Aguadilla, Puerto Rico

Aguadilla, founded in 1775 by Luis de Córdova, is a city located in the northwestern tip of Puerto Rico bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, north of Aguada, and Moca and west of Isabela. Aguadilla is spread over 15 wards and Aguadilla Pueblo (The downtown area and the administrative center of the city). It is a principal city of the Aguadilla-Isabela-San Sebastián Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Aguadilla has been the recipient of the "Best Quality of Life Award", given by the National Mayor Association, in 2002 and 2004.

The present territory of the City of Aguadilla, was originally part of the territory of Aguada, which segregated around 1780 to form an independent party.

Formerly, all the section of Aguada's territory that today constitutes the Victoria and Higüey wards was known as Aguadilla. Long before 1770 in Higüey existed a village, which in 1776 Fray Iñigo Abbot, in his description of the towns of the island, mentions as the "new Town of San Carlos of the Aguadilla." Nevertheless, according to Dr. Agustín Stahl in his "Foundation of Aguadilla", it was not until 1780 that the town was officially founded. The construction of a new church and the proceedings to become independent from Puerto Rico and to constitute itself an independent party began in the 1775.

Aerial view of downtown Aguadilla.

The population in the Village of Aguadilla continued to increase constantly mainly due to its excellent port and strategic location in the route of the boats. In 1776, when Santo Domingo became independent for the first time, the loyals to Spain emigrated to Puerto Rico, mainly to Aguadilla, which caused the population to continue increasing significantly. In 1831, according to Don Pedro Tomás de Córdova, the party of Aguadilla belonged to Aguada. At this time, the territorial organization of Aguadilla was as follows: Pueblo Norte (North Town), Pueblo Sur (South Town), Ceiba Alta, Ceiba Baja, Montaña, Malezas, Aguacate, Dos Palmas, Camaseyes, Plainela, Borinquen, Arenales, Higüey, Corrales, Victoria, and Mangual.

Don Pedro Tomás de Córdova mentions the road of Aguadilla formed by the Point of Borinquen and the Point of San Francisco, as the "fordeadero of the ships that travel from Europe to Havana and Mexico". He adds that its "port is the most frequented in the Island due to the proportions that it offers to refresh all class of ship.

Ramey

Aguadilla was the site of the U.S. military's Ramey Air Force Base for almost five decades. During this period, Aguadilla was home to the Strategic Air Command 72nd Bombardment Wing, Heavy equipped with B-52s, a very strategic facility during the Cold War. During the early years of the base and throughout World War II, Puerto Ricans in the area became more Americanized than in remote locations, and the after effects are still apparent in Aguadilla, and other towns like Aguada, Moca and Isabela.

The military and Puerto Ricans from the surrounding communities generally had good formal relations, but the undercurrent of resentment in many aspects of the relationship was always just below the surface. The Ugly American attitude was far more prevalent in those days than today, and almost all Puerto Ricans have stories of abusive treatment or gross discrimination. They were often treated like second class citizens in their own homeland. In fact, many Americans stationed in the area didn't even realize that their fellow Americans were even American citizens. They expected the Puerto Ricans to treat them as if they were their great benefactors, rather than fellow American citizens.

Though the infrastructure still exists, it was handed over to the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico in the 1973. The aerial facilities are now civilian controlled by the Puerto Rico Ports Authority. The facilities now make up the Rafael Hernandez International Airport. The barracks now host the Faro Inn Suites, a 79-room hotel. The Officer's Club now hosts the Faro Conference Center, a 22000 sq. ft. (2044 sq. m.) meeting facility. The hospital is now the Courtyard by Marriott Punta Borinquen Resort & Casino, a 150-room hotel with a casino and the first Marriott in Puerto Rico out of the San Juan Metropolitan Area.

Ramey also hosts the University of Puerto Rico - Aguadilla Campus and the Friedrich Froebel Bilingual School (K-6). The High School became Ramey Job Corps Campus and the elementary school became the Esther Feliciano Mendoza Middle School. Centro de Adiestramiento y Bellas Artes (CABA) since 1979 has being the only plublic school of arts in Puerto Rico (7-12). In 138 Wing Road, Base Ramey you can find Alicia Sotomayor a well known watercolor artist.

Ramey is also the site of the new Ramey Skating Park and a new "mariposario" (butterfly farm).

There is still an active part of the base that hosts the Coast Guard Borinquen Air Station. There are also other government agencies based at Ramey. They include the United States Department of Homeland Security, Customs & Border Protection, and the United States Border Patrol, the Fuerzas Unidas de Rápida Acción (United Forces for Rapid Action) of the Puerto Rico Police Department and the Puerto Rico National Guard.

