Yauco, Puerto Rico

Early Yauco coffee plantation (Pre-1920)

The island of Puerto Rico is very similar in geography to the island of Corsica and appealed to the 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 (including Tuscans, Etruscans, Ligurians, and Romans) along with, to a lesser extent, Greeks and Carthaginians. It's been part of France since 1768, but retains a distinct Italian culture. Corsica was ruled by the Republic of Genoa from 1284 to 1755, when it became a self-proclaimed Italian-speaking Republic. In 1768, Genoa officially ceded it 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.[5] 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 dehusking of coffee. This improved the appearance of Puerto Rico's coffee beans and helped it stand out in the international coffee market.[6] 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.[7]

Flag flown by Fidel Vélez and his men during the "Intentona de Yauco" revolt

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, a.k.a. the "Attempted Coup of Yauco." The revolt, which occurred on March 26, 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.[8]

Part of the Hacienda Desideria, owned by Antonio Mariani, where the Battle of Yauco took place in 1898

In 1898, upon the outbreak of the Spanish–American War, Guánica was a small barrio within the town 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 city's mayor. Only Agustín Barrenechea, Vicente Ferrer, Juan María Morciglio, Simón Mejil, Salvador Muñoz, Cornelio Serrano and Pascual Elena stayed to welcome the invaders.[9]

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 USS Gloucester 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 July 26, 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.[10]

Multiple residences and structures in Yauco were damaged in a series of earthquakes with increasing magnitude that started on December 28, 2019 and culminating with a 6.4-magnitude earthquake that struck the island in the morning hours of January 7, 2020.[11] 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.[12]

Significant rainfall from Hurricane Maria, on September 20, 2017, triggered numerous landslides in Yauco, leaving entire communities cut-off.[13][14] The Yauco River caused flooding that decimated entire neighborhoods.[15]

Barrios of Yauco, Puerto Rico

Pueblo of Yauco

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".[17][18][19]

Barrios (which are like minor civil divisions)[20] and subbarrios,[21] in turn, are further subdivided into smaller local populated place areas/units called sectores (sectors in English). The types of sectores may vary, from normally sector to urbanización to reparto to barriada to residencial, among others.[22][23][24]

Comunidades Especiales de Puerto Rico (Special Communities of 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 Yauco: Diego Hernández, Frailes, Ranchera, Sector Primitivo Irizarry in Quebradas, El Pozo, Sector Cantera, Pueblo Norte (El Cerro), and Río Prieto.[25][26]

There are 2 beaches in Yauco, including Playa Ballenas.[34] The places of interest in Yauco include:

Casa Agostini in Yauco

• Mansión Negroni
• Hacienda Mireia which was Hacienda La Juanita, a historic plantation, is a 50-acre coffee farm[35]
• Casa Franceschi
• Casa Agre
• Casa Cesari
• Cuesta Los Judios: next to Reparto La Esperanza it has a length of 0.21 kilometres.
• Iglesia Católica Nuestra Señora del Rosario
• Lucchetti Lake
• Nuestra Señora del Rosario Hermitage Ruins
• Plaza Fernando Pacheco
• Teatro Ideal
• Tozza Castle
• Vega Lake
• Colegio Santísimo Rosario (Most Holy Rosary School)
• Yauco Urban Park
• Playa Atolladora[36]
• Estadio Municipal Mario "Ñato" Ramírez Torres (Mario "Ñato" Ramírez Torres Municipal Stadium)
• Volkyland Volkswagen museum[37]
• Coliseo Raúl "Pipote" Oliveras Vera (Raúl "Pipote" Oliveras Vera Coliseum)

Yauco celebrates its patron saint festival in October. The Fiestas Patronales de Nuestra Virgen del Rosario is a religious and cultural celebration that generally features parades, games, artisans, amusement rides, regional food, and live entertainment.[16]

Other festivals and events celebrated in Yauco include:

• Coffee Festival – February
• Christmas Festival - December
• Festival Internacional de las Culturas – December[40]

Recent genealogical DNA-based testing, which look at specific locations of a person's genome, in order to find or verify ancestral genealogical relationships or to estimate the ethnic mixture of an individual, have found significant Portuguese, Spanish, Native American, Corsican, Ireland, Scotland, Germanic Europe, Italian, North Africa, West Africa and European Jewish DNA presence in individuals who are descendants from inhabitants who were born within the geographical area of Yauco and other parts of southwestern Puerto Rico.[41]

These nationalities have significantly influenced the local culture, to include food, art, some words used in the language, customs, beliefs, and music.

The flag of Yauco consists of two horizontal stripes of equal width, black the superior and gold the inferior one. The municipal coat of arms is in the center.[49]

The coat of arms of Yauco is quartered by a central cross representing Christendom. In a silver field a gold and black boiler, with seven necks and heads of black serpents in each handle, three to the right hand, confronted with four to the left-hand side. Bordered by a checkered band in gold and black. The second and third quarters, in a field of gold, two coffee plant flowers of five leaves of silver and four red. The coffee plant flower and the coffee grains represent their cultivation in the Yauco municipality. The border of the Arms represents the beads of the rosary. The three tower crown represents its city status.[49]