[11] The communities of Caracoles, Constancia, Jardinet Fagot, Valle Verde, and San Anton (proper) are located in this barrio.

Immediately following World War II, the federal government encouraged the growth of industries, highways and development infrastructure, mass-produced single family homes and urban sprawl in Ponce and the rest of Puerto Rico.

Surnames there such as Roque, Cabrera, Franceschi, Tricoche, Arce and Oppenheimer link the predominantly black residents of this barrio to their 19th century European and Creole "estate owners."

When the enslaved peoples received their freedom in 1873, the former masters passed on land rights to some residents; while others migrated to San Anton from nearby municipalities or distant Caribbean islands.

Over the years, the community also offered up a disproportionate number of accomplished artists, athletes and popular hero(ine)s. By the early 1960s, however, pivotal political decisions gave way to a massive "development" program, which encouraged the disintegration of the larger San Anton barrio and produced a decline in its cultural production.

Most of the residents were displaced to newly constructed housing projects, while others migrated north to the San Juan Metropolitan center or to New York City.

[18] The remnants of the San Anton of old were described in the 1960s as "dilapidated wooden houses shielded with scraps of galvanized sheeting, crooked alleys, abandoned open spaces, stagnant water" and other such phrases.

A connector road was scheduled to pass through the community, in order to connect the regional highway network to nearby vacant lands.

"[20] By allotting individual parcels, the Office of Housing and Community Development reasoned that San Anton would become more efficient and modernized.

In reality, this view implied reorganizing San Anton's spatial patterns to suit the administrative interests of the Ponce municipal government.

The municipal government was less concerned about the tangible and invisible spatial characteristics of the barrio that encouraged security, social contact, relationships, and the perpetuation of local understandings among its residents.

[18] One dissenting urban planner asserted that: "It is certain that the San Anton barrio is one of the poorest communities in Ponce, and that it is at an advanced state of physical degradation.