Utuado is a municipality of Puerto Rico located in the central/western mountainous region of the island known as La Cordillera Central . It is located north of Adjuntas and Ponce; south of Hatillo and Arecibo; east of Lares; and west of Ciales and Jayuya. In land area it is the third largest municipality in Puerto Rico (after Arecibo and Ponce). According to the 2000 US Census the city has a population of 35,336 spread over 24 wards and Utuado Pueblo (the downtown area and the administrative center of the city). The name Utuado derives from the Taíno word "Otoao", meaning "between mountains". The municipality's known as La Ciudad del Viví meaning The City of the Viví ; Viví is the river that runs through Utuado: one part of it comes from Adjuntas and the other from Jayuya. These two rivers then meet near the Fernando L. Ribas Dominicci Avenue and continue the journey to Lago Dos Bocas.
Utuado is the principal city of the Utuado Micropolitan Statistical Area and is part of the San Juan-Caguas-Fajardo Combined Statistical Area.
History
Utuado was founded October 12, 1739 by Sebastian de Morfi, on behalf of 60 families from Arecibo. It was the first town established in the interior mountainous region of the island known as La Cordillera Central and the 11th oldest established municipality in Puerto Rico, following: San Juan, San Germán, Coamo, Arecibo, Aguada, Loiza, Ponce, Añasco, Guayama and Manati.
Columbus's arrival
At the time of the discovery of the island on November 19, 1493 by Christopher Columbus, Puerto Rico was inhabited by the Taíno Indians. The Taínos were a culturally developed society with a universal language, a developed agricultural system, and a social organization based on caciques or chieftains. The Utuado area was ruled over by cacique Guarionex. In barrio Caguana, the Taínos built an impressive series of courts or bateyes , The Caguana Ceremonial Park or Centro Ceremonial Indígena de Caguana , that is considered the best example of Taino engineering in the West Indies.
Utuado's early history: XVI - XVIII
In his epic work El Dorado Borincano, La economia de la conquista 1510-1550 , Jalil Sued Badillo gives a detailed account of the economic state of Puerto Rico during the first decades after the discovery and mentions the importance of the Otoao region. From 1510 through 1513 the island witnessed a Taíno rebellion as a result of harsh and inhumane treatment by the Spanish settlers. During the process of pacification many Spaniards settled in the area now occupied by the municipality of Utuado and set up farms ( haciendas ), initially on behalf of the Spanish government (Hacienda Real), to provide food to the Indian slaves working the gold mines and the Spanish colonists in the area. One of the first settlers in the Otoao region in 1512 was Antonio Sedeño, the island's bookkeeper. His farm's main crop was yuca . His farm was sold in 1519 to Blas de Villasante, the island's treasurer, for 525 gold pesos.
Areas in the Utuado region that were exploited for gold include Salto Arriba, initially, then later in the 1530s Caguana and Don Alonso. In the 1530s, landowners in the Don Alonso area petitioned the Spanish Crown permission to establish a town in the area but it was never granted.
Once the gold mining era ends toward the end of the 1500s, very little is known about the Utuado region until the early 1700s. According to the Puerto Rican historian Fernando Picó, the few documents that exist indicate the area was mostly unpopulated and densely forested. On the other hand, he states the fact that Utuado is the municipality with the most caves, that most likely served as dwellings for Indians or runaway slaves.
The agreement to establish the town of Utuado by the 60 families of Arecibo states they purchased the "Hato de Otoao" for 569 pesos and 5 reales from owners Manuel Natal and Felipa Román. It also states their desire to choose where on the land the Town Center would be located, which indicates the area was not populated yet.
During his visit to the island in 1771, Fray Iñigo Abbad y Lasierra states the principal economic activity in the Utuado region was cattle raising, horses and mules. He mentions a small amount of agricultural activity existed but the population only produced enough tobacco and coffee for their own consumption.
During the late 1700s and early 1800s Utuado's population continued to grow as coffee gained in importance and growers saw the need for high altitudes and mountainous terrain to produce the best coffee beans. People not only migrated from the Puerto Rican coastal towns but also from Ireland (Founder Sebastian de Morfi = Sebastian Murphy), Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands of Majorca and Minorca, all seeking the riches that coffee had to offer.
The golden era of coffee - "black gold"
During the late 1800s Utuado experienced an explosive economic growth centered around the cultivation of coffee, also known at the time as oro negro or "black gold." By the 1890s Utuado was the largest producer of coffee in Puerto Rico and the second municipality (after Ponce) with the largest population. It produced a rich social lifestyle for many of its citizens and a casino and theatre were established in the town. The progress of the town was so evident that the regent Queen of Spain, María Cristina, honored the town with the title of Ciudad (City) on August 20, 1894. In 1896 or 1897 Utuado was the first city in Puerto Rico with a public electric lighting system powered by a hydraulic turbine power plant, and in that same year mayor Juan Casellas was planning a train system to unite Utuado with Arecibo. By 1899 this golden era came to a screeching halt due to two very important events that had a lasting negative effect on the city's economy. The first event was the United States occupation of the island in 1898, which made sugar the new crop of importance instead of coffee. Utuado's mountainous landscape was not ideal for growing sugarcane, making it impossible for it to compete in the sugar industry on a significant level. The second event and the one to have the most profound impact was Hurricane San Ciriaco in 1899, which literally wiped out the coffee haciendas.
The Utuado Massacre
One of the most tragic moments in Utuado's history occurred on October 30, 1950, during the Utuado Uprising against United States rule, which culminated in what is known as the "Utuado Massacre".
In Utuado a group of 32 nationalists, led by nationalist leaders Heriberto Castro and Damián Torres, fought against the local police during the independence revolts which occurred in various cities and towns of the island. The group was reduced to 12 men and retreated to the house of Damián Torres. Torres' residence was attacked by 50 caliber machine gun fire from four American P-47 Thunderbolt planes. The National Guard arrived later that day and ordered the nine men who survived the attack to surrender. Once the nationalists surrendered they were forced to march down Dr. Cueto Street to the local town plaza where their shoes, belts and personal belongings were removed. The group was then taken behind the police station where they were machined gunned. Four of the nationalists died in the act, they were nationalist leader Heriberto Castro, Julio Colón Feliciano, Agustín Quiñones Mercado, Antonio Ramos and Antonio González. González, who was 17 years old, pleaded for water and instead was bayoneted to death.
Demographics
Barrios (Districts/Wards)
Geography and topography
- Rio Abajo State Forest - between Arecibo and Utuado
Economy
Agriculture
Utuado has regained some of its coffee producing power and was the 3rd largest coffee producer in Puerto Rico in the 2002 USDA Agricultural Census. It also produces oranges (ranked 4th), plantains (ranked 6th) and bananas (ranked 9th). It has also been successful with livestock inventory ranking 3rd with hives of bees and 13th with pigs. Industrially, Utuado counts with a few companies that produce textiles, paper and stone.
Business
Utuado today is equipped with a modern and competitive telecommunications infrastructure. Major cell phone companies including Claro, Centennial and Sprint offer mobile coverage, and Liberty Cablevision and DirecTV offer cable and satellite television service, respectively, with Spanish and English channels (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CNN, and many others) as well as high-speed internet service. Most of the public areas in the University of Puerto Rico Utuado campus are set up with Wi-Fi wireless internet access.
Landmarks and places of interest
- Cascada El Saltillo
- Lago Dos Bocas
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