Tibes is a mountainous rural barrio located in the central section of the municipality, north of the city of Ponce.[5] Tibes is located on the foothills of the Cordillera Central. The toponymy, or origin of the name, is related to the hard, smooth stones plentiful in the rivers of this barrio and used by the indigenous peoples of the area as a weapon and the jíbaro countrymen for sharpening agricultural tools such as the machete.[6]Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico on September 20, 2017 causing catastrophic damages. Some residents of Tibes were cut off for 3 months, unable to find passage from their homes due to blocked roadways.[7]
Boundaries
Tibes is bounded on the North by the hills just north of El Principe Road, on the South by Tibes Road, on the West by the hills west of PR-10, and on the East by Pastillo Road, the hills west of Río Chiquito.[8][9]
In 2000, Tibes had 7.01 square miles (18 km2) of land area and no water area. In 2000, the population of Tibes was 866 persons, and it had a density of 124 inhabitants per square mile.[12][13][14] Tibes is the second least populated barrio in Ponce, after San Patricio. Major roads serving Barrio Tibes are PR-10 and PR-503.[10]
In 2010, Tibes had 6.99 square miles (18 km2) of land area and no water area. In 2010, the population of Tibes was 804 persons, and it had a density of 115 persons per square mile.[15]
The highest point in Barrio Tibes is Cerro del Diablo which stands at 2,234 feet. Another notable land feature is Cerro La Mesa which stands at 1,742 feet.[16]Río Portugués is the main body of water running through this barrio.[17]
^Sunny A. Cabrera Salcedo. Hacia un Estudio Integral de la Toponimia del Municipio de Ponce, Puerto Rico. Ph. D. dissertation. May 1999. University of Massachusetts Amherst. Graduate School. Department of Spanish and Portuguese. Page 54.
^Barrios de Ponce.Archived 30 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine Antepasados Esclavos.(From: Pedro Tomás de Córdoba. Memorias geográficas, históricas, económicas y estadísticas de la Isla de Puerto Rico.) Retrieved 28 November 2014.
^Maptest.Archived 18 February 2010 at the Wayback Machine Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. General Purpose Population Data, Census 2000. Unidad de Sistemas de Información Geográfica, Área de Tecnología de Información Gubernamental, Oficina de Gerencia y Presupuesto. Gobierno de Puerto Rico. Retrieved 10 November 2011.