Mirador Puertorriqueño
by: Wilfredo Santiago Valiente, P.h. D.                                                                Archives

Remembrance of Times Past:
Christmas in Cabo Rojo, P. R. During the World War II Years
and Recollections of a Society in Transition

December 2006 - Cabo Rojo, with its beaches, excellent seafood outlets, camping sites and picturesque hotels, is to Puerto Ricans all over the island a kind of summer escape wonderland. In-between the Memorial and Labor Day festivities family vacationers flock the area to unwind tensions and preoccupations. This, however, was not so as early as 50 or 60 years ago. Located in the extreme south-western region of the Island, Cabo Rojo was at the time an almost isolated and highly traditional town community of sugar growers, cattlemen and small manufacturers which produced during the 19th century the legendary pirate Roberto Cofresí; political figures such as Dr. Ramón E. Betances and Dr. Salvador Carbonell and the writer and historian Salvador Brau y Asencio, in addition to a host of educators, musicians and military men, General Salvador Padilla, for example.

Founded in 1771 by Governor Miguel de Muesas with a flury of towns (Aguadilla; Cayey de Muesas; Caguas; Fajardo, for examples) after the occupation of La Habana by England in 1763, Cabo Rojo used to be an almost self-contained municipality where, for generations, families used to know each other and intermarry. In 1805 Puerto Real, the small fishing village five miles west of town, was opened to foreign trade and merchant ships from England, France and the young American Republic frequented the port. By 1828 the town already had a population of 10,235 inhabitants, including 851 slaves and numerous migrant families fleeing political turmoil in Venezuela (Brau) and Santo Domingo (Betances), as well as laborers, farmers and even adventurers from Austria (von Kupferschein or Cofresí), Italy (Carlo and Acarán), Croatia (Petrovitch; Wiscovitch) and the United States (Bruckman). Though Puerto Real was closed in 1841 by Governor Santiago Méndez Vigo to deflect its growing trade to the nearby Mayagüez port, its population continued to thrive, specially after the First World War (1914-1918) when the collapse of beet sugar production in Europe induced a sugar cane production boom in Puerto Rico, including Cabo Rojo. Notwithstanding the Great Depression (1932-1938) and the dislocations brought about by World War II (1940-1945), the municipality and town remained a lively place as its traditional household manufacturing industries (tayloring, Panama hats and mahogany furniture makers, for instances) and the local salt and fishing industries continued to flourish.

How was Christmas celebrated in 1945 in a slightly isolated town like Cabo Rojo just out of the depression years and in the midst of the difficulties and restrictions imposed by Word War II? To this end I must rely on early childhood memories and, equally important, the recollections of Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Nestor Asencio and his wife Matilde Matos, whose ancestors were original settlers of Cabo Rojo and who have been for many years residents of El Paso, Texas.The reminiscences will also help us relive the sudden collapse of the sugar industry in Puerto Rico as experienced by my grandfather after the short lived early World War II boom years and the transformation of the island in less than a generation from an agricultural to an industrial and service-based economy and society.

I should first note- to highlight the localisms inherent in close-knit, traditional societies- that though born in the nearby city of Mayagüez, I was registered in the non-existent Cabo Rojo 'Barrio Carbonell' supposedly located on the road to Puerto Real by the Hacienda La Monserrate. The largest sugar plantation in town, La Monserrate was established in the 19th century by the prominent Puerto Rican autonomist of Catalan descent Dr. Salvador Carbonell (the Virgin of Montserrat is the Patron Saint of Cataluña), who spent time in the El Morro jails in the late 1880's for his opposition to the then prevailing Spanish regime. Nor was my grandfather, Manuel de Santiago, a Cabo Rojo native.

Born in the Villa de San German, he grew up managing small sugar cane fields belonging to his father and his wife's- Emilia Irizarry- family. Unable to buy, or lease, farmland in San German during the First World War boom (land ownership in San German was highly concentrated), he opted to lease the Hacienda Borinquen in Cabo Rojo (where today stands the Urbanización Borinquen, not far from the old cemetery) from don Mateo Fajardo and his wife doña Antonia Cabassa, the owners of the small Eureka Sugar Mill in Mayagüez. The hacienda turned out to be sufficiently profitable to allow him the purchase, direct from Detroit in 1918, of a model T-Ford for $500.00 delivered at the port of Mayagüez. However, after the war, prices collapsed and the hacienda went bankrupt.

