Permission to found the town was officially granted in 1752, under the leadership of founder, Captain Cristóbal González de la Cruz, who among other residents had an interest in converting some cow farms into an agricultural village. The foundation of the town from the religious aspect, was consummated in December 1762 by Mariano Martin, the island catholic bishop at that time. At the beginning, by 1700, San Sebastián was a conglomerate of a few cow farms, owned by some residents of the Partido de Aguada. Las Vegas was the former plain site of one of the first cow farms located by the Guatemala riverside at the north. Also, another of those cow farms was Pepinito (today's downtown) that was a prominent hill with a white calcium carbonate face. On the north side of the town it can be seen some of this pepinos (cucumbers). These two cow farms gave the town its first name. From these geographical features come the first names of the new village: Las Vegas del Pepino (Cucumber Fields). In 1865 it is documented as San Sebastián de Las Vegas del Pepino.
At the beginning of the 19th century, wealthy Spanish families arrived in El Pepino, fleeing the revolutions of Venezuela and the Dominican Republic. Later, by 1850, several families from Catalonia and the Basque Country in Spain joined the large number of isleños (Canary Islanders) that had made El Pepino their home. These people, after taking over the local political power, developed a coffee industry and brought some material progress to the town. Basques in the municipality, in remembrance of their home region and its religious patron, saw the need of updating old traditions used by the Canary Islanders and started to call the town San Sebastián, and thus got the name formally changed by the central government authority. Nevertheless, the citizens of San Sebastián are popularly called pepinianos.
San Sebastián Mártir (Spanish for Saint Sebastian the Martyr) is the patron saint of archers and was chosen to be the patron saint of the town since its early history, first brought by the immigrants from the Canaries and later confirmed by the Basques, with the town name changed in 1869.
Hurricane Maria on September 20, 2017, triggered numerous landslides in San Sebastián with significant amount of rainfall. The hurricane winds knocked all the power out and the town was left in the dark.[2][3]
The 40,000 residents of San Sebastián were left without electrical power.[4]
Two weeks after the hurricane decimated the island, Javier Jiménez, the mayor at the time, noticed that help was not on the way. He decided that San Sebastián would not wait for the AEE brigades to come. He assembled an ad hoc team of volunteers, some who were retired AEE electricians, set safety protocols, and their mandate was to get the electrical power back up and running for the people of San Sebastián.
Four months after the hurricane, they had restored power to 2,500 homes and continued to do about 60 homes each day.[5] A monument honoring the accomplishments of the Pepino Power Authority, as they were quickly named, was erected in Plaza de la Identidad Pepiniana in San Sebastián barrio-pueblo.[6]
Like all municipalities of Puerto Rico, San Sebastián is subdivided into barrios. The municipal buildings, central square and large Catholic church are located in a barrio referred to as "el pueblo".[9][10][11][12]
Barrios (which are like minor civil divisions)[13] are further subdivided into smaller areas called sectores (sectors in English). The types of sectores may vary, from normally sector to urbanización to reparto to barriada to residencial, among others.[14]
Comunidades Especiales de Puerto Rico (Special Communities of Puerto Rico) are marginalized communities whose citizens are experiencing a certain amount of social exclusion. A map shows these communities occur in nearly every municipality of the commonwealth. Of the 742 places that were on the list in 2014, the following barrios, communities, sectors, or neighborhoods were in San Sebastián: Guació barrio, Boquerón, Chinto Rodón, Estalingrado, Paralelo 38, Parcelas Perchas II, Pueblo Nuevo, and Tablas Astilla.[15]
Established in 2016 is the Veredas Sports Complex in barrio Guatemala. The complex which consists of a modern skate park, a sand volleyball court, a zipline with four stations, a climbing and rappelling wall, an outdoor gym, a rope bridge, basketball and tennis courts, and walking paths, is set within an urban forest of about six thousand trees. Hacienda La Fe, an agriculture museum is located at the complex.[23]
Other landmarks and places of interest in this municipality include:[24]
People at Gozalandia Falls in San Sebastián
The Robles Waterfall (located within the Gozalandia waterfalls zone) – It is a favorite with the locals however, several deaths have occurred at Gozalandia, including tourists[25][26]
Plaza Agropecuaria hosts a farmer's market on FridaysCafé El Coquí plant in Perchas I
San Sebastián is a producer of coffee, fruits, and has dairy farms.[24] There is a coffee production plant called El Coquí located in Perchas 1, a barrio of San Sebastián.[29]
There is also an air strip in San Sebastian, near Culebrinas River, which is visible on Google Earth.[32] The air strip is for the use of RC (radio-controlled) airplanes.
