Country | Puerto Rico |
---|---|
City | Santa Isabel |
Coordinates | 17°59′46″N66°25′55″W / 17.9960252°N 66.4320599°W |
Refinery details | |
Owner(s) | Juan de Quintana (1737-1789) Juan Cortada Manzo (1800-1865) Juan Cortada Quintana (1865-1874) José Medina (1874-1874) Julio Mirailh Ortiz (1874-1884) Juan Cortada Quintana (1884-1906) Santa Isabel Sugar Co. (1906-1930) Central Aguirre Sugar Co. (1930-1974) |
Commissioned | 1873 |
Decommissioned | 1974 |
Central Cortada, also known as the Cortada Sugarcane Refinery, was a sugarcane plantation and refinery located in Descalabrado, Santa Isabel, Puerto Rico. The area where the refinery is located has been used for the growth and processing of sugarcane since the 18th century. [1]
The area where Central Cortada is located was originally called Estancia Descalabrado, owned by Catalan settlers named Juan de Quintana (from 1737 to 1789) and later Juan Cortada Manzo (from 1800 to 1865), who build the trapiche . The Cortada family kept operating the farm as part of their crop financing business, the Ponce-based Cortada & Cia. This company kept growing and acquiring new haciendas in the area, such as Hacienda Palmarito in 1868. The cholera epidemic of 1855-1856, which killed many estancia slaves, and the abolition of slavery in 1873 drastically transformed Puerto Rico's economy and impacted the sugarcane industry at the time. This period lasted through the Spanish–American War until the First World War. [2]
The Santa Isabel Sugar Company was founded in 1918 to build the infrastructure necessary to modernize and develop the sugarcane industry in the former estancia. This company was founded in 1918 and was owned by the Cortada family and shareholders J. C. Mc Cormick Hartman, Hugh Guillén, Isidro Abarca, Antonio Álvarez, Francisco Verges, George T. Parker, Leopoldo Cabassa, Antonio Alcaide, and Rafael Fabián. The director was Juan Cortada Tirado. Most of the sugarcane workers at this time were poor peasants who would come from the mountainous areas in search of work and alternative employment. These workers would often be called colonos (Spanish for "colonists") as the former slave-operated estancias and the communities that grew around them were now referred to as colonias or "colonies".
In the 1930s, the refinery was sold to the Central Aguirre Sugar Company, which operated the Central Aguirre refinery in Guayama. The refinery ceased operations in 1940 and due to grinding restrictions it remained closed throughout the Second World War. It opened again in 1944, and continued to operate until the 1970s. In 1970 it produced 16,968 tons of sugar, and it remained operational until 1974. [3]
Bayamón is a city and municipality in Puerto Rico. Located on the northeastern coastal plain, it is bounded by Guaynabo to the east, Toa Alta and Naranjito to the west,Toa Baja and Cataño to the north, and Aguas Buenas and Comerío to the south. Part of the San Juan metropolitan area, Bayamón is spread over 11 barrios and the downtown area and administrative center of Bayamón Pueblo. With a population of 185,187 as of the 2020 census, it is the second most populated municipality in the archipelago and island after the capital of San Juan.
Salinas is a town and municipality in the southern part of Puerto Rico located in the southern coast of the island, south of Aibonito and Cayey; southeast of Coamo, east of Santa Isabel; and west of Guayama. Salinas is spread over 5 barrios and Salinas Pueblo.
An hacienda is an estate, similar to a Roman latifundium, in Spain and the former Spanish Empire. With origins in Andalusia, haciendas were variously plantations, mines or factories, with many haciendas combining these activities. The word is derived from Spanish hacer and haciendo (making), referring to productive business enterprises.
Santa Isabel is a town and municipality of Puerto Rico located in the southern coast of the island, south of Coamo; east of Juana Díaz; and west of Salinas. Santa Isabel is spread over 7 barrios and Santa Isabel Pueblo. It is the principal city of the Santa Isabel Micropolitan Statistical Area and is part of the Ponce-Yauco-Coamo Combined Statistical Area.
