Yabucoa () is a

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

and

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...

located in the eastern region, north of Maunabo; south of San Lorenzo, Las Piedras and

Humacao Humacao () is a city and municipality in Puerto Rico located in the eastern coast of the island, north of Yabucoa; south of Naguabo; east of Las Piedras; and west of Vieques Passage. Humacao is spread over 12 barrios and Humacao Pueblo (the ...

; and east of Patillas. Yabucoa is spread over 9 barrios and Yabucoa Pueblo (the downtown area and the administrative center of the city). It is part of the San Juan-Caguas-Guaynabo Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Etymology and nicknames

The name ''Yabucoa'' is said to come from the

Taíno The Taíno are the Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, Indigenous peoples of the Greater Antilles and surrounding islands. At the time of European contact in the late 15th century, they were the principal inhabitants of most of what is now The ...

name ''Guaroca'', both a toponymic and personal name meaning "where water s found. However this is considered a

folk etymology Folk etymology – also known as (generative) popular etymology, analogical reformation, (morphological) reanalysis and etymological reinterpretation – is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a mo ...

and other linguists suggest the name is most likely a

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

interpretation of the Taíno word ''yaucoa'' (similar to the name Yauco) which means "

cassava ''Manihot esculenta'', common name, commonly called cassava, manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America, from Brazil, Paraguay and parts of the Andes. Although ...

plantation". Some nicknames of the city are "Sugar City", after the numerous sugarcane plantations of the Yabucoa Valley, and ''Pueblo de Yuca'' ("Yuca Town") which references the Taíno origin of the name of the town. The locals are also known as the ''Bebe Leches'' ("milk drinkers") after the numerous dairy farms located in the region.

History

The region of what is now Yabucoa belonged to the

region of Guayaney, which covered a portion of the southeast region of Puerto Rico. The region was led by cacique Guaraca. After the Spanish colonization, the region of Yabucoa belonged to

, and its territory was mostly used for

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, bovid ungulates widely kept as livestock. They are prominent modern members of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Mature female cattle are calle ...

and farming. Yabucoa, as a town, was founded on October 3, 1793, when Don Manuel Colón de Bonilla and his wife, Doña Catalina Morales Pacheco, donated the lands to the people. Maria 2017-09-20 1015Z

Map of landslides in Puerto Rico - Hurricane Maria 2017

Hurricane Maria Hurricane Maria was an extremely powerful and devastating tropical cyclone that affected the northeastern Caribbean in September 2017, particularly in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, which accounted for 2,975 of the 3,059 deaths. It is the ...

struck the island of Puerto Rico on September 20, 2017, as a high-end, category 4 hurricane, knocking out power to the entire island and also affected access to clean water. The hurricane made landfall in Camino Nuevo, Yabucoa and triggered numerous landslides, caused widespread flooding and damaged critical infrastructure. Yabucoa's municipal buildings sustained mayor damages, and up to 2500 other structures in Yabucoa were affected. Elderly were especially affected because many homes were completely destroyed. Many elderly living in Yabucoa died as a result of Hurricane Maria. People on oxygen machines died with the lack of electrical power. In June, 2018 the administrators of the municipality stated that they noticed an uptick in

mortality rates Mortality rate, or death rate, is a measure of the number of deaths (in general, or due to a specific cause) in a particular population, scaled to the size of that population, per unit of time. Mortality rate is typically expressed in units of d ...

(deaths) and were relaying the information since February, of 2018 but the government of

was not interested in hearing about it. Many more deaths were occurring than expected. An entire new section to the cemetery was built following the hurricane and the deaths that followed. As of June 12, 2018, eight months after the hurricane, more than 30% of Yabucoa homes were still without electrical power, stated the mayor of Yabucoa, Rafael Surillo. He stated there were 4,000 residences with between 12,000 and 15,000 residents without electrical power, of 36,000 residents. Large swaths of Yabucoa municipality including Guayabota, Tejas, Juan Martín,

Calabazas Calabaza is the generic name in the Spanish language for any type of winter squash. Within an English-language context it specifically refers to the West Indian pumpkin, a winter squash typically grown in the West Indies, tropical America, and t ...

, Limones and Aguacate barrios, and 100% of Jácanas were without electrical power for nine months, some since

Hurricane Irma Hurricane Irma was an extremely powerful and devastating tropical cyclone that was the first Category 5 hurricane to strike the Leeward Islands on record, followed by Hurricane Maria, Maria two weeks later. At the time, it was considered ...

had hit a week prior to Hurricane Maria.

