San Juan de la Maguana

**San Juan de la Maguana** is a city in the western  Dominican Republic, capital of the San Juan Province.

## San Juan de la Maguana

### Region

 San Juan Province
Del Valle

### Distance to:

Comendador:
54 km (*34 mi.*)
Santo Domingo:
190 km (*118 mi.*)

## Etymolygy

It was given the name of San Juan de la Maguana by San Juan Bautista and the Taino name of the valley: Maguana. The term Maguana means "the first stone, the unique stone".

## About

It was one of the first cities founded on the island, in 1503, and its name comes from San Juan Bautista and the Taíno name of the valley, Maguana. The Taino leader of Maguana was Caonabo, who fought fiercely against the Spanish colonizers. However, he could not prevent the Spaniards from installing and Diego Velázquez, II admiral of the Ocean Sea, founded the well-known city.

Later, this city was the victim of numerous incursions by the black Maroons, taking it as a crossing point between the Cibao and Neyba or Bahoruco. These Maroons were joining the ranks of the Enriquillo chieftain. Later, an earthquake destroyed the city of San Juan de Maguana completely.

Once rebuilt, this city has witnessed many battles in all the conflicts in which the island has been immersed, but they are remembered through commemorations as the monument in honor of the heroes of Santome .

In this town there are many squares and quite crowded parks such as the José María Cabral park, also known as the “Donkey Park”; the Caonabo park; Francisco del Rosario Sánchez park and Anacaona Square.

The cathedral of San Juan Bautista is an impressive building very important in the city.

## History

San Juan de la Maguana is one of the oldest cities in the country. It occupies the same valley where the cacicazgo de Maguana and the historic “Corral de los Indios” had a seat. Its leader and leader was Caonabo (which in aboriginal language means “great lord of the earth”), an untamed chief who fought a hard battle against the Spanish colonizers.

San Juan de la Maguana was founded at the beginning of the 16th century (around 1504) by Diego Velázquez, who was the Second Admiral of the Ocean Sea, founded in La Española the towns of Villanueva de Yáquimo, San Juan de la Maguana, Azua de Compostela, Salvatierra de la Sabana, Santa María de la Vera Paz and Bánica and in Cuba the cities of Our Lady of the Assumption of Baracoa, San Salvador de Bayamo, Santiago de Cuba, Holy Trinity, Santa María de Puerto Príncipe, Sancti Spíritus, San Cristóbal de la Habana and San Juan de los Remedios.

He was married to María de Cuéllar, of his own nature, daughter of the Cristóbal de Cuéllar accountant. The marriage was short lived, because she died a week after getting married.

Velázquez died on the night of June 11-12, 1524 in his house in Santiago de Cuba, which still stands. When he died he left, among his properties: 19 rooms, 3,000 pigs and 1,000 cattle.

Following his relative Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar, various relatives of the governor arrived in America, employed in different jobs and always under the protection of the advance. They stand out from them:

Juan Velázquez de León, conqueror, captain of Hernán Cortés. Francisco Velázquez, conqueror of Mexico and Nueva Galicia. Antonio Velázquez de Narváez, conqueror of Mexico, Nueva Galicia and other provinces. Diego Velázquez el Mozo, (nephew of the Governor of Admiral Don Diego Velázquez y Cuellar). Jorge Velázquez was the mayor of Santo Domingo, where he served as mayor of Sancti Espiritu in 1521. Alonso Velázquez, who after serving the king ten years in Italy in the company of Martín de Ratia, marched with Hernando de Soto in 1538 to discover the provinces of Florida, where he endured unspeakable jobs. In 1543 he was a neighbor of Mexico and was preparing to participate in the army that was to be sent to pacify Peru, but the rebellion ceased and he married. He still lived in Mexico in 1547. Francisco Velázquez el Corcovado, a relative of the governor of Cuba, where he was in 1518. The following year he marched with Hernán Cortés to Mexico and later returned to Cuba with other captains of the Pánfilo de Narváez navy, because Cortés gave them a license and one of the best ships to return. Pedro Velázquez, nephew of Governor Diego Velázquez de Cuellar, was a neighbor of Havana in 1519, from where he marched with Pánfilo de Narváez the following year. He returned to Cuba and during 1546–1555 he was a neighbor and lieutenant governor of Havana. Iseo Velázquez de Cuéllar, the governor's niece, was in Cuba in 1519 with her husband Baltasar Bermúdez, later moving to Mexico. Antonio Velázquez, relative of the governor, who died in a campaign led by Hernando de Soto in Florida in the years of 1539. Francisco and Bernaldino Velázquez, children of Violante Velázquez and relatives of the governor.

They died returning from the Indies, having granted both testaments, in which they left their mother as universal heiress, and one of them was commissioned to bring two natural children to Spain, with all her property. Diego Velázquez, who embarked with Hernando de Soto in 1538 towards Florida. The chronicler Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas, who recounts the Florida campaigns of 1541, says his services, says: in them was a brave soldier, named Diego Velázquez, from Cuéllar. Bernardino Velázquez, relative of the governor, was one of the men that Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar took into account when appointing the head of the expedition to New Spain, which he finally entrusted to Hernán Cortés. Antonio Velázquez Borrego was another of the men whom Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar proposed to captain the army heading to the Yucatan, as he also did with Francisco Verdugo, another relative, on the banks of the San Juan River.