This upset not withstanding, in 1922 he leased over a 25 year period the 1,700 cuerdas (a cuerda is slightly less than an acre) the Hacienda Belvedere overlooking the Caribbean Sea, the second largest in the region located in the Barrio Miradero between Puerto Real and Joyuda, not far from La Monserrate. Founded in the early 19th century by the Monagas family (Belvedere was a palace in Vienna belonging to the Austrian emperor), and later owned by the Vidal family, the hacienda had a small sugar mill (trapiche) and chimney (still standing) and a large stone house with 'ausubo' ceiling. In 1922 the family moved from San German to Belvedere, but because of its 4 miles distance to town (my father and his older sister traveled to school in a two-wheeled horse-buggy) my grandfather purchased from don Julio Monagas his large, late 19th century, 'mamposteria' town house in the Calle Betances, in front of the Curry School, near the Cabo Rojo Alcaldia, the early 20th century Presbyterian Church (or 'el culto'), the Excelsior (Paraiso) Theater and the Cuna de Betances Masonic Lodge.

My father, who worked as an Agricultural Extention Agent in Cabo Rojo in the late 30's and early 40's was offered a job in San Juan at the Office of Price Stabilization, a Federal agency that regulated prices and the availability of scarce goods during the war years (1941-1945). However, after settling in Rio Piedras, he always took vacations from December 25th to January 8th, the day after the Three Kings celebration, to spend Christmas with the rest of the family in the large Calle Betances house. This is the source of my late World War II Cabo Rojo Christmas recollections, particularly the 1945/46 ones.

The 1945/46 Christmas season ingrained itself in memory. For one, my younger sister was then baptized in Cabo Rojo. Three additional events stand out in my mind: First, the big Chritmas party in the Hacienda Belvedere's wooden, sea-side house; second, the New Years Eve celebration in the Calle Betances; and, third, the Three Kings Day's children gift-giving event in the Cabo Rojo Lions Club. However, as Nestor and Matilde Asencio recently called my attention to, the most boisterous Christmas festivities at the time occurred in Cabo Rojo's popular barrios of El Cibao and La Pileta, as we shall later see.

The great depression and the war years notwithstanding, Cabo Rojo remained a relatively prosperous and thriving island municipality. To illustrate, it was not uncommon to find popular 1930's orchestras playing in town, such as the famous Whoopy Kids from Ponce, the Happy Hills from San German or, direct from the San Juan Escambrón Beach Club, the Rafael Muñoz Orchestra, well- known in Latin America through its RCA Victor recordings. In fact there appears to have then existed keen competition in Cabo Rojo at the time as to who threw the best party in town.

The Belvedere Christmas party in 1945 was celebrated shortly after the war's September 1945 end.The party aside, the day (to me) is memorable, for an additional reason. Prior to the attending the party, my father stopped at the century-old stables near the hacienda's old chimney to visit my grandfather's horse 'Caramelo'. The horse was saddled for me to ride with his caretaker holding the bridles, of course.