Fernando Fernández (c.1850–1940) was the founder of the oldest rum producing company in Puerto Rico.
Corsican immigration to Puerto Rico resulted in the 19th century from widespread economic and political changes in Europe that made life difficult for the peasant and agricultural classes in Corsica and other territories. The Second Industrial Revolution drew more people into urban areas for work, widespread crop failure resulted from long periods of drought, and crop diseases, and political discontent rose. In the early nineteenth century, Spain lost most of its possessions in the so-called "New World" as its colonies won independence. It feared rebellion in its last two Caribbean colonies: Puerto Rico and Cuba. The Spanish Crown had issued the Royal Decree of Graces of 1815 which fostered and encouraged the immigration of European Catholics, even if not of Spanish origin, to its Caribbean colonies.
Hacienda Buena Vista, also known as Hacienda Vives, was a coffee plantation located in Barrio Magueyes, Ponce, Puerto Rico. The original plantation dates from the 19th century. The plantation was started by Don Salvador de Vives in 1833.
Hacienda Mercedita was a 300-acre (120 ha) sugarcane plantation in Ponce, Puerto Rico, founded in 1861, by Juan Serrallés Colón. Today Hacienda Mercedita no longer grows sugarcane and its lands are instead used for growing mangoes, grasses, landscape plants and palms, coconut palms, bananas, and seeds.
Juan Cortada y Quintana was a Puerto Rican politician, businessman, and landowner. He served as Mayor of Ponce, Puerto Rico, from 27 September 1872 to 4 February 1874.
Palacete Los Moreau is a house museum located in Moca, Puerto Rico. Historically known as the Labadie Mansion, the house inspired writer Enrique Laguerre to write La Llamarada. The property was restored as a museum and renamed the Palacete Los Moreau in honor of Laguerre's novel. It's listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Hacienda Iruena Manor House, and on the Puerto Rico Register of Historic Sites and Zones as the Labadie House.
Central Coloso, also known as Coloso Sugar Cane Refinery, was a long-running sugarcane refinery in Aguada, Puerto Rico. The refinery was established in late 19th century becoming one of the biggest sugar emporiums in the island. It remained operational until 2003, becoming the last sugarcane refinery to cease operations on the island.
Juan Enrique Cortada Tirado (1864—1937) was a Puerto Rican politician, businessman, and landowner. He served as a member of the Senate of Puerto Rico from 1917 to 1920.
Central San Vicente was the first sugarcane refinery in Puerto Rico, established in 1873 by Leonardo Igaravidez at Vega Baja.
Descalabrado is a barrio in the municipality of Santa Isabel, Puerto Rico. Its population in 2010 was 4,138.
Hacienda Azucarera La Esperanza is a former 2265-acre sugarcane plantation located in the Manatí river valley in the municipality of Manatí, Puerto Rico which was founded in the 1830s and, by the 1860s, was one of the largest in the island. It remained operational from 1830 to 1880.
Las Tres Haciendas Waterworks is an irrigation system located in southern Puerto Rico, in the municipality of Santa Isabel. It consists of a set of structures that were built between 1846 and 1886 by landowners to transport water from the Coamo River to the fields of their sugarcane plantations. Las Tres Haciendas is named refers to the three sugarcane haciendas it serves: El Destino, Florida, and Hacienda Santa Isabel.
Hacienda Santa Elena is a 500-acre historic sugarcane plantation located in the west bank of La Plata River in the Media Luna area of the municipality of Toa Baja, Puerto Rico. Santa Elena is recognized as a historic monument by the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture (ICP) since 1983, and it was added to the United States National Register of Historic Places in 1992, and on the Puerto Rico Register of Historic Sites and Zones in 2000, as it is the only existing 18th-century industrial complex not only in Puerto Rico but also the Caribbean, in addition to being the oldest existing sugar mill of its kind in the Western Hemisphere.