Arroyo, Puerto Rico
| Arroyo, Puerto Rico | |||
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| Municipality | |||
| Municipality of Arroyo Municipio de Arroyo |
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| Nickname(s): "Pueblo Grato" "Los Bucaneros" |
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| Anthem: "Arroyo" | |||
 Location in the commonwealth of Puerto Rico |
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| Coordinates: 17°57′57″N 66°03′41″W / 17.96583°N 66.06139°WCoordinates: 17°57′57″N 66°03′41″W / 17.96583°N 66.06139°W | |||
| Country |
 United States of America
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| Territory |
 Puerto Rico
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| Founded | December 25, 1855 | ||
| Government | |||
| • Mayor | Eric Bachier Román (PDP) | ||
| • Senatorial dist. | 6 - Guayama | ||
| • Representative dist. | 30 | ||
| Area | |||
| • Total | 59.6 km2 (23.0 sq mi) | ||
| • Land | 39 km2 (15 sq mi) | ||
| • Water | 20.6 km2 (8.0 sq mi) | ||
| Population (2010) | |||
| • Total | 19,117 | ||
| • Density | 320/km2 (830/sq mi) | ||
| Demonym(s) | Arroyanos | ||
| Time zone | AST (UTC-4) | ||
| Zip code | 00714 | ||
Arroyo (Spanish pronunciation: [aˈroʝo]) is a municipality located along the southern coast of Puerto Rico and bordered by the Caribbean Sea, east of the municipality of Guayama and northwest of the municipality of Patillas. Arroyo is spread over 5 wards and Arroyo Pueblo (The downtown area and the administrative center of the city). It is part of the Guayama Metropolitan Statistical Area.
The town of Arroyo was officially founded on December 25, 1855. However, it is believed that there were previous settlements on the area even previous to the Spanish colonization. It is believed that the name of Arroyo (which means "creek" in English) is derived from a small water stream where travelers stopped to freshen up before continuing on their way.
It has been said that the town came to be formed when a small group of people from the neighbor town of Guayama came to the region looking for a port to export and import merchandise. Still, a local newspaper called La Gaceta de Puerto Rico published in 1868 that Arroyo was founded in 1852. Between 1859 and 1860, City Hall signed agreements to open streets and build a town square and a sewer system for the town.
In 1858, Samuel Morse introduced wired communication to Latin America when he established a telegraph system in Puerto Rico, then a Spanish Colony. Morse's oldest daughter Susan Walker Morse (1821–1885), would often visit her uncle Charles Pickering Walker who owned the Hacienda Concordia in the town of Guayama. During one of her visits she met and later married Edward Lind, a Danish merchant who worked in the Hacienda La Henriqueta in Arroyo. Lind purchased the Hacienda from his sister when she became a widow. Morse, who often spent his winters at the Hacienda with his daughter and son-in-law, set a two-mile telegraph line connecting his son-in-law's Hacienda to their house in Arroyo. The line was inaugurated on March 1, 1859 in a ceremony flanked by the Spanish and American flags. The first lines transmitted by Samuel Morse that day in Puerto Rico were:
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