Province of San Juan (Dominican Republic)

San Juan is one of the 32 provinces of the Dominican Republic. With approximately 3,363km², it is the largest province in the country. It is located in the valley region, and borders the provinces of Bahoruco to the south, Azua to the east, La Vega, Santiago, and Santiago Rodríguez to the north, and Elías Piña to the west.

Geography

It covers a total area of 3,569.39 km², being the largest province in the Dominican Republic, and according to the 2002 census it had a population of 241,105 inhabitants, of whom 125,854 were men and 115,251 women. It is crossed by numerous rivers, among which the San Juan River, the Yaque del Sur River, the Sabaneta River, the Macasías and the Mijo stand out.

It has three hydroelectric dams, Sabaneta, Sabana Yegua and Palomino, the latter inaugurated in 2013.

Within the provincial territory there are three parks or protected areas, including the Juan Ulises García Bonelly park, and the José Armando Bermúdez and José del Carmen Ramírez national parks.

In the area of Las Matas de Farfán, there is a spring of sulphurous waters, La Zurza, which is highly visited by regional tourism.

The province of San Juan is located in the so-called Valle Region, together with the provinces: Elías Piña and Azua. It is an intramontane territory, which does not have a sea coast, limits to the north with the Provinces of Santiago Rodríguez and Santiago; to the south with Bahoruco; to the east with Azua, La Vega to the northeast, and to the west with the Province of Elías Piña.

Its main heights are Pico Duarte and La Pelona.

Hydrology

In the province of San Juan, the main river is the Yaque del Sur, which includes the San Juan River and its large tributaries: Mijo, Los Baos, Jínova, Yábano, Loro, Doña María Maguana and Dajay. Al Yaque is made up of three rivers: Las Cuevas, Río del Medio or Grande de Constanza, and Yaque, which is made up of Yaquesillo and Macutico (Blanco). The Yaque del Sur River is born in the Central Mountain Range and flows into the Neiba Bay, it is 200 km long, while the San Juan River, which is born in the same mountain range, follows a course of 100 km, until it deposits its waters in the Yaque del Sur, as well as the Los Baos river.

All these rivers flow to the east of the province. To the west, the main river is the Caña, a tributary of the Macasías River.

The aqueducts that bring drinking water to the communities are fed from these rivers. Other ways to take advantage of the water from these are irrigation canals and hydroelectric dams.

Reservoirs and Dams

Sabaneta Reservoir

• Type of Dam: Earth
• Height of the dam: 70.00 m.
• Rio: San Juan
• Crown elevation of the dam: 654.00 m. n. m.
• Crown length of the dam: 870.00 m.
• Crest elevation of the landfill: 644.00 m. n. m. (Service) and 647.50 m.s.n.m. (Emergency)
• Type of landfill: Cimacio, crest free
• Vertical capacity: 880.00 m³/sg (Service) and 2750.00 m³/sg (Emergence)
• Extraordinary maximum level: 652.00 m. n. m.
• Minimum operating level: 612.00 m. n. m.
• Total storage capacity: 77.00 mmc
• Watershed area: 464.00 km2
• Capacity installed: 6.40 MW

Palomino Reservoir

Palomino Hydroelectric Project

Origin of the population

The settlers who forged these towns together with the Creoles were of Spanish, German, Dutch, Haitian and Arab origin. During the 18th century and 19th century, San Juan was a bridge for commercial activity between Haiti and the rest of the island. Likewise, the natural step of exchanging cattle for merchandise, between the east and the west.

At the end of the 19th century and beginning of the XX formed a very active Lebanese colony in commercial activities.

La Maguana is currently the Dominican town that preserves the greatest presence of genotypes inherited from the Taino Indians.

Municipal municipalities and districts

Municipalities of San Juan province.

The province of San Juan is divided into six municipalities and 18 municipal districts (MD), which are:

• San Juan de la Maguana (provincial capital)
  • The Rosary (D.M.)
  • Guanito (D.M.)
  • Hato del Padre (D.M.)
  • La Jagua (D.M.)
  • Maguanas-Hato Nuevo (D.M.)
  • The Charcas de María Nova (D.M.)
  • The Zanjas... The Batey (D.M.)
  • Pedro Corto (D.M.)
  • Sabana Alta (D.M.)
  • Sabaneta (D.M.)
• Juan de Herrera
  • Jínova (D.M.)
• Bohechío
  • Arroyo Cano (D.M.)
  • (D.M.)
• The fence
  • Batista (D.M.)
  • Big Pain (D.M.)
  • D.M.
  • Race of Yeguas (CarreYegua) (D.M.)
  • Matayaya (D.M.)
• Vallejuelo
  • Jorjillo (D.M.)

