History
In the late 1960s, the park was an empty city lot with many tall trees, very few bushes and shrubbery, and some open semi-grassy areas. Senior citizens of the area gravitated to the empty lot in the afternoons for its comfortable shade and for the inevitable conversations with other retired neighborhood seniors. With time, the senior made their way to the park with scrap chairs to make their longer stays more comfortable. It wasn't long before a table or two also found their way there, making it possible for the retired seniors to share in a game of domino. Soon the domino games became a regular feature of the daily gatherings. It was not long before the still-empty government lot had been "appropriated" by the seniors for their daily gatherings and domino games. The daily games gathered popularity and after a few years domino tournaments also took place. At this time the park was locally known as Las Vegas, "for its popular open-air kiosks with 12 game tables".
In view of the need for a clean and safe gathering place for the seniors of the area, the city, fixed the "park", built permanently set poured concrete tables and chairs, added flower gardens with walkways as well as restroom facilities. The park was then inaugurated in 1980, under the administration of mayor José G. Tormos Vega.
Read more about this topic: Parque Del Retiro
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“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
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