Yauco, Puerto Rico
Yauco is a town and municipality in southern Puerto Rico. Although the downtown is inland, the municipality stretches to a southern coast facing the Caribbean Sea. Yauco is located south of Maricao, Lares and Adjuntas; east of Sabana Grande and Guánica; and west of Guayanilla. The municipality consists of 20 barrios and Yauco Pueblo. It is both a principal town of the Yauco Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Ponce-Yauco-Coamo Combined Statistical Area.
It was founded by Fernando Pacheco on 29 February 1756, and developed for commodity crops of tobacco, sugar cane, and coffee. Yauco became a center for Corsican immigration to Puerto Rico in the 19th century due to its geographical similarity to their homeland. Corsicans have contributed to many areas of life in Yauco, particularly to its coffee industry. This has played a role in the town's nicknames of El Pueblo del Café, and residents of the municipality are often referred to as Los Corsos.
Etymology and nicknames
Yauco was named after the Yauco River, which itself comes from the Taíno word coayuco, meaning "cassava plantation". The city has numerous nicknames such as Pueblo del Café, due to the high number of coffee plantations in the area, and Pueblo de los Corsos, after the large number of Corsican immigrants who settled in the town and who were later influential to the area's coffee industry. It is also popularly known as La Capital Taína after the native peoples of Puerto Rico who also lived in the area.History
The Taino natives considered the area of Yauco the capital of Boriken and was governed by Agüeybana, the most powerful Taíno cacique in the island. All the other caciques were subject to and had to obey Agüeybaná, although they governed their own tribes. Upon Agüeybaná's death in 1510, his nephew, Güeybaná, became the most powerful cacique in the island. Agüeybaná II doubted the "godly" status the Spaniards were rumored to have. He came up with a plan to test these doubts: he and Urayoán sent some of their tribe members to lure a Spaniard named Diego Salcedo into a river and drown him. They watched over Salcedo's body to ensure that he did not revive. Salcedo's death convinced Agüeybaná II and the rest of the Taíno that the Spaniards were not gods. They rebelled against the Spanish in 1511 but were defeated.In 1755, the Spanish settlers of the region built a small chapel and named it Nuestra Señora del Santísimo Rosario. The settlers sent Fernando Pacheco as their representative to the Spanish Government, to request the establishment of a municipality, since they had satisfied one of the requirements for the establishment of a municipality, namely, to establish a place of worship. On 29 February 1756, the King of Spain granted the settlers their request and the town of Yauco was founded. Fernando Pacheco was named First Lieutenant of War of the new town.
From the mid-19th to the early 20th century, hundreds of Corsican, Italian, French, Portuguese, Irish, Scots, and German immigrants arrived in Puerto Rico, attracted by the Spanish Crown's offer of free land to Catholic white European settlers. They settled mostly in the south-central region.
19th century Corsican immigration
The island of Puerto Rico is somewhat similar in geography to the island of Corsica and appealed to many Corsican immigrants. Corsica was part of the Republic of Genoa for centuries until 1768.Corsicans descend from a combination of ancient Corsi people from northeastern Sardinia and people who came over later from northern and central Italy along with, to a lesser extent, Greeks and Carthaginians. Corsica has been part of France since 1768 but retains a distinct Italian culture. It was ruled by the Republic of Genoa from 1284 to 1755, when it became a self-proclaimed independent Italian-speaking Republic. In 1768, Genoa officially ceded its out of control colony to Louis XV of France as part of a pledge for debts, and in 1769 France forcibly annexed it.Hundreds of Corsicans and their families immigrated to Puerto Rico from as early as 1830, and their numbers peaked in the 1850s, after European unrest following the Revolutions of 1848, and environmental problems of lengthy drought. The Corsicans tended to settle in the mountainous southwestern region of the island, and Yauco attracted the majority of them. As noted, the three main crops were coffee, sugar cane and tobacco. The new settlers first worked on the farms, and some saved money in order to own and operate their own grocery stores. They began to specialize in cultivation of coffee as a commodity crop.
Coffee was first cultivated in the Rancheras and Diego Hernández sectors; it was expanded to the Aguas Blancas, Frailes and Rubias sectors. The Mariani family adapted a cotton gin in the 1860s to use in mechanical de-husking of coffee. This improved the appearance of Puerto Rico's coffee beans and helped it stand out in the international coffee market. By the 1860s the Corsican settlers were the leaders of the coffee industry in Puerto Rico, and seven out of ten coffee plantations were owned by Corsicans.