History

Street of Sabaneta, in the province of San Juan.

At the time of discovery, the region of San Juan was one of the five Taino chiefdoms into which the island of Quisqueya was divided. The chiefdom of Maguana or Maguanó, with a center near the current capital, in Juan de Herrera; It was ruled by the cacique Caonabo.

In 1503 Nicolás de Ovando founded the city of San Juan de Maguana, in honor of San Juan Bautista, in 1508 the title of town with its coat of arms was granted by royal decree.

In 1605, as a result of population changes and devastation faced by the governor of Santo Domingo, Antonio de Osorio, the inhabitants of San Juan began to occupy Bayaguana, north of Santo Domingo, along with the rest of the Spanish uprooted from depopulated areas.

The eclipse and resurgence of San Juan

Despite its wits, San Juan de la Maguana was in eclipse for a long period of its history. This problem did not exclusively affect the area, but rather manifested itself in most of the villas that were far from the city of Santo Domingo. This phenomenon began to occur from 1528. In a report written by Juan Echagoian, about the state of the island in 1568, he does not mention the town of San Juan, which suggests that by then it had ceased to have urban significance.

In 1606, the people who were still dispersed in herds in the San Juan area were moved to Azua, leaving that landscape practically uninhabited. It was not until the end of the XVII century that the repopulation of San Juan de la Maguana began. The 18th century was decisive for its development. In 1739 the population of the town barely reached 110 residents, according to a relationship made by Archbishop Domingo Álvarez. At the end of that century, this population already had about 4,500 inhabitants, according to Antonio Sánchez Valverde. The resurgence of the town of San Juan occurred in 1733, according to Carlos Esteban Deive in his book Las emigrations canarias a Santo Domingo. In this sense, this author says that the resurgence of San Juan "consented to the meeting of all the hateros and farmers who lived scattered throughout said valley, who were joined by some neighbors from Azua." Regarding the population contribution of this last region, it is important to point out that after the earthquake of November 1751, families left it to live in the San Juan Valley. In a communication from the Azua council to the King of Spain, dated April 23, 1756, it is read that as a result of the transfer of the seat where the destroyed town was located, there were people who preferred to move to San Juan because they considered the chosen place inappropriate. for the new town. One part of the letter reads as follows:

“... with the people's flight from this new site, it has been caused "to have risen two towns, the ones we named San Juan and Neiba, these two towns were valleys from where our maintenance, and thus it is not right for these two towns to increase: which all this time had only allowed a chaplain for an emergency, but not a curate, because neither they would have claimed it, nor our ancestors would have consented, and now, due to the move of the town, because the people from the two valleys did not come to the villa", they have claimed to have a cure and they have given it to them, "because the judges of the city of Santo Domingo, both President as Audience, having money, they make the impossible possible".

At the end of the 18th century there was a true population boom in the area, as a result of the intense business with the French colony in Haiti. In the entire length of the San Juan Valley, including areas that currently belong to the Elías Piña province such as Bánica, there were about 25,000 inhabitants, a population similar to that of the city of Santo Domingo and about 1,000 fewer inhabitants than in Santiago, which was by then the most populated area in the country. It was in those times that places like Las Matas de Farfán and Pedro Corto were formed.

Political and economic needs were confused when it came to promoting the repopulation of the San Juan Valley. On the one hand, it was essential to create towns in the area to stop the advance of the French to the territories of the Spanish colony. In addition, it was no less true that the boom in economic activities in the French part of the island was a powerful magnet that attracted people to take advantage of the immense wealth of cattle, cows, goats and horses that grazed without owners, in the immense valley, which always had the reputation of being a healthy place for people. In some reports of the time, written by travelers who visited the area of the San Juan Valley, such as the Frenchman Daniel Lescallier, it is said that in 1764 the village of San Juan was "quite important due to the large number of herds or cattle farms that surround them and by the multitude of cattle and horses that feed on the grass that grows naturally in their beautiful savannahs.” Later, Lescallier notes that no type of cultivation was seen in the valley, which makes it clear that cattle ranching was their main economic activity.

Timeline

• 1605- As a result of the devastations carried out by Osorio, the inhabitants of San Juan go to Bayaguana.