Geography

The municipality of Yabucoa is located in the south-eastern coast of Puerto Rico. The Valley of Yabucoa is surrounded by the hills of the San Lorenzo Batholith on three sides and by the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba ...

on the fourth. The hills surrounding the Yabucoa Valley as well as the bedrock underlying the alluvium in the valley are composed of the San Lorenzo Batholith, a large, igneous intrusive body emplaced during the

Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the more recent of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''cre ...

(Rogers, 1977; Rogers and others, 1979). The San Lorenzo Batholith is a composite body that is composed of

gabbro Gabbro ( ) is a phaneritic (coarse-grained and magnesium- and iron-rich), mafic intrusive igneous rock formed from the slow cooling magma into a holocrystalline mass deep beneath the Earth's surface. Slow-cooling, coarse-grained gabbro is ch ...

(Kd),

diorite Diorite ( ) is an intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock formed by the slow cooling underground of magma (molten rock) that has a moderate content of silica and a relatively low content of alkali metals. It is Intermediate composition, inter ...

tonalite Tonalite is an igneous rock, igneous, plutonic (Intrusive rock, intrusive) rock (geology), rock, of felsic composition, with phaneritic (coarse-grained) texture. Feldspar is present as plagioclase (typically oligoclase or andesine) with alkali fe ...

granodiorite Granodiorite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock similar to granite, but containing more plagioclase feldspar than orthoclase feldspar. The term banatite is sometimes used informally for various rocks ranging from gra ...

, and

quartz monzonite Quartz monzonite is an intrusive, felsic, igneous rock that has an approximately equal proportion of orthoclase and plagioclase feldspars. It is typically a light colored phaneritic (coarse-grained) to porphyritic granitic rock. The plagioclase ...

. The Cuchillas de Panduras, a fork of the

Sierra de Cayey The Sierra de Cayey ( English: "Cayey Mountains") is one of three subranges of the Cordillera Central mountain range in the main island of Puerto Rico. It is demarcated from the eponymous main subrange of ''Cordillera Central'' by the San Crist� ...

in the

Cordillera Central Central Cordillera refers to the New Guinea Highlands. Cordillera Central, meaning ''central range'' in Spanish, may refer to the following mountain ranges: * Cordillera Central, Andes (disambiguation), several mountain ranges in South America ** ...

runs through its south. Santa Elena is one of its most prominent peaks with an altitude of . Santa Elena is located in Juan Martin ward. Pandura Peak rises above sea level. Pandura is located in the Calabazas ward. The altitude of the hills surrounding the Valley of Yabucoa reaches a maximum of about at the head of the Río Guayanés basin. The land surface in the Yabucoa Valley slopes gently from an altitude of about above mean sea level, at the western edge of the valley, to sea level where the valley meets the Caribbean Sea.

Barrios

Like all municipalities of Puerto Rico, Yabucoa is subdivided into barrios. The municipal buildings, central square and large Catholic church are located in a barrio referred to as . # Aguacate #

# Camino Nuevo # Guayabota # Jácanas # Juan Martín # Limones # Playa # Tejas # Yabucoa barrio-pueblo

Sectors

Barrios (which are, in contemporary times, roughly comparable to minor civil divisions) are further subdivided into smaller areas called (''sectors'' in English). The types of ''sectores'' may vary, from normally ''sector'' to ''urbanización'' to ''reparto'' to ''barriada'' to ''residencial'', among others.

Special Communities

(Special Communities of Puerto Rico) are marginalized communities whose citizens are experiencing a certain amount of

social exclusion Social exclusion or social marginalisation is the social disadvantage and relegation to the fringe of society. It is a term that has been used widely in Europe and was first used in France in the late 20th century. In the EU context, the Euro ...

. 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 Yabucoa: Ingenio, Jacanas Granja, Playa Guayanés, Tejas Trinidad, and Urbanización Jaime C. Rodríguez.

