Canovanas, Puerto Rico

Canovanas is a city in Puerto Rico, located in the north-east of the island. It is, along with San Juan, Bayamon, 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 Canovanas area. Because of this, a considerable large number of Canovanas' population is Black.

Canovanas was also home of a large number of Taino Indians. Because of this, Canovanas' 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 dissapeared during the 1990s. The Indias women's volleyball team has also won a number of championships. In Horse-racing, Canovanas is home to El Nuevo Comandante, Puerto Rico's most famous horse track, since 1972.

In 1983, an infamous criminal act occurred in Canovanas when police tried to intervene in a drug ridden barrio of the area, Villa sin Miedo. One policeman was shot on his lung and died shortly after, in a case that received wide media attention in Puerto Rico.