• 1687- The Bachelor Gregorio Santillana refers to the Spanish Crown a request for repopulation of San Juan de la Maguana, taking into account the fertility of its lands.

• 1780- It is founded on the banks of the river Macasias the community of Las Matas de Farfan.

• 1845- It is founded by General Pedro Santana, the community of El Cercado.

• 1855- The battle of Santomé, on 22 December, took place between the Dominican army under the command of General José María Cabral and the Haitian army, led by Emperor Faustino Solouque, and the Dominicans were victorious.

• 1861- On the 4th of July he was shot in the cemetery of San Juan de la Maguana, the pro-rocer Francisco del Rosario Sánchez, together with 21 of his colleagues, by a sentence of the day before a court imposed by Pedro Santana.

• 1916- At the beginning of the first U.S. invasion, invasive troops surrounded San Juan de la Maguana with barbed wires and proceeded to disarm the population, causing protests.

• 1919- The first motor vehicle owned by Antonio Bera is brought to the Farfan Kills, and the vehicle transport to Santo Domingo began in 1922.

• 1938- When the Benefactor province is erected, San Juan de la Maguana became a common head of that province.

• 1962- The massacre of Palma Sola, carried out by military troops against followers of Olivorio Mateo.

There is also the indigenous ceremonial plaza “Corral de los Indios” in Juan de Herrera, where in pre-Columbian times the areíto was practiced, a dance performed by Anacaona.

Likewise, the caves of Catanamatías, a place in the Matas de Farfán that consists of a cave complex with caverns that intercommunicate, with the caves of San Francisco in Bánica, and those of Ceboruco in Sabaneta according to geological studies carried out.

It is worth noting the historic place called Cerro de las Bóvedas, which is perhaps the place where the most varied historical events have taken place and, at the same time, the place of eternal rest of personalities of Dominican history. General José María Cabral was buried on this hill, it was also a place of battle in the civil war of 1912 between bolos and colluding names of the troops of Juan Isidro Jiménez and Horacio Vásquez.

Toponymy

The province takes its name from the city of San Juan de la Maguana, whose first two words were put in honor of the evangelist of Jesus Christ called San Juan and the last word, Maguana, comes from the language indigenous, and means Vega Pequeña.^{[citation required]}

Tradition

The patron saint festivities are an important element in the San Juan tradition.

In San Juan de la Maguana, the main municipality, the feast of San Juan Bautista is celebrated on June 24. In the Matas de Farfán the festivities dedicated to Santa Lucía on December 13, in El Cercado that of San Pedro on June 29 and that of La Altagracia on January 21.

Also in Vallejuelo those of San Andrés and Las Mercedes on September 24, in Juan de Herrera that of the Virgen de la Altagracia and those of Boechío dedicated to San Antonio on June 13.

During the festivities, various games, caravans and parades on horseback are held, in honor of Saint John the Baptist, considered the patron saint of horses; Other typical activities are also carried out such as: the encebao stick, drumsticks, stick parties, the buried goat, sack races, the ribbon dance and cultural and sports exchanges.

In San Juan, magical religious beliefs persist, such as the influence of sorcerers, galipotes, cows and the “evil eye”.

In the culinary aspect, San Juan has been characterized by its typical dishes such as spicy stewed goat, chenchén, chacá, ranch or sancocho de habichuelas and guinea stew.

Economy

The economy of San Juan is traditionally driven by livestock and agricultural activities. It has been given the title of "granary of the south" for its appreciable production of grains such as rice, corn, peanuts, sorghum, beans (Frijoles), pigeon peas (Peanuts), as well as cassava, sweet potato, onion and vegetables.

San Juan produces more than 90% of the beans, 84% of the peanuts, 31% of the corn, 35% of the pigeon peas, 20% of the onion, and 36% of the sweet potatoes consumed by the Dominican population. The growing dairy farming is the other economic activity that the region has developed, its milk is extracted and used to make different varieties of cheese and yogurt.

The province has excellent ecotourism potential, as it has Pico Duarte, the San Juan Valley, the largest intramontane valley in the country, the Sabaneta, Sabana Yegua and Palomino Dams, the Indigenous Ceremonial Plaza and for sharing the Cordillera Central and the Sierra de Neiba.

In addition, there is currently a private local company Explomarca S.A., which extracts Travertine in La Trinchera, San Juan province.

Another source of income for the residents are the various formal and informal businesses such as bakeries, tailor shops, clinical laboratories, doctor's offices, pharmacies, a market, hotels, galleys, bars and activities that have to do with transportation services, among others. others.