Caramelo was bought as yearling in 1940 from a Ponce landowner. The beautiful horse was a son of Dulce Sueño, the legendary Paso Fino stallion owned by don Jenaro Cautiño of Guayama and the sire of the five time Puerto Rico champion 'Guamaní' and of 'Caonabo', the Dominican Republic's champion owned by dictator Rafael L. Trujillo. My grandfather used Caramelo for his weekly hacienda round-ups and, occasionally, to ride in town on Sundays with his Panama hat and his habitual white-linen suit tailored by don Santos Ortiz Montalvo, who for three generations dressed caborrojeños.of all shades and colors. However, unable to buy the Hacienda Belvedere after the war, or renew its expiring 25 year lease, my grandfather parted with his horse in 1947, selling him (for $800.00, I am told) to a Mayagüez businessman, who, in turn, trained the 8 years-old horse for competition. Eventually, in 1949, Caramelo won both the Paso Fino and Bellas Formas titles in the island-wide competitions held in the old Sixto Escobar Stadium in San Juan.(My grandfather's ox-cart team, or yunta de bueyes, won the island-wide pulling strenght competition in the 1938 Ponce's Commercial and Agricultural Fair, besting the teams of the Eastern Sugar Corporation, the South Puerto Rico Sugar Co. and Ponce's Central Mercedita). Having lost control of Belvedere, however, don Manuel reluctlantly moved in 1949 to the Barrio Cupey in Rio Piedras, where he had bought in 1938, as a precautionary measure, a 340 cuerdas sugar farm, today the site of the Los Paseos residential urbanization by the modern Rio Piedras to Caguas Highway.

With the horse ride over, the family headed to the hacienda's sea- side wooden beach-house, located at the site of today's Club Deportivo del Oeste marina and gulf club, where a pig was being roasted. Once there, I deemly recall a boisterous crowd which seemingly included the hacienda's workers. Once roasted, I was given the privilege of having the pig's coveted crunchy tail.

Aside from the creche, or nacimiento, in the San Miguel Arcangel Church, there were no Christmas ornaments or illumination in the town's main plaza at the time, or in the plaza businesses, a practice that began to take hold in Puerto Rico after the war, particularly among the Old San Juan businesses influenced by New York-style, colorful Christmas ornamentation and marketing techniques. In Cabo Rojo's Church-oriented Christmas athmosphere, the New Year's Eve celebrations in the Calle Betances were not particularly eventful. After the habitual dinner, an RCA Victrola played 78 RPM records, while family friends and acquaintances came in-an-out with greetings and best New Year wishes. Shortly after midnight, however, don Hector Ronda, the immediate neighbor, spread burning frankincense at the house, and in the neighborhood as well; a ritual to bless homes in the coming year. Six days later, on the Three Kings Day (January 6th), a cousin took me to the 9:00 am Children's Mass where over 200 Cabo Rojo children gathered to kiss the newborn King, an old Cabo Rojo church tradition. Immediately after, the family headed to a special Three Kings Day toy-distribution event sponsored by the Lions Club, the civic-minded mainland United States fraternity established in Cabo Rojo during the 1930's by farmers, businessmen and town professionals, including my grandfather. Upon arrival, the Three Kings were distributing gifts, assisted by no-other than Santa Claus, a development which, during the fifties, but in a wider context, nurtured fears- unfounded, I believe- that Santa Claus would inevitably displace the Three Kings tradition.on the island. However, it may be said that the most lively and boisterous Christmas festivities in Cabo Rojo then happened in the popular barrios of El Cibao and La Pileta, as Nestor and Matilde Asencio and Sifredo Lugo Toro in his 'Estampas de Cabo Rojo' (1995), so well attest.

El Cibao and La Pileta were two popular Cabo Rojo barrios peopled by small businessmen, street and plaza del mercado vendors, car drivers, electricians, blacksmiths, etc., many of whom migrated to New York City during the early post-war years and organized themselves into the 'Caborrojeños Ausentes', one of the most active Puerto Rican township organizations in the City, and established Club Caborrojeño, the popular late 1940's and 50's Latin night-spot located in Broadway and 145th Street, Manhattan. Seemingly settled initially by dominicans fleeing the early 19th century Haitian invasion (El Cibao is a region in the Dominican Republic centered around Santiago de los Caballeros), El Cibao was located in the Cabo Rojo exit road to Joyuda and the Playa de Mayaguez (Guanajibo), while La Pileta comprised the Calle Mestre, a street in the eastern edge of town, three blocks from the central plaza, paralell to La Pileta Stream.

