Partido () was a Spanish colonial term that referred to a governed local administrative region, roughly equivalent to today's

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

in terms of rural land areas included, and used in the Spanish colonies in

the Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.'' Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sin ...

during the times of the

Spanish Empire The Spanish Empire, sometimes referred to as the Hispanic Monarchy (political entity), Hispanic Monarchy or the Catholic Monarchy, was a colonial empire that existed between 1492 and 1976. In conjunction with the Portuguese Empire, it ushered ...

. It was "the territory or district composed of a jurisdiction or administration from a main city." The term referred to 18th and 19th-century land regions that consisted of mature dispersed settlements but which had not yet been formally incorporated as

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

s. Though similar to today's municipality, ''partidos'' were under the control of a town or city government whose seat was, at times, a day's walk, or longer, away.

Argentina

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

, the '' partidos'' are the second-level administrative subdivision in the

Province of Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, officially the Buenos Aires Province, is the largest and most populous Provinces of Argentina, Argentine province. It takes its name from the city of Buenos Aires, the capital of the country, which used to be part of the province an ...

Puerto Rico

"Partido" was the term used in Spanish colonial times for various scarcely populated regions in Puerto Rico, including Aguada, Ponce,

Arecibo Arecibo (; ) is a Arecibo barrio-pueblo, city and Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality on the northern coast of Puerto Rico, on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, located north of Utuado, Puerto Rico, Utuado and Ciales, Puerto Rico, Ciale ...

, and Coamo. In the case of Ponce, the region was a ''partido'' in 1670, when a chapel was built and nearby neighbors started to build around it, converting the dispersed settlement into a

. However, it continued to depend on the cabildo at the ''Villa de San Germán'' for all of its judicial and administrative matters. Later, once the hamlet had grown it, was allowed to build its own Cabildo and run its own affairs independent from San German. The forming of its own cabildo represented the founding of a municipal corporation, at which point it was no longer referred to as ''partido'' and became a

henceforth.José Leandro Montalvo-Guenard. In, Luis Fortuño Janeiro's ''Album Histórico de Ponce: 1692-1963'' (Section: "Algo Sobre Ponce y su Fundación".) Ponce, Puerto Rico: Imprenta Fortuño, 1963. p. 11.

Argentina

Puerto Rico

See also

References

Further reading