Canóvanas is a Municipio in Puerto Rico, located in the north-east part of the island. It is, along with San Juan, Bayamón, Guaynabo and Carolina, one of the cities that comprises the so called Metropolitan Area of Puerto Rico.

Large numbers of African slaves lived in the Canóvanas area. Because of this, a considerable large number of Canóvanas' population is African.

Canóvanas was also home of a large number of Taíno Indians. Because of this, Canóvanas' professional sports teams have traditionally been nicknamed the Indios. In 1983, BSN's Indios won Puerto Rico's national basketball championship and they repeated in 1984, but they eventually disappeared during the 1990s. The Indias women's volleyball team has also won a number of championships. In Horse-racing, Canóvanas is home to El Nuevo Comandante, Puerto Rico's most famous horse track, since 1972.

In 1983, an infamous criminal act occurred in Canóvanas when police tried to intervene in a dispute between a landowner and a group of homeless people that built their wooden houses in Villa sin Miedo. The dispute occurred because of disagreements and breaking of verbal contract between the parts. During the dispute, one policeman was shot on his lung and died shortly after, many other officers and residents were injured in a case that received wide media attention in Puerto Rico.

External link

• Spanish language site about Canóvanas

Municipalities of Puerto Rico