SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — To a passerby, the Iglesia San Mateo de Cangrejos, a pastel-peach Catholic church in the middle of San Juan’s Santurce neighborhood, might look like any other house of prayer. A simple white cross crowns the building. It sits quietly most of the day on its residential corner, coming alive at Mass time, when congregants trickle in and out. Stained glass and potted palms frame its large wooden doors.
Like a sentinel, the church has witnessed the evolution of its community from atop a hill. Santurce, once a settlement in the wilderness founded in the 18th century by free Black people — many lured from nearby islands by Spanish edicts that granted them freedom — is now a densely populated, urban district at the heart of battles over gentrification and displacement.
Much of the community has become unrecognizable for native santurcinos, many who prefer to call themselves cangrejeros, after the community’s original name, San Mateo de Cangrejos. Yet the church, like Santurce did in its origins, continues to provide physical shelter and spiritual refuge for Afro-Caribbean people who come to Puerto Rico seeking freedom from their circumstances and better living conditions.
Since 2010, when a devastating magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck near Port-au-Prince and killed more than 300,000 Haitians, the church has served as a shelter for migrants fleeing crises in their home country. At its helm is Father Olin Pierre-Louis, a Haiti-born priest who helps them navigate life in a new country, from understanding the labyrinth of U.S. immigration policies to getting a change of clothes.
“The job I do is to help my brothers and sisters,” Pierre-Louis said. “Sometimes I have to buy underwear.”
Since the summertime, Pierre-Louis has seen an uptick in arrivals he hadn’t witnessed in years. Between May and October of this year, U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Puerto Rico detained 310 Haitian nationals, more than the total 22 apprehended in 2020. The murder of President Jovenel Moïse in July, a major earthquake in August, and a surge in gang-fueled violence have all contributed to the increase in Haitians coming to the U.S., which saw thousands of migrants, mostly Haitian, attempt entry at the U.S.-Mexico border in September.
Many Haitians who have arrived to Puerto Rico show up at the Santurce church without belongings, long-term plans, money or coronavirus vaccinations after days-long, life-threatening journeys by boat.
But Pierre-Louis welcomes all of them. A love for his homeland and a Christian faith rooted in service — along with a firsthand awareness of the historical treatment of Haitians — drives his community work. The locals prefer the name Cangrejeros, that comes from the abundance of cangrejos, the Spanish word for the ochre-colored crabs that live along its coasts.
“After a situation like the earthquakes, everyone comes to help Haiti. But a month or two later, they forget,” said Pierre-Louis.
A Black community since its origins
From the 17th century onward, Puerto Rico served as a beacon for Black slaves from across the Caribbean, where they could pledge allegiance to the Spanish monarchy and convert to Catholicism in exchange for freedom. They hailed from Saint Thomas, Saint Croix, and other neighboring islands that served as the hubs of the slave-driven industries that filled the coffers of European empires.
For the Spanish monarchy, it was a chance to debilitate its enemies because it diminished the risk of invasion, said Lester Nurse Allende, a psychologist and community historian from Santurce dedicated to reviving and celebrating the neighborhood’s Black history.
“Spain participated in selling runaways liberty under some conditions,” said Nurse Allende, who is Black. “But even thinking that they could come here and get liberty, it was appealing.”
Many of the libertos, who purchased their freedom made their home in Cangrejos, a region filled with beaches, channels and mangroves that spanned large swaths of San Juan and Puerto Rico’s metropolitan area. The abundant population of ochre-colored crabs that lived along its coasts gave the area its name, said Nurse Allende. It was also home to cimarrones, the name Spain gave to runaway slaves, as well as people who were born free.
The majority-Black settlement gained importance over time. It became a key part of Puerto Rico’s strategic defense against British invasion, staved off by local forces made up of Black fighters, including cangrejeros , who knew how to navigate the thick jungle territory. It was also an agricultural breadbasket, supplying yuca and other staples to the San Juan area, Nurse Allende said.
A group of 55 Cangrejos residents, led by Don Pedro Cortijo, the community militia head, asked Spain in 1773 to declare San Mateo de Cangrejos an official township. Little is known about the life of Cortijo, who was a freedman.
