Coamo, Puerto Rico
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Coamo is a municipality in south central Puerto Rico, about 30 minutes away by car from Ponce. Coamo is the third oldest municipality in Puerto Rico, founded in 1579.
General information
Coamo is a small town nestled in a valley about 10 miles east of Ponce. It was named San Blas Illescas de Coamo by its first settlers. San Blas was the Catholic saint who remains the town's patron. Illescas is the Spanish town the original founders came from (nowadays in Toledo province, Castile-La Mancha, Spain). There are a couple of theories regarding the origin of the word Coamo. Some think it comes from an indigenous word that means "valley" but it's also plausible that Coamo derives its a name from Coamex (or Coamey), who was a celebrated local cacique (or "chieftain" in the Taino language). Archeological digs near the region have produced some of the best examples of the island's pre-columbian cultural artifacts.
Coamo is the third oldest settlement of the island's post Columbian period (after San Juan in the north and San Germán in the west). By 1582, there were twenty families living in Coamo, in the same area where the Tainos had had their village of Güayama. Coamo became officially a town in 1616, and given the title of "Villa" by Spanish Royal Decree in 1778.
It was the administrative center that encompassed most of the southern half of the island during the early colonial period. As the agriculture and sugar industry which became the mainstays of the colony's economy grew, the province would eventually subdivide into several distinct municipalities and the administrative center of the region would later shift west to the coastal town of Ponce.
Coamo boasts an elegant picturesque downtown plaza area, and is the home of a series of natural hot springs, Los Baños de Coamo, which has attracted visitors to its medicinal waters since even before the Spaniards landed. Indeed, these very springs were once rumored to have been Juan Ponce de León's legendary "fountain of youth", or so the local folklore tells. In the early nineteenth century, a system of pools of varying depths and sizes and temperatures was constructed at the site of these springs to serve as a spa for the colonials. When during the North American invasion in the Spanish American War (1898), this was the scene of one of the decisive battles ( the Battle of Coamo ). The North Americans troops took possession of the island and the spa was subsequently abandoned. Though the site lay in ruins for most of the twentieth century, long neglected, it continued to be a landmark to the Coameños (as the residents of Coamo are called) who would often come to bathe in its healing thermal waters. The pools are still there but the buildings which once hosted the island's affluent and colonial soldiers are long gone, except for the remains of one central wall structure which has been preserved and incorporated into a fountain courtyard on the grounds of a popular tourist hotel and rest stop which has replaced the ancient Spanish ruins. During the 1970s, this writer ran and played around those ruins; the place was all mango trees. Huge ones.
Coamo is famous for being the host of the San Blas Marathon, a yearly world-class professional marathon that attracts the best competitive runners in the world. It was inaugurated in 1963 by Phi Delta Fraternity in honor to the founder of the town. World-class international and local runners compete in a 13.1-mile half marathon. It's Puerto Rico's biggest race, and the crowds are always large.
Coamo is a trading center for machinery, aircraft radio components, and clothing. It is also an agricultural center where mangoes, corn, avocados, oranges, plantains, poultry and cattle are raised.
The Maratonistas (BSN), is the only professional team the towns hosts. The team has played in Coamo with mixed success since joining the league in 1985.
Notable People
- Bobby Capó (1922-1989) - Singer, composer and government official
- Rafael Rivera Zayás (1885-1958) - Orator, lawyer and journalist
- Milagros Quesada Picó (1930-2003) - Lawyer, director Legal Services Corporation of San Juan
