Mayagüez, Puerto Rico
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Mayagüez [maɪaˈgwɛs] is the eighth-largest municipality of Puerto Rico. Also known as "La Sultana del Oeste" (The Western Sultana) or "Ciudad de las Aguas Puras" (City of Pure Waters), Mayagüez is located in the western part of the island of Puerto Rico.
Its land area is 201.06 km2 [Mayagüez and its barrios] United States Census Bureau which includes the uninhabited Mona Island as a subdivision. The municipio has an estimated population of just over 100,000. Mayagüez is located 2 hours by automobile from San Juan.
History
Founding
The founding of Mayagüez was requested on 19 July 1760 by a group led by Faustino Martínez de Matos, Juan de Silva and Juan de Aponte, at a hill located about one kilometer inland from Mayagüez Bay and the outlet of the Yagüez River. It was officially founded on 18 September1760. "Maygüex" was the indigenous name for this river (the word means "clear water" in the language of its original inhabitants, the Taíno)Gaudier, Martín, Genealogías, Biografías e Historia del Mayagüez de Ayer y Hoy y Antología de Puerto Rico, 1957, p. 45. (Gaudier quotes Regino Cabassa, who first published this in 1944). "Mayagüez" is a variation on this name, which means "Land of the Clear Waters" and eventually gave the city its nickname. The Taínos had settled the area for hundreds of years before the town's founding, at the nearby settlement of Yagüeca (also spelled Yagüexa or Yaweka), which sits near a larger river, the Rio Grande de Añasco (originally named "Guaorabo"). A theory likening the name to a nahuatl term which translates into "Land of the Setting Sun" is unsubstantiated.The Spanish Crown granted the founders the right to self-government in 1763, formally separating the town from the larger Partido de San Germán. Originally the settlement was named Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria de Mayagüez (Our Lady of the Candelaria of Mayagüez). Most of the town's settlers, including its founders, came originally from the Canary Islands, whose patron saint is the Virgin of Candlemas (Candelaria), hence the name.
In 1777, two American frigates, the Endowok and the Henry, took refuge on Mayagüez Bay as to evade attack from the British ship HMS Glasgow. The local government lent two Spanish flags to the American frigates as to disguise them as Spanish ships. After protesting unsuccessfully to the Spanish authorities, the captain of the Glasgow chose not to attack the ships and retired from the area.
Villa status and the Great Fire of 1841
On 7 May 1836, the settlement was elevated to the royal status of villa, and Rafael Mangual was named its first mayor. At the time, the villa's principal economic activity was agriculture. The famous patriot, educator, sociologist, philosopher, essayist, and novelist Eugenio María de Hostos was born in Mayagüez in 1839.
On 30 January 1841 a fire nearly destroyed the villa (it burned 300 out of the 500 existing housing units in town). The town was rebuilt with some of its main roads widened as to prevent any future fires to spread quickly.[Drouyn, Federico, Plano de la población después del incendio del año 1841 que la redujo a cenizas casi en su totalidad, 1888] The Spanish military governor of Puerto Rico, Gen. Santiago de Méndez Vigo personally raised funding through a subscription fund to rebuild the entire city; eventually one of Mayagüez's three main thoroughfares was named in his honor.
The local fire department was founded on 1843; it contained major fires in 1852 and 1866 and performed hurricane rescue and relief operations in 1852. The villa's first census was held on 1844.
Mayagüez later became the cultural and political center of the western part of Puerto Rico. Due to its physical isolation from the rest of the island (the city was founded on a coastal valley surrounded by mountains) and its need for self-sufficiency from Puerto Rico's main government (which, some of its current inhabitants claim, lasts to this day) Mayagüez developed a peculiar local culture and a strong sense of regional pride that tends to distinguish its inhabitants from the rest of Puerto Rico's. Some historians claim that this strong, fiercely independent culture was responsible for breeding not only liberal thinkers such as Eugenio María de Hostos, but also radical ones such as Dr. Ramón Emeterio Betances, the father of the Puerto Rican independence movement and first medical director of Mayagüez's Municipal Hospital (currently known as Hospital San Antonio), Segundo Ruiz Belvis, the father of the Puerto Rican Abolitionism movement and a former city administrator, and José de Diego, first president of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives and founder of the local College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. The Grito de Lares, Puerto Rico's first major pro-independence revolt, was planned at a farm in the outskirts of town. The September 23, 1868 revolution was remotely organized by Dr. Betances who, twelve years earlier, had literally saved the town from extinction by a cholera epidemic that killed over 30,000 people in the island and decimated the town's population. Today, the local medical center and the main throughfare that crosses the city from north to south are named after Dr. Betances.
