Engendering Ballajá: A 1910 Case Study from San Juan, Puerto Rico

Summary

In the northwest corner of the capital city of San Juan, Puerto Rico, formal urban blocks were proposed and constructed in the 19th century in an area known as Ballajá. As part of a larger investigation, documentary research was carried out, and quantitative and qualitative data was analyzed to study the presence of women using the 1910 census. Germane to that investigation, were specific variables such as professions, trades, race, nationality, age and civil status, therefore providing specifics to characterize them. This presentation explores the viability of using the census information to describe domestic units within the ward. By incorporating a 1921 plan of the ward to this study, it will be possible to create various layers that show the distribution of women based on race, profession/trade, and civil status. Also relevant, will be information about women that were recorded as head of the household, and those who rented out rooms, as well as those who lived with other families, not necessarily related. The analysis of historic sources can be connected to the archaeological collection excavated in five blocks, and provide a better understanding of the people who lived in particular spaces, and the objects employed by them.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Inter- and Multidisciplinary Approaches to Archaeological Research in the Caribbean

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 17314