Adjuntas

Adjuntas is a municipality belonging to the Free Associated State of Puerto Rico.  It is located in the mountainous area, specifically in the western region of the Cordillera Central.  The city is bordered to the north and east by Utuado, to the south by Yauco, Guayanilla, Penuelas and Ponce, and by Lares to the west.
Historian Rafael J. Mirabal Linares, born in 1900, is a native of Adjuntas.  According to him the town was founded on August 11.  The village, mainly agricultural, was the second to be properly planned, according to Mirabal.

The town boasted of an electric telegraph in 1888, and in 1894 it was distinguished with the title of Villa Real.  This was acheived “by increasing their neighborhood, their progress and development of its agricultural trade.”  Adjuntas and Yauco are the two largest coffee producers.

Coffee production intensified during the last decades of the nineteenth century, and was intended mainly for export to Europe, where it enjoyed great esteem.  When some Latin American countries began to produce coffee, the price of the grain dropped significantly, and production in Adjuntas fell.

Adjuntas also grows and processes citron, which is sent to the European markets of The Netherlands, France and United Kingdom.  The Adjuntas family of Saliceti Mattei worked in the production, planting and making of citron for many years.

The Dutch DeJong family from Adjuntas continued the business as a corporation called Citron Export, located in the District of Adjuntas Garzas.  The planting and production of citron decreased when a strange illness attacked the plants.  Also, recovery from a hurricane in the late nineteenth century (1898) which caused caused extensive damage to local agriculture, has taken several years.

Adjuntas has a strong link with Corsicans, as is evident by the number of Italian surnames such as Gianoni, Saliceti, Pietri, Bianchi, Mattei, Battistini Antongiorgi and others.  Corsicans are from the island of Corsica, which was originally populated by Italians.

Hence the Italian surnames.  But in 1768, Genoa ceded Adjuntas to France.  In 1794 it was integrated into the French State, which explains the mixed language of French and Corsican, along with the strong presence of French culture.

Today, some Adjuntas families of Corsican origin maintain their properties on the island of Corsica. An example of this are the Pietri and Saliceti  families of Adjuntas, Puerto Rico.

The U.S. military established a post there in August 1898, occupying Adjuntas during the Spanish-American War.

U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, traveling for an inspection of the construction of the Panama Canal followed by a visit with the Governor of the Island, went by car through Adjuntas. In one of his letters to his son Kermit, the President described his trip to the interior of the island, indicating the steepness of the mountains and the colors of the landscape: “The next morning we returned in cars on different roads and it was even more beautiful.

Steps of the mountain made us think of tropical Switzerland.  We had to cross two or three rivers where teams of oxen pulled the car on water.  In a small village we had lunch outdoors, very good, with chicken, eggs and bread and wine offered by a wealthy couple who came from a Spanish coffee farm in the vicinity.”
It is believed that with his reference to “Tropical Switzerland,” Roosevelt was the one that gave Adjuntas the name for which it is known today, “Switzerland of the Caribbean.”  Another name for Adjuntas is “The City of Sleeping Giant” which is an allusion to the profile of a mountain that is visible from the village.