City status
On 10 July 1877 the villa formally received its city charter from the Royal Crown of Spain.
The Escuela Libre de Música or Free Music School was founded in 1894 and directed by Fernando Callejo. In 1896, a statue was raised in the main plaza to honor Cristopher Columbus. That same year the villa formally received its current formal title, "Excelente Ciudad de Mayagüez". The local produce market, the Plaza del Mercado, formerly an open-air market, was eventually housed in a new building erected in the early 1890s, a prefabricated structure designed by Gustave Eiffel's construction company.
Late 19th and 20th centuries
On August 11,1898, during the Spanish-American War, U.S. troops (from the 5th. Cavalry, 11th. Infantry and 19th. Infantry, under Gen. Theodore Schwan) entered Mayagüez. Spanish troops encircled the city however. A battle never occurred, and the invading troops were well-received. According to chronicles of the day a young local boy was given the task of raising the Star and Stripes at the Casa del Rey (City Hall) and raised it upside down, with the canton to the floor, without knowing this was a symbol of distress. A few of the American troops eventually settled in Mayagüez, including Sgt. Frank Cole, the father of later mayor Benjamin Cole.
In 1911, the College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts was founded in Mayagüez. Today it is known as the University of Puerto Rico - Mayagüez Campus (UPRM) — the Caribbean's leading science and engineering institution.
The city of Mayagüez was nearly destroyed again on October 11 1918 by an earthquake and a tsunami. Most of the town had to be rebuilt, including City Hall (a new cupola was added, resembling that of New York City Hall). On June 20 1919 a fire nearly destroyed the Teatro Yagüez, the town's main theater, killing 92 (some say 150) people. The Teatro was later rebuilt and remodeled twice; it is now Mayagüez's municipal theater.
The city's main Roman Catholic church, “Our Lady of the Candelaria” (plot consecrated on 21 August1760, first masonry building erected in 1780, current church originally built in 1836) was rebuilt in 1922. The original redesign by architect Luis Perocier sought to restore the building to its original splendor. Not only had the 1918 earthquake destroyed the temple's ceiling, but a lightning bolt also struck and tore down a wedge-shaped corner of one of its two bell towers. However, lack of proper funding and the extent of the damage of the original structure forced the actual rebuilding of the church to be scaled-down considerably.
Pope Paul VI authorized the founding of the Diocese of Mayagüez on April 1, 1976, which led to the rededication of the church as a cathedral soon after. A few years later the first bishop of the city, Mons. Ulises Casiano Vargas (who assumed the bishop's office on April 30, 1976) led the drive for the cathedral's remodeling following Perocier's original plan; the remodeled cathedral was reopened on January 1, 2004.
Between 1962 and 1998 Mayagüez was a major tuna canning and processing center. At one time, 80% of all tuna products consumed in the United States were packed in Mayagüez (the biggest employer, StarKist, had 11,000 employees working three daily shifts in the local plant's heyday). Mayagüez was also a major textile industry hub; until very recently, almost a quarter of all drill uniforms used by the United States Army were sewn in the city.
On May 12, 1975 a unit of the Cambodian Khmer Rouge seized a container ship, the SS Mayagüez, on the Gulf of Siam. The botched recovery of the ship's crew by the U.S. Marine Corps off the island of Koh Tang — which occurred on May 15 — became known as the Mayagüez Incident, considered by historians as one of president Gerald Ford's first foreign policy setbacks. The container ship was actually part of the then government-owned Navieras de Puerto Rico, which explains why the city's name became entangled in such a major military international incident.
Mayagüez today
Although the city has seen its share of natural disasters, today it faces an economic downturn due to the closure of its textile factories and tuna industry, which where the principal industries of the city for the greater part of the 20th century. Once being the third city in population and importance in Puerto Rico, population numbers for it have been relatively stagnant, and it actually lost population in recent years.
However, the city still continues to play an important role for the western part of the island. It will host the 2010 Central American and Caribbean Games for which the local and commonwealth governments have provided an investment of $250 million for, among other things, building a new stadium (which will be built at the site of the existing Isidoro García Baseball Stadium), restoring the University of Puerto Rico - Mayaguez (UPRM) campus, authorizing new cruise and cargo ship routes, requesting new plane routes to Rafael Hernandez Airport in neighboring Aguadilla (which has been expanded), and working on a lane expansion of the main highway.
