plaza-eugenio-maria-de-hostos
As you continue up the street between the Asilo de Beneficencia and the Cuartel de Ballajá you’ll arrive at the “Plaza de los Niños”, a small square dedicated in 1998 to nineteenth century Puerto Rican educator and independence advocate Eugenio María de Hostos “Citizen of the Americas”, in behalf of the children of a grateful motherland.
The square is adorned with a beautiful statue that evokes “de Hostos” surrounded by children in a cheerful atmosphere.
Sadly, the square has fallen prey to skate boarders and graffiti vandals. The photo before you took close to 8 hours to clean up in Photoshop. Normally this is something that they won’t tell you in regular tourism sites. But in Puerto Rico by GPS we tell it like it is.
Puerto Rico is a beautiful place but sometimes locals don’t appreciate how rare and beautiful Puerto Rico actually is.
I went to Eugenio Maria de Hostos Square last week (March 01,2020) and it was as clean as in the photo. Apparently your photoshop is so powerful it clean it up in real life…
The fact is that the last time that I passed (about a month ago) it was clean as well. Maybe we shamed them into cleaning it, or maybe the neighboring families and businesses have adopted it. Who knows? The thing is that it’s clean and that’s a good thing. What it’s missing now is some vegetation. And with a little luck some flowers (I’m a sucker for flowers). In my travels I’ve always been amazed at how some greenery goes a long way in making places look more appealing.
As a person that lives here I’ve never seen it vandalized in any form. Even during protest people don’t vandalize the statues. Indeed we have a beautiful island full of art and culture, and very rarely you see vandalism to public arts. People here respect artists with passion, including their works. If you’re mad that there are skaters in a recreational area with a broad street near the fortress that seems more like a personal opinion than an objective one.
Thank you for your commentary, although it’s obvious that you must be talking about a different square. The photo that you saw on my blog took nearly 8 hours to clean up in Photoshop. There was graffiti all over the statue. There were also beer cans and bottles from the homeless that use the square as their nighttime stomping grounds. To this date there is no vegetation, flowers or anything to make the place more attractive.
If you don’t believe me I can provide you with a copy of the original file.
I don’t write this with the sole purpose of criticizing. I do it because I believe Puerto Ricans can do better. I travel quite a lot and I’ve noticed that these types of small plazas are usually kept clean and adorned for people to enjoy. But not in Puerto Rico. And my question is why? Why do we have to be such slobs as a people? Why do we throw trash everywhere? I certainly believe we can do better but don’t try to make me into the problem here. I just tell it like it is.
Besides, there should be a place for every purpose. I have nothing against skakers. But there should be a place for them. They shouldn’t be allowed to damage public property in the name of “entertainment”.