Culebra, Puerto Rico

Culebra, officially Isla de Culebra, is an island and municipality of Puerto Rico, comprising the Spanish Virgin Islands together with Vieques. Located about east of the main island of Puerto Rico, it is northeast of Vieques and west of Saint Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Culebra is spread over Culebra Pueblo, its historic and administrative center, and 5 barrios, which include the smaller islands or cays of Culebrita, Norte, and Luis Peña. Residents of the island are known as culebrenses. With a population of 1,792 as of the 2020 Census, it is the least populous municipality in Puerto Rico.
Originally called Isla del Pasaje and Isla de San Ildefonso, Culebra is also known as Isla Chiquita, Cuna del Sol Borincano and Última Virgen.

History

Some sources claim that Christopher Columbus was the first European to arrive at the island during his second voyage on November 19, 1493. It is believed that the island was populated by Carib Indians during the colonization. After Agüeybaná and Agüeybaná II led the Taíno rebellion of 1511, Taíno Indians from the main island sought refuge on Culebra and allied with Caribs to launch occasional attacks at the island estates.
After that, the island was left abandoned for centuries. During the era of Spanish commerce through the Americas, it was used as a refuge for pirates, as well as local fishermen and sailors. Some sources mention a black overseer from British-ruled Tortola named John Stevens, who was put in charge of Culebra in the 1850s by the Governor of Vieques under the Spanish crown to protect the island from foreigners who, without proper permissions or payments of fees for despoiling Culebra, took fish, cut trees for lumber and prepared drift wood as charcoal for future sale elsewhere. Appropriating the unearned title of "Captain", he began a decades-long isolated sojourn on Culebra as enforcer of Spanish interests. In October 1871, however, Stevens was found dead outside his hut, his body viciously hacked apart. His heart and entrails had been placed in clay pots, in an apparent religious ritual to curse his soul. Spanish police from Vieques tracked down Tortolan foragers on Culebra who were suspected of the vicious murder. Eventually 21 of them were sentenced to forced labor on sugar plantations in Vieques as punishment. The affair caused an international incident, and, to satisfy demands from the British ambassador in Madrid, the Tortolans were finally freed by the Spanish Governor of Puerto Rico in July 1874.
These events caused the government of Switzerland in June 1876 to recall an expedition destined for Culebra to establish a warm-weather sanatorium there. Fearing further foreign encroachments, the Spanish government decided to populate Culebra with its own subjects.
Culebra was then settled by Cayetano Escudero Sanz on October 27, 1880, when he completed his survey of the island that included subdivisions into usable lots. The Spanish government offered these parcels of land to anyone who would move to the island. The first settlers depended on rain for drinking water, as the island has no natural streams. Subsistence farming and cattle raising were established and a cistern was built for common use at one end of a natural harbor or Ensenada Honda in Spanish.
This first settlement was called San Ildefonso, to honor the Bishop of Toledo, officially San Ildefonso de la Culebra. Two years later, on September 25, 1882, construction of the Culebrita lighthouse began. It was completed on February 25, 1886, which made it the oldest operating lighthouse in the Caribbean until 1975, when the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard finally closed the facility.
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 Culebra was 704.
In 1902, Culebra was integrated as a part of Vieques. One year later, on June 26, President Theodore Roosevelt established the Culebra Naval Reservation. A bird refuge was established on February 27, 1909.
The United States Navy cited the 1900 Foraker Act to expropriate the land surrounding the natural harbor and in 1902 ordered the removal of all settlers so that a base for the South Atlantic fleet could be erected. Antonio Lugo Suarez, a Puerto Rican who had made his fortune in St. Thomas then part of the Danish West Indies and Pedro Márquez Morales, a Spaniard who had married a Puerto Rican woman from Vieques, were successful ranchers on Culebra. Each offered an alternate site to the displaced Culebrenses, so as to prevent the total abandonment of the island. The location identified by Márquez on Playa Sardinas became the town of Dewey.
A new church was built with materials taken from San Ildefonso and a customs office was constructed.
Pedro Márquez was appointed the first mayor under U.S. rule in 1905, replacing Leopoldo Padrón, the Special Delegate appointed for the transition from Spanish rule.
Pedro Márquez was succeeded as mayor in 1912 by his son, Alejandro Márquez Laureano who erected the first docks for the new town and installed electric lighting on the town's streets. He was succeeded as mayor in 1914 by Claro C. Feliciano, the first mayor who had been born in Culebra.
With the agreement reached with a new Cuban government to lease Guantanamo Bay as a naval base, in 1911 the U.S. reduced the size of its forces on Culebra and turned the installation to training purposes. In 1924, the U.S. Navy began annual maneuvers on Culebra taking advantage of its deep-sea waters to practice coordinating amphibious landings on its beaches.
In 1939, the U.S. Navy began to use the Culebra Archipelago as a gunnery and bombing practice site. This was done in preparation for the United States' involvement in World War II. In 1971 the people of Culebra began protests, known as the Navy-Culebra protests, for the removal of the U.S. Navy from Culebra. Four years later, in 1975, the use of Culebra as a gunnery range ceased and all operations were moved to Vieques.
Culebra was declared an independent island municipality in 1917. The first democratically elected government was put into place in 1960. Prior to this, the government of Puerto Rico appointed delegates to administer the island.
On September 20, 2017, Hurricane Maria struck the island of Puerto Rico. In Culebra, where Hurricane Irma had caused major damages a week prior, Hurricane Maria caused more destruction.