Intentona de Yauco
The pro-independence movement raised the second and last major revolt here against Spanish colonial rule in Puerto Rico, known as the Intentona de Yauco. The revolt, which occurred on 26 March 1897, was organized by Antonio Mattei Lluberas, Mateo Mercado and Fidel Vélez. They were supported by leaders of El Grito de Lares, the first major independence attempt, who were in exile in New York City as members of the Puerto Rican Revolutionary Committee. During this uprising, Vélez raised for the first time what became the current flag of Puerto Rico on local soil. Local Spanish authorities had heard rumors of the revolt and acted swiftly to suppress it.Spanish–American War
In 1898, upon the outbreak of the Spanish–American War, Guánica was a small barrio within the municipality of Yauco. It had 60 houses in all and was defended only by eleven members of the 4th Volante de Yauco, a Puerto Rican militia unit, under the command of Lieutenant Enrique Méndez López. When the convoy with General Nelson A. Miles, approached the barrio, Guánica lighthouse keeper Robustiano Rivera immediately alerted its residents. Nearly all the residents abandoned their homes and joined Rivera to go to Yauco, where he broke the news of the invading forces to the town's mayor. Only Agustín Barrenechea, Vicente Ferrer, Juan María Morciglio, Simón Mejil, Salvador Muñoz, Cornelio Serrano and Pascual Elena stayed to welcome the invaders.The first skirmish between Spanish/Puerto Rican and American armed forces was fought in that barrio between the Puerto Rican militia and twenty-eight sailors and Marines, under the command of Lieutenants H. P. Huse and Wood. They had come from the on rafts and landed on the beach, where Lt. Méndez López and his men opened fire on the Americans. During the small battle which followed, the Americans returned fire with a machine gun and the Gloucester began to bombard the Spanish position. Lt. Méndez López and three of his men were wounded, and the militia unit retreated to the town of Yauco.
This was also the site of the first major land battle in Puerto Rico during the war between Spanish/Puerto Rican and American armed forces. On 26 July 1898, Spanish forces and Puerto Rican volunteers, led by Captain Salvador Meca and Lieutenant Colonel Francisco Puig, fought against American forces led by Brigadier General George A. Garretson. The Spanish forces engaged the 6th Massachusetts in a firefight at the Hacienda Desideria, owned by Antonio Mariani, in what became known as the Battle of Yauco of the Puerto Rico Campaign. The casualties of Puig's forces were two officers and three soldiers wounded and two soldiers dead. The Spanish forces were ordered to retreat.
Hurricane Maria
Significant rainfall from Hurricane Maria, on 20 September 2017, triggered numerous landslides in Yauco, leaving entire communities cut-off. The Yauco River caused flooding that decimated entire neighborhoods.Earthquakes in 2019 and 2020
Multiple residences and structures in Yauco were damaged in a series of earthquakes with increasing magnitude that started on 28 December 2019 and culminated with a 6.4-magnitude earthquake that struck the island in the morning hours of 7 January 2020. More than thirty-two residences collapsed and hundreds were structurally unsound after the earthquake struck near Yauco. To aid residents who were left without power or homeless, the National Guard was mobilized. A center for emergency operations was set up in the municipality's auditorium parking area, with air-conditioned tarps and tents for evacuated hospital patients and with food being cooked by World Central Kitchen.Geography
Yauco is a mountainous municipality located in the Cordillera Central and bisected by the Río Yauco. Other rivers in the municipality are the Río Chiquito, Duey Loco and Río Naranjo. Hills in the area include Mount Membrillo, the highest point in the municipality and 9th highest peak in the island at 3,579 feet of elevation, the Rodadero Peak and the Curet Hill.Barrios
Like all municipalities of Puerto Rico, Yauco is subdivided into barrios. The municipal buildings, central square and large Catholic church are located in a barrio referred to as "el pueblo".- Aguas Blancas
- Algarrobo
- Almácigo Alto
- Almácigo Bajo
- Barina
- Caimito
- Collores
- Diego Hernández
- Duey
- Frailes
- Jácana
- Naranjo
- Quebradas
- Ranchera
- Río Prieto
- Rubias
- Sierra Alta
- Susúa Alta
- Susúa Baja
- Vegas
- Yauco barrio-pueblo
Sectors