Vieques Island

Vieques is an island-municipality of Puerto Rico, located 10 kilometres southeast of Puerto Rico the main island.

Arecibo is also known as La Isla Nena

The Isola Madre has a story that the island was born when the island Mother went into the sea and opened her womb and gave birth to Vieques.
La Isla Nena is named after the bard Puerto Rican Luis Llorens Torres and combines beauty and history in an area of 33 km long by 7.2 wide.

The word derives from Vieques indoantillano and translated means ‘little land’ and the name Bieque or Taino cacique for islanders. The English settlers from neighbouring islands of Vieques called it Crab Island because of the large numbers of crabs on the island.

Vieques first appeared on maps in 1527 under its current name and there is no real consensus on the origin of the name and especially Taino. Mount Pirata at 301 meters West, and the Cerro Matias 138 m to the East dominates the landscape.

Surrounding the central highlands are populated coastal lagoons and extensive mangrove swamps and coral reefs.

The history of Vieques says the first inhabitants of the island were the Caribs. Later, French colonists arrived, the first Europeans who occupied Vieques but the king of Spain considered that Vieques was part of his domain and he expelled the French in 1647.

The British followed who built a fort and in 1718, the governor of Puerto Rico sent a ship and two schooners owned by the Puerto Rican pirate Captain Miguel Henriquez to fight the British. Abraham Wells, English Governor of Vieques, offered no resistance as he watched the English infrastructure including the fort, torched and the crops of corn, sugar cane, cotton and snuff razed.

European nations fought for 300 years over Vieques and in 1839, Spain ordered the construction of a fort to protect the territory against the claims of other European nations. In 1843, he founded the town of Isabel II now the capital of Vieques under Spanish rule and installed a military governor, Theophilus Leguillou, of French origin.

Vieques was one of the two peoples of Puerto Rico who was governor and in 1854, the governor of Puerto Rico annexed the island to the country and declared it a free port.

At the end of the Hispano-American War of 1898, under the treaty of Paris, Vieques was handed over to the Americans and until 1952 was not part of the Associated State of Puerto Rico.

Culturally over the centuries Vieques was enriched with three languages and ideologies: Spain left their language, the Spanish and England settlers inhabited the southern islands, and France left its mark on the structures and names of many streets.

Vieques residents are proud to have hosted the liberator Simon Bolívar, who is honoured with a bust of himself in the public square Luis Munoz Rivera legend has it that his famous words were after several days: “Let’s go it’s late!”