Villa Altagracia

**Villa Altagracia** is a town in the San Cristóbal Province of the Dominican Republic.

## Villa Altagracia

### Region

 San Cristóbal Province
Valdesia

### Distance to:

San Cristóbal:
44 km (*27 mi.*)
Santo Domingo:
39 km (*24 mi.*)

## History

The lands that are currently known as Villa Altagracia were originally made up of fertile meadows bathed by rivers, streams and ravines, whose waters carried sedimentary gold, which attracted many people who lived in neighboring communities.

The privileged geographical location also made these lands an obligatory passage for merchant caravans that were heading towards Santo Domingo. At that time, the mail between the capital and the rest of the country was done on horseback, constituting this sector a comfortable route to reach the Cibao.

The preceding factors drew the first settlers, who came mostly from San Cristóbal, and to a lesser extent from the Cibao area.

**Municipal history**

Villa Altagracia began as an eminently rural community, with few inhabitants for whom the main economic activities consisted of agriculture, the search for gold in streams and ravines, and small businesses. The houses were primitive and were built with mud or manacla boards, roofed with herbs and yagua, and had floors made of earth.

The first settlers who dedicated themselves to agriculture settled in the mountainous part; those who dedicated themselves to the search for gold and trade did so in the flatter part, almost on the banks of the main rivers.

• In 1926, Ulises Henríquez established the first important construction, a terrace of reinforced concrete and rods, which functioned as the first hotel plaza in this community. It had rooms, a stable, a dining room, a resting place and an area for commercial exchange. This construction was known for a long time as *the Terrace,* and in recent times it has been used for other businesses, today commercial banking. During this period, such a town was known by the name of *Sabana de los Muertos.* It is not clear where the name came from.

Three theories try to explain its origin: the first maintains that it was called that because of the high mortality caused by malaria and yellow fever epidemics. The second attributes the name to the number of deaths caused by gangs of gangsters who robbed merchants and mail people who made stops here. The third, and less credible, locates this place as a meeting point for the battle of opposing groups that went to the jungle. Battles in which there were many deaths that were abandoned in the open field, which in turn also contributed to the development of epidemics that increased mortality. The name of Sabana de los Muertos was maintained until 1936, when it was raised to the category of Municipal District with the name of Villa Altagracia.

It is estimated that the places that served as settlements for these first settlers were Medina, Pino Herrado and what is now the urban area.

• Until **1940,** the community basically depended on agriculture, the search for gold, trade, animal husbandry and hunting, mainly the Cimarrón pig. In 1942, the installation of the subsidiary banana company of the United Fruit of Central America began to transform the relations of the economy and the behavior of its inhabitants. Dedicated to the large-scale cultivation of bananas, this company became known as Dominican Fruit, which obtained a large amount of land for its plantations, mainly in the northwestern part of the community.

With the installation of the aforementioned company, many farmers abandoned their own farms and were employed as wage earners. Simultaneously, a process of urbanization began, since both the executives of John Pay and their workers needed places to live. This urbanization process accelerated at the end of the **1940's** and took hold in the **1950's.**

• For the year **1948** the President of the Republic, Rafael Leónidas Trujillo began the process of grabbing the land to dedicate it to the cultivation of cane. By that year there were large banana plantations and the banana company, which was facing political problems in Central America and difficulties with the governments of the region, was forced to leave the country. Trujillo took advantage of the situation by increasing the sugarcane area and subsequently installing a sugar mill that he baptized with the name of Central Catarey.

The municipality was an economically prosperous community, which stimulated massive immigration attracted by "the sweetness of sugar". From that moment began the Haitian migration, who upon arrival were hired as laborers and housed in barracks.

• In **1959** the construction work of the National Paper Industry began and it was inaugurated in 1961, which contributed to brighten the economic boom and thus increased the immigration of people in search of better economic possibilities. Likewise, in 1953 the reconstruction (in concrete) of the Presidente Trujillo highway began (with which the old highway built in 1924 was replaced), generating new jobs and a giving a greater economic boost than had been experienced.

• At the end of the decade and beginning of the **70's,** the educational boom began. In 1969, what could be considered the largest number of resident high school graduates in Villa Altagracia entered the university.

• In **1970,** the secondary school was made official under the name of Manuel A. Patin Maceo, and its first director was Professor Guarionex Ferreira. From there began the massive entry of villaltagracianos to university classrooms.

This stage was also characterized by the boom in political, cultural, trade union and social activities, to which hundreds of young people joined. Political parties were also established, cultural and social clubs were created, unions were developed, creating a real effervescence that lasted until the first half of the following decade, when the government decided to close the Catarey sugar mill.

• In **1979,** the pineapple-producing agricultural company FRUDOCA settled in the Pino Herrado section, which continued to contribute to the municipality's economy until 1992, when it closed its operations.

With the closure of the mill in 1986, the most prosperous and active stage in the history of the municipality, that of the Trans-Catarey period, ended.

• In **1986,** the installation of the Free Zone began with companies dedicated mainly to textile manufacturing. Its production system caused a transformation in labor relations: the hiring of women surpassed that of men, becoming a fundamental part of the paid workforce of the municipality.

Also at the time there was a discreet development of housing projects with ecotourism characteristics in peripheral areas.

• Later, Frutas Dominicanas (FRUDOCA) and Induspapel were forced to close their doors in **1992** and **1998,** respectively.

## Geography

### Climate

Under the Köppen climate classification system, Villa Altagracia has a trade-wind tropical rainforest climate (Köppen Af). There is a definite wetter period from **May** to **October,** but even the driest months of **January** and **February** see at least 85 millimeters (*3.35 inches*) of rainfall.

The climate is hot, oppressive and partly cloudy. The temperature over a year varies from 18.3 to 31.7 °C (65 to 89 °F) and rarely falls below 16.7°C (62°F) or above 33.3 °C (92 °F).

## References

Villa Altagracia [1]

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