Yauco, Puerto Rico

Coordinates: 18°2′13″N 66°51′1″W / 18.03694°N 66.85028°W / 18.03694; -66.85028
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Yauco
Municipio Autónomo de Yauco
From top, left to right: Fernando Pacheco Square; Teatro Ideal; Nuestra Señora del Rosario Church; and Casona Césari in Yauco Pueblo
Commonwealth
 Puerto Rico
FoundedFebruary 29, 1756
Barrios
Government
 • MayorAngel Luis "Luigi" Torres Ortíz (
AST)
ZIP Code
00698
Area code787/939
Major routes
Websitewww.yaucoatuservicio.com

Yauco (Spanish pronunciation:

Ponce-Yauco-Coamo Combined Statistical Area
.

It was founded by Fernando Pacheco on February 29, 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 (Town of Coffee), and residents of the municipality are often referred to as Los Corsos (The Corsicans).

Etymology and nicknames

Yauco was named after the

Yauco River, which itself comes from the Taíno word coayuco, meaning "cassava plantation" (also where the word yucca comes from).[2] The city has numerous nicknames such as Pueblo del Café ("coffee town"), due to the high number of coffee plantations in the area, and Pueblo de los Corsos ("Town of Corsicans"), 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 ("the Taíno capital") after the native peoples of Puerto Rico who also lived in the area.[3]

History

The

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.[4][5]

In 1755, the Spanish settlers of the region built a small chapel and named it Nuestra Señora del Santísimo Rosario (Our Lady of the Holy Rosary). 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 February 29, 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.[6]

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.

Memorial dedicated to the Corsicans in Yauco.

Corsicans descend from a combination of ancient Corsi people from northeastern Sardinia and people who came over later from northern and central Italy (including Tuscans, Etruscans, Ligurians, and Romans) 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

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.

Early Yauco coffee plantation (Pre-1920)

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.[8] 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.[9]

Intentona de Yauco