Caguas, Puerto Rico

Caguas is a city and municipality in central eastern Puerto Rico. Located in the eponymous Caguas Valley between the Sierra de Cayey and Sierra de Luquillo of the Central Mountain Range, it is bordered by San Juan and Trujillo Alto to the north, Gurabo and San Lorenzo to the west, Aguas Buenas, Cidra and Cayey to the east, and Patillas to the south. With a population of 127,244 as of the 2020 census, Caguas is the fifth most populated municipality in the archipelago and island and a principal city of the San Juan metropolitan area.
Since 2009, Caguas is the only municipality in Puerto Rico recognized as a Tree City USA by the Arbor Day Foundation.

Etymology and nicknames

Caguas, originally founded as San Sebastián del Piñal de Caguax, is named after the local Taino chieftain Caguax, who at the time of the Spanish arrival in 1493 was cacique of the yucayeque and region of Turabo. The name Caguax itself might be related to the Taino word for snail or slug: ‘cagua’, similar to other Arawakan and Cariban proper names such as Cagua in Venezuela.
Caguas is nicknamed "Valley of the Turabo" in reference to the former cacicazgo and yucayeque led by Caguax. The Turabo River is also named after this geopolitical toponym. Other nicknames for Caguas include “the Criollo city” and “the Cradle of Trovadores”. The city is often known as the “center and heart of Puerto Rico” for its geographical location, and one of its municipal anthems bears the same. In recent years the municipality has also been referred to as “the new Caguas country” or “the new land of Caguas” by the media and the former mayor William Miranda Marín.

History

The area of the Valley of Caguas was first settled by the Saladoid culture, an Arawak culture which originated in northern South America, approximately between the years 100 BCE to 600 CE. Findings from the Cagüitas archaeological site indicate that the area was later inhabited by various pre-Taíno cultures which first developed agriculture in the valley, primarily the cultivation of cassava, and hunted now extinct species such as hutias.
As with the rest of Puerto Rico, the Taínos were the primary group living in the valley at the time of the Spanish arrival. The Spanish conquistadors further developed the agriculture in the valley, while also establishing mines in search of gold, silver and copper. Most of the native Taínos living in the area were either forced out or taken as slaves and moved to the Real Hacienda del Toa. Most of the valley was later cleared of its original vegetation for the development of cattle farms such as Hato de Bairoa, Hato de Caguax and Hato de Gurabo.
Caguas was officially founded on January 1, 1775, as San Sebastián del Piñal de Caguax, with the name later being shortened and modernized to its current form. The site of the historic downtown area of Caguas and its central square dates to 1779. In 1820, the settlement was granted the title of Villa and it was granted city rights in 1894. Sugarcane was the primary crop during this time and important sugarcane plantations and refineries were those of Central Santa Juana and Central Santa Catalina. The Carretera Central, which is the first paved road to cross Puerto Rico from north to south connecting San Juan to Ponce, was built during the last two decades of the 19th century, made Caguas more accessible therefore causing the population of the town to grow even more.Puerto Rico was ceded by Spain in the aftermath of the Spanish–American War under the terms of the Treaty of Paris of 1898 and became a territory of the United States. In 1899, the United States Department of War conducted a census of Puerto Rico finding that the population of Caguas was 19,857.
The city grew considerably in size during the 1970s and quickly became an exurb of San Juan to the north due to its location. The region of Caguas became an important pharmaceuticals manufacturing center during this time. Pharmaceutical companies originally came to Puerto Rico in the late 1960s and 1970s to take advantage of the now-expired federal tax incentive known as Section 936. This incentive allowed U.S.-based manufacturers to send all profits from local plants to stateside parent plants without having to pay any federal taxes.
Although not typically seen as part of the colloquial Área Metro of San Juan, the municipality of Caguas is located in the census-based San Juan Metropolitan Area due to its role as a commuter town. The average commute time for residents of the municipality is 30.5 minutes. Caguas is the fourth most populous city in the San Juan Metropolitan region and the most populous city in Puerto Rico that is not located in a coastal area.
On August 7, 2002, Caguas was the site of the 2002 USAF Hercules air disaster, where all 10 military personnel on board lost their lives after an airplane carrying them struck a mountain in the south of the municipality.
Hurricane Maria on September 20, 2017, triggered numerous landslides in Caguas with its wind and rain. Rivers were breached causing flooding of low-lying areas, and infrastructure and homes were destroyed. The hurricane caused $90 million in damages in Caguas. More specifically, 40 homes were left without a roof and 30 were flooded in the Morales neighborhood. Escuela Segunda Unidad Diego Vázquez and the Centro Multiusos flooded as well.

