The Sugar Industry of Puerto Rico
 La industria del azúcar en Puerto Rico
by Emilia Badillo Joy
(c) CopyRight - Prohibido copiar, reproducir
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Trapiche primitivo.
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 ugar cane was brought to the New World from
the Canary Islands by Christopher Columbus,
and introduced into the island of Puerto
Rico from Santo Domingo, in 1515, to be cultivated
on the banks of the Toa river at the Crown's
experimental farm.
The first grinding mill was established in
Añasco, by Tomás de Castellón in 1523 and
was operated with oxen. From 1548 hundreds
of mills operated by water power (norias)
making moscabado sugar began operations.
The industry was in the hands of small landowners
whose enterprises succeeded or failed depending
on the price of sugar in the market or the
whims of the Spanish Crown.
The first "Centrales" or factories
with equipment operated by steam were established
from 1873 to 1876 - whereby the sugar crystals
got separated from the molasses in centrifuges.
The machinery was purchased in England or
France. The outmoded smaller mills (trapiches)
vanished after the end of slavery in 1873.
| First factory to modernized by expanding
its land holdings was San Vicente (Leonardo
Igaravides in Vega Baja) and was soon followed
by Coloso (Emilio Vadi in Aguada), and Luisa (Maunabo), San Felipe
(Naguabo), San Luis (Carolina), and Josefina
(Río Piedras). |
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Ruinas de la central San Vicente; 1984. |
At the 1882 Exposition in Ponce, two owners
received gold and honorary medals for the
high quality sugar obtained with the new
process: these were Vadi and the Cabrera
Brothers from the Boca Chica hacienda close
to Ponce. But in 1882 there were still only
five or six centrales working in the island
of Puerto Rico.
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| Central Coloso, Aguada, en ruinas. |
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Central San Vicente; 1960. |
After sovereignty was transferred to the
US in 1898, the industry grew with the impetus
of the sugar interests from the mainland.
From then until the Spring of 2000, when
Coloso closed after its last harvest, sugar
cane was the most important cash crop of
the island of Puerto Rico. The industry struggled
through the XX century with market price
competition, a diminishing and expensive
labor force, the cost of transportation,
the sugar quota system and the need to fertilize
and irrigate the land, so harsh that eventually
became bankrupt. In 1936 there were approximately
43 centrales operating under a sugar quota
of 909,445 short tons (2,000 lbs or net ton)
This had been established by the Jones-Costigan
Act, which allowed Puerto Rico to ship the
raw product to the USA without payment of
duty.
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| Central Coloso. |
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Thirty four centrales ceased operations between
1942 and 1977. The largest survived for another
decade: Cambalache (Arecibo) and Guánica
(Ensenada) closed in 1981 to be followed
by Aguirre (Salinas) in 1990, Mercedita in
1994, La Plata (San Sebastián) 1996, and
finally Coloso and Roig (Yabucoa) in 2000.
An industry and a way of life came to an
end. The "colonos" or farmers who
planted the crops and sent it to the factory
to be processed, hardly ever saw their efforts
compensated at the time their sugar was sold.
The growing period for the crop usually took
fourteen months or more, from planting during
the last four months of the year until grinding
began following January. It was necessary
to replant every four years or so. Most raw
sugar was shipped to refineries in the East
Coast but by the second half of the century
Guánica, Mercedita, Igualdad, Roig and San
Francisco had acquired refining machinery.
The workers abandoned the island after WWII
for full time jobs and better wages elsewhere
and the colonos abandoned the sugar industry.
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| Central San Vicente siendo desmantelada. |
José R. Abad writing in 1882 foresaw the
end when he observed that the owners had
insisted in expanding (investment of capital)
by acquiring more powerful machinery and
lands, absorbing every small agricultural
plot and therefore eliminating other forms
of agriculture, and eventually redistributing
the riches of the land to the detriment of
the island's social well being. Looking back,
we could say that changes were to come with
the whims of a more modern century and rethinking
of the choices made under another set of
circumstances.
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| Ruinas de lo que fue la Central San Vicente. |
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Centrales in operation in 1940, location
(closest town) and date they closed down:
Playa Grande in Vieques (1942); Carmen in
Vega Alta (1945); Caribe in Salinas (1946);
Boca Chica in Juana Díaz (1946); Herminia
in Villalba (1947); Santa Barbara in Jayuya
(1948); Pellejas in Adjuntas (1949); San
Joseé in Río Piedras (1952); Constancia in
Ponce (1954); Rochelaise in Mayagüez (1957);
Victoria in Carolina (1957); Pasto Viejo
in Humacao (1958), Ejemplo in Humacao (1961);
Constancia in Toa Baja (1962); Guamaní in
Guayama (1963); Juanita in Bayamón (1963);
Plazuela in Barceloneta (1963). |
Canóvanas in Loíza (1965); Santa Juana in
Caguas (1966); Cayey in Cayey (1967); Machete
in Guayama (1967); Rufina in Guayanilla (1967);
San Vicente in Vega Baja (1967); Soller in
Camuy (1968); Río LLano in Camuy (1970);
Lafayette in Arroyo (1971); Los Caños in
Arecibo (1972); Monserate in Manatí (1972);
Juncos in Juncos (1973); Cortada in Santa
Isabel (1974); Eureka in Hormigueros (1977);
Fajardo in Fajardo (1977); Igualdad in Añasco
(1977); and San Francisco in Guayanilla (1977).
FUENTES:
1. Manual of Sugar Companies. Farr &
Co, New York, 1937.
2. Gaztambide y Arán. La Isla de Puerto Rico.
Rand MacNally y Co., 1941.
3. Hernández Méndez, Eugenio. Crónicas de
Puerto Rico: desde la conquista hasta nuestros
días 1493-1955. Editorial de la Universidad
de Puerto Rico, 1969.
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