Geography

Culebra is an archipelago consisting of the main island and twenty-three smaller islands that lie off its coast. The largest of these keys are: Culebrita to the east, Cayo Norte to the northeast, and Cayo Luis Peña and Cayo Lobo to the west. The smaller islands include Cayo Ballena, Cayos Geniqui, Arrecife Culebrita, Las Hermanas, El Mono, Cayo Lobito, Cayo Botijuela, Alcarraza, Los Gemelos, and Piedra Steven. Islands in the archipelago are arid, meaning they have no rivers or streams. All of the fresh water is brought from Puerto Rico via Vieques by undersea pipeline.
Culebra is characterized by an irregular topography resulting in a long intricate shoreline. The island is approximately. The coast is marked by cliffs, sandy coral beaches and mangrove forests. Inland, the tallest point on the island is Mount Resaca, with an elevation of, followed by Balcón Hill, with an elevation of.
Ensenada Honda is the largest inlet on the island and is considered to be the most hurricane secure harbor in the Caribbean. There are also several lagoons on the island, like Corcho, Flamenco, and Zoní. Culebrita Island also has a lagoon called Molino.
Almost 80% of the island's area is volcanic rock from the Cretaceous period. It is mostly used for livestock pasture, as well as some minor agriculture.

Average sea temperature

Federal nature reserves

These small islands are all classified as nature reserves and several nature reserves also exist on the main island. One of the oldest bird sanctuaries in United States territory was established in Culebra on February 27, 1909, by President Teddy Roosevelt. The Culebra Island giant anole is an extremely rare or possibly extinct anole lizard. It is native to Culebra Island and was named in honor of Theodore Roosevelt Jr., who was the governor of Puerto Rico at that time. There are bird sanctuaries on many of the islands as well as turtle nesting sites on Culebra. Leatherback, green sea and hawksbill sea turtles use the beaches for nesting. The archipelagos bird sanctuaries are home to brown boobies, laughing gulls, sooty terns, bridled terns and noddy terns. An estimated 50,000 seabirds find their way back to the sanctuaries every year. These nature reserves comprise of the archipelago's. These nature reserves are protected by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.
Culebra has no natural large mammals. However, a population of white-tailed deer introduced in July 1966 can be found on the eastern region of the island.

National protected area

Culebra National Wildlife Refuge
Important Bird Area

Culebra, along with its adjacent islets and cays, has been recognised as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International because they support seabird breeding colonies of brown boobies, brown noddies, and both sooty and royal terns.

Barrios

Like all municipalities of Puerto Rico, Culebra is subdivided into barrios.

Barrio	Area m²	Population	Population density	Islands in barrio
Culebra barrio-pueblo	408,969	652	1,594.3	-
Flamenco	12,602,398	885	70.2	Cayo Pirata, Cayo Verde, Cayo Matojo, El Ancon, Piedra Stevens, Los Gemelos, Alcarraza, Roca Lavador, Cayo Botijuela, Cayo de Luis Peña, Las Hermanas, El Mono, Cayo Lobo, Roca Culumna, Cayo Lobito, Cayo Tuna
Fraile	8,211,978	51	6.2	Culebrita, Cayo Botella, Pelá, Pelaita
Playa Sardinas I	410,235	136	331.5	–
Playa Sardinas II	2,600,088	122	46.9	–
San Isidro	5,857,771	22	3.8	Roca Speck, Cayo Norte, Cayo Sombrerito, Cayos Geniquí, Cayo Tiburón, Cayo Ballena
Total	30,091,439	1.868	62,1	23 islands, cays and rocks