Geography

The city and municipality of Caguas are located approximately 30 minutes from the coastline both on the east and the north. It is east of Aguas Buenas and Cidra, north of Cayey, south of San Juan, and west of Gurabo and Trujillo Alto. It also shares borders with Guayama and Patillas via a five-point border at the summit of Cerro La Santa, with Cayey and San Lorenzo. This is the tallest point of the Sierra de Cayey, not to be confused with Montaña Santa which is another mountain in the same massif located on the boundary between the municipalities of Patillas and San Lorenzo. At this point there are two tall antennas which provide signal to Puerto Rico's principal TV stations such as WKAQ-TV and WAPA-TV. No road passes exactly at this point, and it can be approached nearby through Puerto Rico Highway 184.

Valle de Caguas

The city is located in one of the largest valleys in Puerto Rico, the Valle de Caguas or Caguas Valley. Being located in a valley, Caguas has the distinction of being relatively flat except near the borders with all the mentioned municipalities except Gurabo. The valley is bordered by the Altos de La Mesa and San Luis ranges in the north, the Sierra de Luquillo on the northeast, the San Lorenzo batholith to the east, the Sierra de Cayey on the south and the main range of the Cordillera Central to the west.
This valley is fed mainly by the Grande de Loíza River, one of Puerto Rico's major rivers that feed into the Atlantic Ocean, and numerous tributaries such as the Cagüitas, along which the contemporary settlement of Caguas was built. The city's nickname Valle del Turabo comes from the Turabo River, which is another tributary that flows from the south. The Gurabo River, another major tributary, feeds into the Grande de Loíza at a region where the valley narrows into a rift valley that runs from west to east and ends in Humacao in the southeastern coast of the island.
As with other parts of Puerto Rico, the region of Caguas is susceptible to earthquakes. The municipality is located along the Great Northern Puerto Rico fault zone and in recent times the region experienced moderate size earthquakes in 1990 and 2010.

Water features

The Río Grande de Loíza divides the municipality from Gurabo.
Other rivers: Río Turabo, Río Cagüitas, Río Cañaboncito, Río Bairoa and Río Cañas.
Climate

The climate is classified as a tropical monsoon climate, meaning the daily mean temperature from month to month is never less than, and there is a distinct wet and dry season. Rainfall is common in relative abundance throughout most of the year, although there is less rain than in the eastern coastal valleys. The land, however, is fertile and deep.

Barrios

Like all municipalities of Puerto Rico, Caguas is subdivided into barrios:

Barrios and subbarrios, are further subdivided into smaller areas called sectores. The types of sectores may vary, from normally sector to urbanización to reparto to barriada to residencial, among others.

Special Communities

Comunidades Especiales de Puerto Rico are marginalized communities whose citizens are experiencing a certain amount of social exclusion. A map shows these communities occur in nearly every municipality of the commonwealth. Of the 742 places that were on the list in 2014, the following barrios, communities, sectors, or neighborhoods were in Caguas: Bairoa La 25, Morales neighborhood, Parcelas Viejas in Borinquén, Sector La Barra, and Comunidad La Quebrada in Río Cañas, Hoyo Frío in Las Carolinas, Lajitas, Las Carolinas, Los Muchos, Los Panes in Beatriz, and Savarona.

Tourism

Landmarks and places of interest

There are seven places in Caguas listed on the US National Register of Historic Places:

Caguas City Hall
Primera Iglesia Bautista de Caguas
Gautier Benítez High School
Escuela Vocacional Aguayo Aldea
Logia Union y Amparo #44
Puente No. 6 or
Carretera Central

Other landscapes, landmarks and tourist attractions in Caguas include:

Caguas Museum of Art
Caguas Museum of Folk Arts
Caguas Museum of History
Caguas Tobacco Museum
Dulce Nombre de Jesús Cathedral, the old city hall and other historical buildings at Plaza Palmer, the main town square.
Hacienda Catalina Ruins, located in the area of Las Catalinas Mall
Hacienda Country Club
La Casa del Ajedrez