Tragedy on election day in 1944

On the early morning hours of November 7, 1944, Puerto Rico suffered the most violent railroad accident in its history in Aguadilla. Train No. 3 was traveling from San Juan to Ponce carrying passengers to their different hometowns for the island general elections to be held that same day. It stopped at the Jimenez Station in Aguadilla for a routine engineer and boilerman exchange with Train No. 4 which was heading towards San Juan. The engineer assigned to Train No. 3's ride from Jimenez Station to Ponce was Jose Antonio Roman, an experienced freight train engineer, but who had never worked in passenger travel. When the train left the station at 2:00am, it was hauling 6 passenger cars with hundreds of commuters and two freight cars.

At 2:20 a.m. the train started to descend a hill section known as Cuesta Vieja (Old Hill) in Aguadilla at what some witnesses described as an exaggerated speed. When the train reached the leveling-off point at the bottom of the hill it derailed. The steam locomotive crashed into a ditch where it exploded and one of the freight cars crashed into one of the passenger cars, killing many inside. Witnesses described the scene as horrendous, with some accounts stating that parents were throwing their children out the windows to save them from the wreckage. Chief of Police Guillermo Arroyo stated that the locomotive (No. 72), the express car, and three second class passenger cars were completely destroyed. Oscar Valle, an Aguadilla correspondent to the local El Mundo newspaper, summarized the scene in a more dramatic way: "The locomotive suffered a terrible explosion as it derailed, and the impact was so strong that 3 passenger cars were converted into a fantastic mound of wreckage. In the end, 16 passengers lost their lives, including the engineer and the boilerman, and 50 were injured in the crash.

Tourism

Aguadilla is part of Porta del Sol, as the Puerto Rico west coast is now publicized by the Puerto Rico Tourism Company.

Two of the main attractions of the town are Las Cascadas Water Park and the Aguadilla Ice Skating Arena, which is the only ice skating complex in the Caribbean.

Aguadilla is also known for its world class surfing beaches. Aguadilla's beaches, being the most numerous of all other municipalities, host a variety of amateur and professional surfing events every year. They have also hosted a variety of championships, including the ISA world championships in 1968 and 1988. Famous surfing spots in Aguadilla include "Surfer's Beach", "Table Tops", "Gas Chamber", "Las Ruinas", and "Survival".

Economy

Business

The retail sector has flourished with the building of the Aguadilla Mall along with Aguadilla Shopping Center, Aguadilla Town Center, Plaza Ferram, and Plaza Victoria. There are also stores on the downtown area.

Major banks are represented in Aguadilla. These include the Banco Popular de Puerto Rico, Citi bank, Banco Santander, Scotiabank, Westernbank and EuroBancshares, Inc.

[edit]Industrial

Aguadilla was once primarily a fishing village, but has changed with the times. Although there is still a great deal of commercial fishing in Aguadilla, the city is now also home to a variety of industrial plants ranging from Tyco, LifeScan, Symmetricom, Honeywell, and Hewlett Packard at San Antonio Technological Park. These industrial plants have drastically increased the income per capita of Aguadilla, giving rise to a robust middle class and upper-middle class, by Puerto Rican standards.

Aguadilla has two other industrial sites: Montaña Industrial Park and Camaseyes. Suiza Dairy, Micron Technology and Productos La Aguadillana are located in Camaseyes. While the Puerto Rico State Police Academy, Automeca Technical College, and another branch of Hewlett Packard are located in Montaña.

Communication

Radio

WABA WABA La Grande 850AM is located in Aguadilla.

WUNA-AM better known as Radio Una 1240AM is located in Aguadilla

Television

WOLE-TV Telemundo 12 both in Aguadilla.

WELU is a religious broadcast company.

WPRU-LP ABC 20 is an ABC affiliated station.

WSJP-LP CW 30 is a CW Television Network affiliated station.

WSJX-LP Fox 24 is a Fox affiliated station.

Demographics

Historical populations

Census Pop. %±

1960 15,943

—

1970 21,031 31.9%

1980 54,606 159.6%

1990 59,335 8.7%

2000 64,685 9.0%

As a whole, Puerto Rico is populated mainly by people from a Creole (born on the Island of European descent) or Spanish and European descent, with small groups of African and Asian people. Statistics taken from the 2000 census shows that 83.6% of Aguadillanos have Spanish or white origin, 5.0% are black, 0.2% are Amerindian, 0.2% Asian, 0.1% Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, 8.2% were Some other race, 2.8% Two or more races.