Nestor Asencio recalls that crab-catchers and the crab-meat vendors in the plaza del mercado were the driving force behind the barrios' Christmas celebrations. In their incursions into the crab- abundant seafront farms of Joyuda, the crab catchers would cut the pine-tree like, thorn covered pirinola trees and chop-off palm tree branches for distribution in El Cibao and La Pileta. The ornamented pirinola trees would decorate the barrios' homes, while palm-tree branches and electric lights were hung on lamp-posts and electricity poles along the barrios' streets. Meanwhile, don Rafael Barrios Graniela, the town's skilled plumber and electrician (most likely an uncle of Freddy Prinze Graniela, the tragic actor of the 1970's popular TV series 'Chico and the Man', whose mother migrated from Cabo Rojo to New York in the 1940's) would organize bomba dances, jibaro music entertainment and elaborate hand-made toys for distribution on Three Kings Day to the barrios children, as Lugo Toro recalls in an 'Estampas de Cabo Rojo' vignette.

As already related, don Manuel de Santiago, unable to buy or renew the Hacienda Belvedere lease, moved to his 340 cuerdas sugar farm in the Barrio Cupey, near Rio Piedras and became one of the large colonos (cane suppliers) of the medium-sized San José Sugar Mill. At the time El Cupey was a rain-soaked barrio peopled by small farming families (Silvas; Villegas; Figueroas, etc.) who, for generations, had supplied Rio Piedras, San Juan and Santurce residents with plaintains, bananas, yautias, and batatas (sweet potatoes), and whose Piedras River-which has its source in Cupey Alto and criss-crosses the barrio- was a source of crystal-clear drinking water to Old San Juan, Santurce and Rio Piedras vecinos during the 19th and early 20 century (During the 1920's the river was dammed and a small artificial lake created in Cupey Alto-the Lago Las Curias-which still supplies drinking water to San Juan residents) After 1949, the Cabo Rojo family usually spent the New Year's Eve in the Cupey house farm built during the war in the rural Cupey Bajo/Cupey Alto road. However, prospects for the sugar industry in the San Juan metropolitan area did not turn auspicious.

The boisterous Cabo Rojo family members spent the 1953 New Years Eve in El Cupey amidst rumors that the Mongil and the Mayaguez Seín families, two of the largest sugar farmers in the area, had decided to discontinue farming and engage themselves instead in major housing developments.(Eventually the San Gerardo and El Señorial Urbanizations) In October 1954, seemingly under pressure by the unfolding events, my grandfather passed away of a massive heart attack, aged 68, shortly before the 1955 harvest, his last. Indeed, a year after he passed away the San José Sugar Mill ceased operations (1956) due to a lack of sufficient cane to grind. In those circumstances, the proverbial family squables took over and a judge ordered the farm's sale to the advantage of astute and well-connected developers who bought the farm while simultaneously procuring that the future north-to-south Rio Piedras to Caguas Highway lay conveniently by the farm's western boundary, pararell to the Piedras River, and to its northern one by the projected Trujillo Alto to Guaynabo Las Cumbres Avenue, also close to the El Señorial development.

Meanwhile things were not faring any better in Cabo Rojo, not withstanding the early Post-World War II sugar boom. Shortly after my grandfather's demise, the over- a- century old haciendas La Monserrate and Belvedere ceased operations, as inevitably did the Central Guanica, the third largest in the world where the Cabo Rojo colonos marketed their cane. (Guanica Central built an extensive railroad- line system in the twenties that reached La Monserrate, Belvedere and other Cabo Rojo cane fields). Moreover, during the 1980's the Ruta 100 from Mayagüez to Cabo Rojo's Boqueron village and beach opened- up. The two-centuries old, close-knit, secluded town's agrarian-based social structures and way of life, and its century-old memories and traditions gradually, but inexorably, started to fade-away. Instead, a young, highly mobile, island-wide generation took over and a highly dynamic tourist-based economy- certainly unrecognizable to the previous one- was on its decided way ahead. Memories, however, die hard, as the recent refurbishment of the Paraiso Theater and the Calle Betances attest.

* Wilfredo Santiago Valiente, P.h. D., is a Contributing Editor to El Boricua.  Dr. Santiago-Valiente has a Ph.D. in Economics from Columbia University and is originally from Cabo Rojo.  Presently he and his wife make their home in Santa Teresa, N.M. near El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico where two married daughters and granddaughters live.