2 km2)
• Water	0.02 sq mi (0.05 km2)
Elevation [2]	554 ft (169 m)
Population  (2010)
• Total	4,134
• Density	1,167.8/sq mi (450.9/km2)
	Source: 2010 Census
Time zone	UTC−4 (AST)

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Portugués is a mountainous rural barrio located in the central section of the municipality, north of the city of Ponce. The Río Chiquito watershed runs along the middle of this barrio. Such geographic feature determines its form: it is long from north to south, and narrow from east to west. In a similar manner, the Río Portugués watershed runs alongside the neighboring barrio Tibes, immediately to the east of Barrio Portugues, and Rio Portugues enters Barrio Portugues on its southernmost region.^{[4][note 1]}

Portugués is bounded on the North by the hills north of Pandura Road, on the South by Camino de Ponce (Golf Club) Street, Majagua Street, Arboleda Street, and PR-504, on the West by Turell Road, La Zarza Road, PR-10 (roughly), and on the East by PR-505, the hills west of Río Bayagán, the eastern slopes of El Gato Hill (Cerro El Gato) and First Street (Calle 1).^[5][6] In terms of barrio-to-barrio boundaries, Portugués is bounded in the North by Monte Llano, in the South by Portugues Urbano and Machuelo Arriba, in the West by Tibes and Magueyes, and in the East by Monte Llano and Machuelo Arriba.^[5][7]

Río Portugués and the great Ceiba tree near the center of Ponce have long been associated with the first settlers of the region. During the 17th century the River marked the eastern boundary of a growing settlement than ran as far as Guayanilla Bay, a region that came to be known as Ponce, but which today is part of a neighboring municipality.^[8]

In 1824, Barrio Portugues appears for the first time in a list of the barrios of Ponce produced by Pedro Tomás de Córdova, and to whom we owe the first such listing of 497 barrios in the town that existed at the time. However, the name Barrio Portugues does not show up in records of the municipality of Ponce until September 1821. In 1822, Barrio Portugues appears as one of the barrios of the settlement with a listing of names of people responsible for the supervision of the barrios of the municipality.^[8] In 1878 Manuel Ubeda y Delgado reported that in Barrio Portugues there were 155 families residing in 33 houses and 100 bohios. Portugues was then the seventh least populated of the 22 barrios then established in the municipality. The same author reports the existence of some thermal baths in an area a little over 2 kilometers northeast of the city known as the Quintana Baths. The masonry building that house the baths still exists on the northbound side of Puerto Rico Highway 503 in Barrio Portugues.^[8]

Portugués has 3.52 square miles (9.1 km²) of land area and 0.04 square miles (100,000 m²) of water surface area. Its land area is three percent of the territory of the municipality of Ponce. It is thus the 15th largest of Ponce's 31 barrios.^[10]

In 2000, the population of Barrio Portugués was 4,882 persons, and it had a density of 1,387 persons per square mile.^[11] Barrio Portugues' population saw little change between 1990 and 2000.^[8]

In 2010, the population of Portugués was 4,134 persons, and it had a density of 1,167.8 persons per square mile.^[12]

The highest point in Barrio Portugués stands at 1,735 feet. Another notable land feature is Cerro El Gato which stands at 827 feet.^[13]

Portugues is home to the Tibes Indigenous Ceremonial Center discovered in 1975 after hurricane rains uncovered pottery.^[20] The center is the site of the oldest cemetery uncovered up to date in the Antilles. "With some 200 skeletons unearthed from the year AD300, it is considered the largest and the most important archaeological find in the West Indies." ^[21]

The communities of Villa Elena, Nuevo Mameyes, and El Señorial are located in this barrio of Ponce.^[7] Major roads serving Barrio Portugués are PR-9, PR-10, PR-503, PR-504, and PR-588.^[5] It also includes the community of Río Chiquito.

The salsa song "La Parranda Fania" by Hector Lavoe (Fania Records, 2012) says "De Ponce hasta Comerio, nos vamos pa' Rio Chiquito..." (From Ponce to Comerio, we head to Rio Chiquito...)

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