Coffee production in Puerto Rico has a checkered history between the 18th century and the present. Output peaked during the Spanish colonial rule but slumped when the island was annexed by the United States in 1898. [1] In recent years, the gourmet coffee trade has seen an exponential growth with many of the traditional coffee haciendas of the Spanish colonial period being revived. [2] Puerto Rican coffee is characterized as smooth and sweet. [3]
Coffee was first introduced to Puerto Rico in 1736 [4] as a minor cash crop during Spanish colonial rule from nearby Martinique, and was mostly consumed locally. By the end of the 18th century, the island produced more than a million pounds of coffee a year. By the late 19th century, coffee production peaked, and the island was the world's seventh largest producer of coffee. [1] Utuado was the most prominent site in coffee production before 1898. [5] This rapid rise in the quantity and quality of coffee produced in the island is attributed to immigrants from Europe who brought their expertise to bear on its growth. [1]
In 1898, the United States annexed the island from Spanish control, and it subsequently saw a decline in coffee production, as emphasis was more on growing sugar cane commercially. [1] However, there is now a resurgence of coffee production, with the traditional hacienda estates reopening, and additional areas being brought under the crop. New coffee farms have been started in the Cordillera Central where the nutrient content in the volcanic soil is conducive to high value production of gourmet coffee. [2]
The island's coffee producing areas are spread throughout Puerto Rico, lying at an elevation range of 2,400–2,780 feet (730–850 m) in the western central mountainous terrain extending from Rincón to Orocovis. There is also potential for growing coffee in the higher elevations in places such as Ponce, with a peak of 4,390 feet (1,340 m) in elevation. [3] The main areas which produce coffee are in the municipalities of Yauco, Puerto Rico, Adjuntas, San Sebastián, Lares and Las Marías in the northwestern central part of the country. [6] In recent years, production has been affected by factors such as cloud cover, climate change, high cost of production, and the effects of political unrest. It is also reported that about half of the crop remains unpicked because pickers are not available. [3]
Coffea arabica is the main species of coffee grown; popular varieties are Bourbon, Typica, Pacas and Catimor. The local consumption accounts for one third of the produce. Coffee from Dominican Republic and Mexico is also imported for commercial grade coffees for local consumption by fast foods and most small town cafeterias. The exported quantity is, however, very limited. [3]
Lares is a mountain town and municipality of Puerto Rico's central-western area. Lares is located north of Maricao and Yauco; south of Camuy, east of San Sebastián and Las Marias; and west of Hatillo, Utuado and Adjuntas. Lares is spread over 10 barrios and Lares Pueblo. It is part of the Aguadilla-Isabela-San Sebastián Metropolitan Statistical Area.
A 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.
Adjuntas is a small mountainside town and municipality in Puerto Rico located central midwestern portion of the island on the Cordillera Central, north of Yauco, Guayanilla, and Peñuelas; southeast of Utuado; east of Lares and Yauco; and northwest of Ponce. Adjuntas is spread over 16 barrios and Adjuntas Pueblo. Adjuntas is about two hours by car westward from the capital, San Juan.
Maricao is a town and the second-least populous municipality of Puerto Rico; it is located at the western edge of the Cordillera Central. It is a small town set around a small square in hilly terrain, north of San Germán, Sabana Grande and Yauco; south of Las Marías and Lares, southeast of Mayagüez, and west of Adjuntas. Maricao is spread over 6 barrios and Maricao Pueblo.
Yauco is a town and municipality in southern Puerto Rico. Although the downtown is inland, the municipality stretches to a southern coast facing the Caribbean Sea. Yauco is located south of Maricao, Lares and Adjuntas; east of Sabana Grande and Guánica; and west of Guayanilla. The municipality consists of 20 barrios and Yauco Pueblo. It is both a principal town of the Yauco Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Ponce-Yauco-Coamo Combined Statistical Area.
