Algarrobos

Algarrobos is a barrio in the municipality of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. Its population in 2010 was 4,383. Algarrobos is a barrio in the municipality of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. Its population in 2010 was 4,383. Algarrobos is a coastal, rural barrio deriving its name from the Algarrobo tree. The Algarrobo tree is leguminous, with shiny leaves and purple and white flowers. Its fruit is the carob bean, which consists of seeds covered by an edible substance, contained in a capsule-shaped pod. It was perfect smugglers' shelter for being a distance away from the barracks occupied by authorities. Its value was the strategic entrance to the Castillo de los Valdés in Algarrobos. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries there was in its jurisdiction a stronghold, the Algarrobo Fort, and Spanish battalians were there, one by the sea and another on the west side of Cerro de El Vigia. In the mid-twentieth century there was an American battalion located by the sea in the vicinity of Peña Cortada. When after the Treaty of Paris (1898), the U.S. conducted its first census of Puerto Rico, the population of Algarrobo barrio was 1,054. Between 1962 and 1998 it was the base port and the headquarters of the largest tuna factory in America.