Demographics

Tourism

Landmarks and places of interest

*Guayanés Beach and pier *Kyle Rembis beach *Hacienda Santa Lucía Ruins *La Casa de la Cultura (House of Culture) *Roig Refinery *El Cocal Beach, also known as El Guano Beach *Public skatepark * Playa Lucia (Dead Dog Beach) *Petroleum Refinery * Punta Yeguas (and Inés María Mendoza Nature Reserve)

Economy

Agriculture

Yabucoa is known for its agricultural prowess because of the surrounding fertile

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains and typically containing a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams over ...

that produces most of the island's plantains and

banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus '' Musa''. In some countries, cooking bananas are called plantains, distinguishing the ...

s. Yabucoeños are known as "sugar people" because most of the valley was used for

sugar cane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fib ...

growth. In addition, one of the most visible landmarks when entering the municipality is the old Hacienda Roig sugar mill, one of the last mills that produced sugar in Puerto Rico. There's an oil recycling company, the only one in the Caribbean, called Olein Recovery Corp. operating in Yabucoa. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

Olein began manufacturing hand sanitizer.

Culture

Festivals and events

Yabucoa celebrates its

patron saint A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, Eastern Orthodoxy or Oriental Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, fa ...

festival in September / October. The is a religious and cultural celebration that generally features parades, games, artisans, amusement rides, regional food, and live entertainment. Other festivals and events celebrated in Yabucoa include: * Sugar Cane Festival - May * Beach Festival - May * – July * – October * – December Community events are held at the .

Sports

are the

Double-A (baseball) Double-A (officially Class AA) is the second-highest level of play in Minor League Baseball in the United States since 1946, below only Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A. There are currently 30 teams classified at the Double-A level, one for each te ...

team of Yabucoa and have won 4 championships. They won the 1994 championship playing against the . In 1995 they won against Cidra and in 1996 they won against Cabo Rojo. In 2020, was the eighth Puerto Rico Double-A baseball team to have won 900 games. The where the Azucareros played sustained significant damage from Hurricane Maria in 2017 and as of 2020 the stadium remains in disrepair.

Government

Like all municipalities in

, Yabucoa is administered by a mayor. The current mayor is Rafael Surillo Ruiz, from the Popular Democratic Party (PPD). Surillo was first elected at the 2012 general election. The city belongs to the Puerto Rico Senatorial district VII, which is represented by two Senators. In 2024, Wanda Soto Tolentino and

Luis Daniel Colón La Santa Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archaic ...

were elected as District Senators.

Symbols

The has an official flag and coat of arms.

Flag

The design of the flag of Yabucoa is abstract, inspired by the colors of the municipal shield; green, white and violet.

Coat of arms

In the shield appear two angels the Santos Angeles Custodios, patron saints of Yabucoa. The color purple (violet) field of the shield represents the highest dignity of the angels. The walking sticks are attributes of the traveller, and refer to the holy office of the Angels as guides and companions in man's journey in his earthly life. The canes are adorned with guajana flowers, representing the wealth of the sugar cane. The green land where the angels stand symbolizes the fertile

in which Yabucoa is located.

Transportation

One of the main roads to Yabucoa is the PR-3, which borders the east side of the island. Distance from the capital is approximately 1 hour. In 2008, a tunnel connecting the town of Yabucoa with the town of Maunabo was completed. It is currently the longest on the island. There are 41 bridges in Yabucoa.

Notable ''Yabucoeños''

* Nydia Velasquez - United States congresswoman * Carmen Delgado Votaw (1935–2017) - Civil rights activist * Christian Pagán - Winner of Idol Puerto Rico * Santiago Vidarte (1828–1848) - Poet * Antonio Ayuso Valdivieso (1899–1969) - Politician, lawyer, educator * Jose Facundo Cintrón - Advocated in 1872 and 1873 for the end of slavery. * Emilio Diaz Colon - member of the military * Luis Diaz Colon -Politician, mayor of Yabucoa * Jordan A. Caraballo-Vega - Computer Engineer,

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

Many residents of Yabucoa have served in the US military service and fought in US wars.

Gallery

Sugar cane land, Yabucoa Valley 1a34061v.jpg, Sugarcane field in Yabucoa in 1941 Seagrape (Coccoloba uvifera) shrub at Playa Lucia, Yabucoa, Puerto Rico.jpg, Seagrape shrub at Playa Lucia in 2015 Puerto Rico National Guard (37369889802).jpg, National Guard clearing debris in Yabucoa after Hurricane Maria in 2017 Playa Lucia en Yabucoa, Puerto Rico.jpg, in Yabucoa in 2020

References

External links

Yabucoa and its barrios, United States Census Bureau
*
Puerto Rico Government Directory - Yabucoa

News of Yabucoa on WALO Radio
{{Authority control Municipalities of Puerto Rico Populated coastal places in Puerto Rico Populated places established in 1793 San Juan–Caguas–Guaynabo metropolitan area