Culture
In the town is a Fine Arts and Convention Center called Centro de Convenciones y Bellas Artes, which was in the last phase of its construction, as of February 2019.[33]
Festivals and events
Heifer Festival and Hacienda La Fe mural in San Sebastián in 2019
San Sebastián celebrates its patron saint festival in January. The Fiestas Patronales de San Sebastián is a religious and cultural celebration that generally features parades, games, artisans, amusement rides, regional food, and live entertainment.[7][34]
The San Sebastián Heifer Festival (Spanish: Festival de la Novilla), celebrated every year on the first Sunday during the patron saint festival, is San Sebastián's largest festival attracting thousands of people. The celebration features carnival rides, the diverse music of Puerto Rico, cows decorated with flowers, floats and Puerto Rican cuisine. In January 2016, the town celebrated its 40th Heifer festival.[35][36]
Other festivals and events celebrated in San Sebastián include:
The Luis Aymat Cardona Coliseum is where the Los Caribes volleyball team plays their games.
In amateur baseball or Double AA baseball, the city is represented by the Patrulleros de San Sebastián, who play at the Juan Jose "Titi" Beniquez Stadium[37] and became champions of the Northwest area in 2019.[38]
Symbols
The municipio has an official flag and coat of arms.[39]
Flag
It consists of a rectangular flag of the usual proportions, crossed by a white waved band that separates its red superior part from the inferior one, which is green.[40]
Coat of arms
The Mountains: With silver-plated borders, represent the characteristic mountains under which the vegetable namesake of the town grow (cucumbers)
The Crown: Is the heraldic standard used to identify towns, villas and cities. The sugar cane and coffee ranches represent main agricultural products.[41][40]
Notable people
Juan Beníquez, a former center fielder in Major League Baseball
Ángel Mislan, (1862–1911) musician and composer of danzas "Sara" and "Tu y Yo".
Nilita Vientós Gastón, (1903–1989) an educator, writer and journalist and the first woman president of the Puerto Rican Athenaeum.
^ ab"San Sebastián Municipality". enciclopediapr.org. Fundación Puertorriqueña de las Humanidades (FPH). Archived from the original on April 18, 2019. Retrieved March 20, 2019.
^"San Sebastian". Puerto_rico9.tripod.com. Archived from the original on March 6, 2012. Retrieved April 29, 2012.
^Rivera Quintero, Marcia (2014), El vuelo de la esperanza:Proyecto de las Comunidades Especiales Puerto Rico, 1997–2004 (Primera edición ed.), San Juan, Puerto Rico Fundación Sila M. Calderón, p. 273, ISBN978-0-9820806-1-0
^"San Sebastian Bridges". National Bridge Inventory Data. US Dept. of Transportation. Archived from the original on February 20, 2019. Retrieved February 19, 2019.
^ ab"SAN SEBASTIAN". LexJuris (Leyes y Jurisprudencia) de Puerto Rico (in Spanish). February 19, 2020. Archived from the original on February 19, 2020. Retrieved September 17, 2020.
^I.C.P. San Sebastián del Pepino: Un inventario de sus recursos culturales. Arcelay Medina,Rubén. Diccionario Biográfico Pepiniano
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