Today, Mayagüez has become a major college town, due in part to UPRM, the Eugenio Maria de Hostos School of Law and a satellite campus of the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico, among other educational institutions located in the area. Mayagüez is also home to Dr. Juan A. Rivero Zoo.
Mayagüez's National Superior Basketball League (BSN) professional basketball team, the Tainos de Mayagüez, are named in honor of the city's Indian heritage. Its baseball winter league team (LBPPR) team, the Indios de Mayagüez, honor both their Indian heritage and the home town's Cervecería India brewery.
Mayagüez's airport, the Eugenio Maria de Hostos Airport (IATA:MAZ), had regular airline services for more than thirty years. In the 1970s it had domestic service from Prinair. After 1985, both American Airlines (as American Eagle) and Eastern Air Lines (as Eastern Metro Express) began serving flights. Eastern went bankrupt in 1991 leaving American as its only operator until it stopped service to the city in April 30, 2005, due to poor loads. For a while, Fina Air served flights to the Dominican Republic and Cape Air served intra-island routes to San Juan. All carriers have since ceased operations. Since the nearby Rafael Hernandez International Airport in Aguadilla (IATA:BQN) and a ferry service to the Dominican Republic cover the airport's former international routes, and since road communications with the rest of the island have improved, there's arguably little need to have a regular carrier at the airport any longer. Talks to make the facility an intermodal transportation hub have not materialized.
Contributions to Puerto Rican Mayagüez's contributions to Puerto Rican gastronomy have been many, and a few of these are known outside Puerto Rico. Besides being host to one of the largest concentrations of mango (spelled locally as "mangó") trees in the island, the city has been a host to various food enterprises whose products are popular in Puerto Rico (and some elsewhere):
- Brazo gitano - literally "gypsy arm", is the locally produced jelly roll, originally from Spain. E. Franco & Co., a bakery, food importer and restaurant established in the late 1850s, is the best-known provider of brazos gitanos in town. Another (more recent) provider is Ricomini Bakery, whose central store in downtown Mayagüez has been open for over 100 years.
- Sangría de Fido ['fEd-oh] - the heirs of Wilfrido Aponte still bottle "Sangría de Fido", a powerful concoction inspired on sangria, but actually made with fruit juices, Bacardi 151 rum and burgundy wine (technically not from Bourgogne, but produced by E & J Gallo Winery in Modesto, California). Originally bottled by hand by the bartender since the mid-1970s, "Sangría de Fido" has a sizeable reputation outside Puerto Rico, and can claim tasters from as far away as California and Spain. E & J Gallo once awarded Aponte with a "Customer of the Year" award and flew him to their headquarters. Aponte was reportedly offered $250,000 by Bacardi to sell his original recipe once, to which he refused.
- Bolo's Sorullitos - a now-defunct operation that originated at "Bolo's Restaurant", a seaside eatery next to Mayagüez Bay, which produced sorullitos, or fried cornsticks, along with mayo-ketchup, a dip made of mayonnaise, ketchup and garlic extract. The restaurant was extremely popular in Puerto Rico between the late 1970s and mid-1980s (its custom made building now houses WORA-TV, one of the local television stations). For a while the frozen cornsticks were sold commercially in stores.
- Flan-Es-Cedó' - Elmec Industries, Inc. has been the local flan producer for over thirty years
- India / Medalla beer - the only remaining mass-produced Puerto Rican beer is brewed by "Cervecería India", one of the largest employers in town. "Mayagüezanos" are queued into morning rush hour, lunch and afternoon rush hour by the company's whistle, which rings at 7:00 AM, 8:00 AM, 12:00 PM, 1:00 PM and 5:00 PM (all times AST)
- Rex Cream's Ice Cream - established in the mid-1960's by Chinese migrants who came to Puerto Rico by the way of Costa Rica, Rex Cream is a chain of ice cream parlors that had its heyday in the late 1970's. The two flagship stores in Mayagüez, however, are still popular (particularly on Good Friday, since one of the stores is the endpoint for a Good Friday religious procession) for producing alternative ice cream flavors, particularly a corn sherbet.
- Tuna fish - At one time, StarKist, Chicken of the Sea and Bumble Bee produced 80% of their collective production for consumption in the United States in Mayagüez. As of the time of writing, the only tuna fish cannery remaining in town is that for Bumble Bee.