Throughout the history of Puerto Rico, its inhabitants have initiated several movements to obtain independence for the island, first from the Spanish Empire from 1493 to 1898 and since then from the United States.
The Puerto Rico campaign was the American military sea and land operation on the island of Puerto Rico during the Spanish–American War. The offensive began on May 12, 1898, when the United States Navy attacked the capital, San Juan. Though the damage inflicted on the city was minimal, the Americans were able to establish a blockade in the city's harbor, San Juan Bay. On June 22, the cruiser Isabel II and the destroyer Terror delivered a Spanish counterattack, but were unable to break the blockade and Terror was damaged.
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.
General Juan Rius Rivera, was the soldier and revolutionary leader from Puerto Rico to have reached the highest military rank in the Cuban Liberation Army and to hold Cuban ministerial offices after independence. In his later years he also became a successful businessperson in Honduras.
French immigration to Puerto Rico came about as a result of the economic and political situations which occurred in various places such as Louisiana, Saint-Domingue (Haiti) and in Europe.
An estancia is a large, private plot of land used for farming or raising cattle or sheep. Estancias in the southern South American grasslands, the pampas, have historically been estates used to raise livestock, such as cattle or sheep. In Puerto Rico, an estancia was a farm growing frutos menores; that is, crops for local sale and consumption, the equivalent of a truck farm in the United States. In Argentina, they are large rural complexes with similarities to what in the United States is called a ranch.
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.
The history of Puerto Rico began with the settlement of the Ortoiroid people between 430 BC and AD 1000. At the time of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1493, the dominant indigenous culture was that of the Taínos. The Taíno people's numbers went dangerously low during the later half of the 16th century because of new infectious diseases carried by Europeans, exploitation by Spanish settlers, and warfare.
The Yauco Battle Site is the site of the Battle of Yauco between Spanish and American forces in the municipality of Guánica, Puerto Rico on July 25 and 26, 1898. It includes agricultural fields plus the main house and a slave building of Hacienda Desideria, a coffee plantation in a small valley about 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) from the town of Guánica, which was headquarters of a Spanish military unit. It was the site of the first major confrontation in the Puerto Rican Campaign of the Spanish–American War.
The Intentona de Yauco of March 1897 was the second and final major revolt against Spanish colonial rule in Puerto Rico, staged by the island's pro-independence movement in the second half of the nineteenth century.
Antonio Mattei Lluberas, was a businessman and politician who in 1897 planned and led the second and last major uprising against Spanish colonial rule in Puerto Rico, known as the Intentona de Yauco.
José Maldonado, a.k.a. "Aguila Blanca", was a Puerto Rican revolutionary who fought with the Cuban Liberation Army and whose controversial exploits in Puerto Rico have contributed to making him part of Puerto Rican lore.
Brigadier General José Semidei Rodríguez was a Puerto Rican soldier and diplomat. He participated in Cuban independence movement that immediately preceded the Spanish–American War. Before becoming a brigadier general in the Cuban National Army, Semidei Rodríguez fought in the Cuban War of Independence (1895–1898) as a member of the Cuban Liberation Army, the rebel force which fought for Cuba's independence from Spanish colonial rule. After Cuba gained its independence he continued to serve in that country as a diplomat.
Non-Hispanic cultural diversity in Puerto Rico and the basic foundation of Puerto Rican culture began with the mixture of the Spanish, Taíno and African cultures in the beginning of the 16th century. In the early 19th century, Puerto Rican culture became more diversified with the arrival of hundreds of families from non-Hispanic countries such as Corsica, France, Germany and Ireland. To a lesser extent other settlers came from Lebanon, China, Portugal and Scotland.
White Puerto Ricans are Puerto Ricans who self-identify as "white", typically due to predominant European ancestry. The term "white Puerto Rican", as well as that of "colored Puerto Rican", was coined by the United States Department of Defense in order to handle their own North American problem with nonwhite people whom they were drafting and had its basis on the American one-drop rule.
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