Notes on Vieques Archaeology
The Vieques' indigenous cultures room is named in honor of the island's
last chiefs, the brothers Cacimar and Yaureibo. These two "taíno"
(Arawak) chiefs led a series of defensive raids against Spanish
positions on the east coast of Puerto Rico in 1514. In that same year a
Spanish naval expedition destroyed Vieques' "taíno" population. Ample
archaeological evidence suggests several different cultural groups have
lived on the island during the past four thousand years.
The archaeological material in the first two showcases is representative
of several different cultural groups that lived in Vieques between 500
and 2,000 years ago. The artefacts belong to two local collectors,
Mario Solis and Pablo Delerme.
Vieques is one of the most important archaeological areas in the
Carribean in this past half century. Since 1978, the Center for
Archaeological Investigation at the University of Puerto Rico has
conducted important excavations here.
La Hueca and Sorcé, just west of Esperanza, were sites of significant
indigenous activity. Cultural material, including clay artefacts, stone
and shell tools and weapons and a particularly impressive array of
corporal adornments made of a variety of local resources as well as
"imported" semi-precious stones, make up a treasure of Vieques' Indian
artefacts currently under analysis at the UPR laboratories.
The stone artefacts - tools, weapons and religious materiales - in the
second and third showcases are from various "taíno" (Arawak) sites on
the main island of Puerto Rico.
The silkscreens on the final panels of this room are from the annual
Indigenous Festival held in the town of Jayuya in the central mountain
range of Puerto Rico.
Notes on Vieques Historic Architecture
The architecture of Vieques reflects the historic processes of the
Island's social, cultural and economic development since the mid 19th
century. The principal historic monuments of Vieques and places of
historic interest include: Fort Count Mirasol (Fortín Conde de
Mirasol), built between 1845 and 1855; the Puerto Mulas Lighthouse
(1896) overlooking the dock at Isabel Segunda; Puerto Ferro Lighthouse
(1896) inside Camp García on the south coast; the Frenchman's House (La
Casa del Francés) built in Esperanza at the turn of this century by the
French sugar planter don Víctor Mourraille; the tombs of Teophile Le
Guillou, the "Founder" of Vieques, in Santa María, adjacent to the ruins
of the Santa María sugar mill; ruins of the Playa Grande sugar central
inside Navy's west end base (NAF); and the old cemetery in town.
Several of these pieces of Vieques historic-architectural patrimony are
on the Federal Register of Historic Places and the Puerto Rican
Institute of Cultures Register of Historic Monuments.
A recently completed study of Vieques historic-architectural resources of Vieques
carried out with the help of the State Office for Historic Preservation
in Puerto Rico resulted in the nomination of thirteen new sites and the
compilation of new documentation and materials for our museum. The
presence and influence of French landowners during colonization; the
growth and development of Vieques' sugar economy, from slave days to the
industrialization in the post-abolition years; an increasing commercial
sector, serving the needs of the local population, the sugar
"haciendas", and with significant connections in the nearby Danish
Virgin Islands; a continuing influx of black, English speaking workers
from the British Leeward Islands and wealthy British and Danish
merchants from neighboring areas; and the greater interaction with
Puerto Rico during the twentieth century, are all significant elements
of Vieques' history, documented in the nineteenth and twentieth century
rural settlements, in the urban economical development of Isabel Segunda
and in the architectural expression of residential, industrial and
commercial buildings throughout the Island of Vieques.
Notes on Vieques Historic Process
This room is named in honor of Teophile Jacques Joseph Marie Le Guillou,
first Military and Political Governor of the Spanish Isle of Vieques
(1832-1843). The Taíno and Spanish weapons are replicas produced by
Puerto Rican and Iberian artisans. The flags in the room represent the
diverse European influence in Vieques' history: British, Danish,
French, Spanish. The Venezuelan flag honors the visit of Simón Bolívar,
Great Liberator of the Américas, to Vieques in 1816. The single star
flag of Puerto Rico and the flag of Vieques (blue, white and green with
the Fort in the center) are at the end of the room. The sugar industry
was the lifeblood of Vieques' economy for more a century. From the date
of the official establishment of the Spanish colony of Vieques (1844)
until the military expropiation of the Playa Grande sugar mill (1941),
dozens of sugar plantations and later, four large scale sugar factories
helped create a prosperous economy. Hundreds of French planters, from
the islands of Guadalupe and Martinique, moved to Vieques, with
permission from the Spanish government, early in the nineteenth
century. They brought hundreds of African slaves, who, together with
English-speaking free workers from the British Virgin Islands and creole
Puerto Rican workers, contributed to Vieques' social and economic
development. Thousands of workers were brought in from St. Thomas, Saint
Croix, St. Kitts-Nevis, Antigua, Tortola and from several towns in
southeast Puerto Rico, to work the sugar fields, central factories,
railroads, docks and other elements of Vieques' sugar industry. In the
first two decades of the 20th century four sugar mills - Esperanza,
Santa María, Arkadia and Playa Grande - ground thousands of tons of
sugar cane. By 1940, only the Playa Grande, the largest and most
productive mill, remained. Early in that decade the U.S. Navy began a
process of expropriations that led to Navy ownership of 72% of Vieques
territory in 1949. The arrival of the Navy put the last nail in the
coffin of an already dying sugar industry. Navy control of 2/3 of the
island's natural resources and several attempts by the military to
take over all of Vieques, contribute to the socio-economic crisis that
plagues the Island to this day.