Famous Mayagüezanos
Arguably the best known native of Mayagüez ever is educator and philosopher Eugenio Maria de Hostos (1839-1903).Living
Well-known living "mayagüezanos" (as of June 2006) include: singer Chucho Avellanet (Armando Hipólito), his nephew, former Menudo bandmember Roberto Avellanet, singer, composer and wine maker Wilkins Velez, jazz flutist Nestor Torres, Puerto Rican independence leader Juan Mari Bras, television hostess Gricel Mamery, baseball players José Vidro and Wil Cordero, Associate Secretary of the United States Navy William A. Navas, Jr., WWE wrestlers Nidia Guenard and her sister Lourdes, and salsa percussionist and bandleader Roberto Roena. Two major Latino television stars in the United States, singer and show host Rafael José (Diaz) and anchorwoman María Celeste Arrarás, were raised in Mayagüez. United States Congressman Jose Serrano, who represents Congressional District NY-16 (which covers The Bronx in New York City) was born in Mayagüez. New York State senator Olga A. Mendez was also born in Mayagüez.Other Puerto Rican personalities born in Mayagüez are: journalist Carmen Jovet, news announcer Luz Nereida Velez, comedic actors Adrián García and Shorty Castro, journalist Julio Victor Ramirez, hijo, local senator Orlando Parga and puppeteer (Antulio) Kobbo Santarrosa.
Former mayor of San Juan Hernan Padilla was born in Mayagüez, but raised in the nearby town of Cabo Rojo. Television actor Armando Riesco was born in Mayagüez, but raised in San Juan. Porn star Gina Lynn, born in the city, was raised in Jackson Township, New Jersey.
For a while (since his then-wife Herlinda Gómez was a native of the city) Colombian folk singer and actor Carlos Vives was a part-time resident. So were Spanish journalist and adventurer Miguel de la Quadra Salcedo, local media personality Silverio Pérez and Ponce mayor Francisco Zayas Seijo when each got a degree from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez. Hugo Savinovich lived in Mayagüez during the early years of his wrestling career.
Major League Baseball players who played with the Indios de Mayagüez include Tommy Lasorda, Ron LeFlore, Kurt Bevacqua, Dennis Martinez, Roberto Hernandez and Wally Joyner.
Deceased
Well-known "mayagüezanos" who have passed away include: former Commander-in-chief of the Cuban independence forces (and participant in the Grito de Lares) Juan Rius Rivera, actresses Alicia Moreda, Lucy Boscana and Madeline Willemsen; radio disc jockey, announcer, musicologist and marketing impresario Gilbert Mamery, plena singer and band leader Mon Rivera (The Younger), former Speaker of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives Ernesto Ramos Antonini, and former Mayagüez Mayor, Benjamin Cole, who held his office for 24 consecutive years. His brother, composer Roberto Cole was also a native. Pilar Defilló i Amigüet, the mother of cellist Pablo Casals, was born in Mayagüez.Latino crooner and salsa singer (of one of Tito Puente's orchestras) Santos Colon was born in Sabana Grande, Puerto Rico, but since he was raised in Mayagüez since early childhood he considered himself a (rather proud) mayagüezano. Salsa artist Frankie Ruiz, born in Paterson, New Jersey, was also raised in Mayagüez.
Salvador Agrón, a notorious murderer turned youth counselor whose life became the basis for the Broadway play The Capeman, was born in Mayagüez (for a while he was a resident of the local Asilo de Beneficencia, on Ramón E. Betances Avenue) and raised in New York City. Former Puerto Rico governor Roberto Sánchez Vilella was born in Mayagüez, but was raised in Ponce, Puerto Rico.
Lola Rodriguez de Tio, Luis Lloréns Torres and Rafael Martinez Nadal were one-time residents.
References
Footnotes
General references
- Gaudier, Martín, Genealogías, Biografías e Historia del Mayagüez de Ayer y Hoy y Antología de Puerto Rico, 1957.
External links
- [1888 Map of Mayaguez (Library of Congress)]
- [Earthquake of 1918]
- [Karl Stephen Hermann's memoir of the occupation of the city by United States troops, written in 1907 (Library of Congress)]
- Current weather in Mayagüez from: [Weather Underground]
- Peter van der Krogt's [page about the Columbus monument at Mayagüez's Plaza de Colón]
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