The mandate for its foundation was ordered by Nicolás de Ovando, governor of the island for the time. The first family to settle in this city was the Ramírez, being considered Wenceslao Ramírez and the Ramírez Roa brothers the patriarchs of the city of San Juan de la Maguana.

Since its inception San Juan was a flourishing town because of the richness of its flora and the benevolence of its climate. The cultivation of fruit and food of all kinds, in addition to the exploitation of sugarcane as an important commercial line, constituted the main line for the use of labor. San Juan had in principle four "sugar mills" for the exploitation of the cane that the colonists called "sugar mills". The first of these trapiches was installed in the center of the town.

Depending on this town were the farmhouses and hamlets of La Higuera, patriarchal seat of the "encomendador" Don Francisco de Valenzuela and birthplace of the Indian Guarocuya. Guarocuya is the aboriginal name of Enriquillo, who would rise in arms against the colonizers.

Originating in the plains of San Juan de la Maguana and covering itself with glory in the abrupt mountain ranges of Bahoruco, the fierce fight waged by the Indian Enriquillo against the Spanish hosts proudly fills our people and symbolizes the first great battle for freedom in America just conquered The impossibility of defeating the indigenous forces forced the Spaniards to sign a peace treaty with the forces raised in arms, a treaty called "Barrionuevo".

By 1550, the first town was almost deserted because of the incursions of the so-called "black Maroons", who took San Juan as a crossing point between the Cibao and the "manieles" of Neyba and Bahoruco, causing damage to their crossings These black Maroons continuously swelled the forces of rebellion led by Enriquillo. Finally, a great earthquake ended the first village of La Maguana, destroying it completely.

In 1592, a neighbor of Yaguana, named Antonio de Ovalle, took a seat at the hearing to refound San Juan de la Maguana. This is how San Juan was founded for the second time and Ovalle was his corregidor. Following the invasion of Penn and Venables, carried out with troops that disembarked in Azua, San Juan was occupied by the English, who resisted and set fire to the mills and the town located in what is now called La Culata.

In the wars of Independence against the Haitian colonizers, San Juan achieved the unique privilege of setting the stage for a significant defeat to the invading army of that country in the Battle of Sabana de Santomé staged on December 22, 1855.

## Geography

San Juan de la Maguana is located in the center of the San Juan Valley, the old Taino Maguana, with the Cordillera Central ("Cordillera Central" ) to the north and east, and the Sierra de Neiba to the south. To the west there is a chain of low hills.

The San Juan River is the main river in the region and the municipality is located on the banks of it.

According to the ONE, the municipality has a total land area of 1,876.21 square kilometers (724.41 square miles). It is bordered by Elías Piña town of Pedro Santana on the northwest, the Santiago Rodriguez city of Sabaneta on the north, the Santiago town of San José de las Matas to the northeast, the town of Bohechío on the east, the Azua town of Las Yayas de Viajama on the southeast, the Barohuco city of Tamayo on the south, the towns of Vallejuelo and El Cercado on the southwest, and the town of Las Matas de Farfán on the west. It also surrounds the town of Juan de Herrera.

## Economy

The main economic activities of the province are livestock and agriculture; In this valley, there has been a simarronada of cattle, goats and horses that have disappeared since the years; then dairy cattle were introduced as the first milk producing province in the southwest. Agriculture, thanks to the fertile lands and the climate, are suitable for the cultivation of cereals and legumes such as: beans, beans, rice, corn, peanuts, guandules, beans and sorghum, which have given the name to the province of "El Granero del Sur".

### Tourism

San Juan de la Maguana has interesting places that can be found outside the city limits. The José del Carmen Ramírez National Park reserves an innumerable amount of activities to do and things to see as well as the incredible Neiba mountain range.

In El Batey , an old settlement of Maroons, we found the Anacaona Stone in the Ceremonial Square El Corral de los Indios . In addition, we can find places of interest such as El Cercado , the Municipal Cemetery or the ruins of the colonial city La Culata , San Juan Viejo and the ruins of the Old Ingenuity of Juan de León .

A series of spas await the arrival of the visitor, such as those of the Yaque del Sur , San Juan or Los Baos rivers, among others, or the sulphurous springs of Oregano Grande , in the Dajay Valley .

Likewise, since ecological tourism is in vogue, many excursions are offered, such as those of the Seboruco cave , those of the Furnias de Catanamatías , those of the San Francisco cave in Bánica , or the mouth of the ancient volcano of Caracol , in Asiento Luisa.

Visit also the dam and the lake of Sabana Yegua and contemplate its imposing beauty surrounded by the beautiful tropical vegetation.

## Heritage

The festivities of San Juan de la Maguana are celebrated on **June 24** of each year, the day of San Juan Bautista.

## References

San Juan de la Maguana [1], [2]

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