Mayagüez, Puerto Rico: History
The Mayagüez Metro Area (and part of Añasco) lies today on two former Taíno Cacicazgos (chiefdoms): Yaguex and Yagüeca, a region noted for its record of colonial resistance (i.e., Urayoán and Legend of Diego Salcedo). The Tainos constituted the majority of the island's inhabitants at the time of contact with Europeans in 1493 and called it Boriquen or Borinquen. Today, this appellation and its variations continue to designate the Island of Puerto Rico and its people. The Taínos came from South American branches of Arawakan speakers, more specifically from modern-day Venezuela, and lived in small villages, organized their society in clans and named their chiefs Cacique. They were farmers who domesticated crops as pineapples, cassava, and sweet potatoes supplemented by fish and seafood.
Mayagüez was founded on September 18, 1760, by a group led by brothers Faustino and Lorenzo 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. The Spanish Crown granted the founders the right to self-government in 1763, formally separating the town from the larger Partido de San Germán. The settlement was named Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria de Mayagüez (Our Lady of Candelaria of Mayagüez) to evoke an apparition of the Virgin Mary on the island of Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands. Most of the town's settlers, including its founders, migrated from the archipelago, whose patron saint is the Virgin of Candelaria.
On May 7, 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 July 10, 1877, the villa received its city charter from the Royal Crown of Spain.
Puerto Rico was ceded by Spain in the aftermath of the Spanish–American War under the terms of the Treaty of Paris of 1898 and became a territory of the United States. In 1899, the United States Department of War conducted a census of Puerto Rico finding that the population of Mayagüez was 35,700, making it one of the largest towns in Puerto Rico at the time.
The city's main Roman Catholic church, Our Lady of the Candelaria, was built in a plot consecrated on August 21, 1760. Its first masonry building was erected in 1780. The current church was built in 1836, and was rebuilt in 1922. The redesign by architect Luis Perocier sought to restore the building to its original splendor. The 1918 San Fermín earthquake had destroyed the temple's ceiling, and a lightning bolt 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 rebuilding to be scaled-down considerably. …