Teófilo José Jaime María Le Guillou
Encyclopedia
Teófilo José Jaime María Le Guillou is the founder of the municipality
Municipality
A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

 of Vieques, Puerto Rico
Vieques, Puerto Rico
Vieques , in full Isla de Vieques, is an island–municipality of Puerto Rico in the northeastern Caribbean, part of an island grouping sometimes known as the Spanish Virgin Islands...

, where he arrived in 1823.
In 1823, Teófilo José Jaime María Le Guillou immigrated from France to Puerto Rico and settled down in the island of Vieques. He is considered as the founder of the municipality of Vieques. In 1832, Le Guillou proceeded Francisco Rosello as the military commander of Vieques after Rosello's death. Between 1832 and 1843, Le Guillou who had been given the title of "Political and Military Governor of the Spanish Island of Vieques" by the Spanish Crown, developed a plan for the political and economic organization of the island. He established five sugar plantations in the island named Esperanza, Resolucion, Destino, Mon Repos and Mi Reposo.

Le Guillou, who was the most powerful landlord and owner of slaves in the island, requested from the Spanish Crown permission to allow the immigration of French families from the Caribbean Islands of Martinique and Guadalupe which at the time were French possessions. Attracted by the offer of free land as one of the concessions stipulated in the revised Spanish Royal Decree of 1815, dozens of French familles, among them the Mouraille's, Martineau's and Le Brun's, immigrated to Vieques and with the use of slave manpower established sugar plantations. By 1839, there were 138 "habitaciones" which comes from the French word "habitation" meaning plantation. These habitaciones were located from Punta Mulas and Punta Arenas. Le Guillou died in 1843 and is buried in the town of Isabel II of Vieques which was founded in 1844.

See also

  • List of famous Puerto Ricans
  • French immigration to Puerto Rico
    French immigration to Puerto Rico
    The French immigration to Puerto Rico came about as a result of the economic and political situations which occurred in various places such as Louisiana , Saint-Domingue and in Europe....

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