Juan Prats (ca. 1800 – ca. 1870) was Mayor of Ponce, Puerto Rico, twice in 1849.Ponce. Encyclopedia Puerto Rico. Retrieved 30 December 2011. He was a landowner, owning—among others—Hacienda La Matilde, in Ponce.Socorro Girón. Ponce, el teatro La Perla y La Campana de la Almudaina. Gobierno Municipal de Ponce. 1992. Page 57. He was also an appraiser, best known for the contentious appraisal of the plot of land where the Ponce City Hall was built.

Background Prats was a Spaniard from Catalonia.Francisco Antonio Scarano. Sugar and slavery in Puerto Rico: the municipality of Ponce, 1815-1849. page 207, footnote 4. Ph. D. Thesis. Columbia University. 1978. In 1841 —eight years before he became mayor— as a result of a legal dispute brought against the municipality of Ponce by Catalina Rodriguez, granddaughter of José Rodriguez (a.k.a., "El Portugués", and after whom sources state Río Portugués is said to have been named), Prats was contracted by the Municipality to appraise a land property that Catalina Rodriguez owned and which the Municipality wanted to build on.Mariano Vidal Armstrong. Ponce: Notas para Su Historia. San Juan, PR: Oficina Estatal de Conservación Histórica. Segunda Edición. 1986. p. 29. He was a very wealthy merchant and hacendado. At the height of his wealth, he was the wealthiest man in Ponce and one of the wealthiest in Puerto Rico.Francisco Antonio Scarano. Sugar and slavery in Puerto Rico: the municipality of Ponce, 1815-1849. page 207, footnote 4. Ph.D. Thesis. Columbia University. 1978. In 1859 he owned three sugar haciendas in addition to his wholesale company.Francisco Antonio Scarano. Sugar and slavery in Puerto Rico: the municipality of Ponce, 1815-1849. page 207, footnote 4. Ph.D. Thesis. Columbia University. 1978. Cited in: Archivo General de Puerto Rico. Records of the Spanish Governors of Puerto Rico. Political and Civil Affairs. Entry 23. Box 68.

First mayoral term Juan Prats was mayor of Ponce beginning on 1 January 1849Eduardo Neumann Gandía. "Verdadera y Auténtica Historia de la Ciudad de Ponce. 1913. p.277. and ending on 30 June 1849, when Esteban Vidal started serving as mayor.Eduardo Neumann Gandía. "Verdadera y Auténtica Historia de la Ciudad de Ponce. 1913. p.277.

Second mayoral term Prats again served as mayor beginning on 1 October 1849Eduardo Neumann Gandía. "Verdadera y Auténtica Historia de la Ciudad de Ponce. 1913. p.277. and ending on 31 December 1849,Eduardo Neumann Gandía. "Verdadera y Auténtica Historia de la Ciudad de Ponce. 1913. p.277. when Flavius Dede began his mayoral term.

References

See also

List of Puerto Ricans List of mayors of Ponce, Puerto Rico