Located inside the
Old San Juan Historic District, (The Pearl) was originally the site of a slaughterhouse, called . It was built in the 18th century outside the walls of San Juan by slaves who were required to live outside the city. Slaves built homes and lived near the slaughterhouse and later , (Puerto Rican farmers) who moved to San Juan, lived there. La Perla belongs to and consists of the northernmost stretches of
Mercado subbarrio (west) and
San Cristóbal subbarrio in
San Juan Antiguo barrio. San Juan Antiguo barrio is located on
Isleta de San Juan, an island off San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico, and it is connected to the mainland by bridges and causeways. La Perla is in the Old San Juan Historic District which is managed by US
National Park Service. Only four access points exist into La Perla: one through the
Santa María Magdalena de Pazzis Cemetery, and the others from Calle Norzagaray, named after Spanish soldier and colonial governor,
Fernándo Norzagaray y Escudero. La Perla has a community-oriented music recording studio, El Estudio D' Oro, which serves as a free of cost music production workshop for all ages. El Estudio D' Oro is also home to the FM urban radio show, Hip Hop 787 La Verdadera Escuela, which is broadcast live from the studio on WVOZ Mix 107.7 FM. In 2010,
Carmelo Anthony remodeled the basketball court located to the eastern side of La Perla, with a new surface and design featuring the logo of
Air Jordan’s Melo footwear line. It eventually became known by the name of the
Nuyorican athlete, who also repaired several other venues throughout the island. The refurbished playing field was later included among "the most breathtaking locations for a basketball court in the world" due to its oceanside location overlooking the Atlantic. In June 2011, the US
Drug Enforcement Agency with other agencies targeted 50 properties in La Perla and indicted 114 people from La Perla for
drug trafficking. The area has a reputation for being dangerous, but the popular 2017 music video filmed there made it a curiosity amongst tourists, with some wanting to venture in to see where the video was filmed. In 2016, students of architecture at universities in Puerto Rico asked children for their ideas on how to improve their favorite areas of La Perla. is a colorful, bowl-shaped cemented area in La Perla, used for skateboarding on weekdays, and then filled with water on weekends, to serve as a pool. "
Despacito" (the song title that translates to "slowly") was also used to highlight and
criticize the slow United States response to the destruction at La Perla caused by
Hurricanes Irma and
Maria, where the video was filmed. The
National Park Service assisted the residents of La Perla with tarps soon afterwards. ==Census==