San Sebastian
'Ciudad de la Hamaca'—Taíno jamacas recorded by Columbus (1492) still woven here. Museo de la Hamaca preserves 500 years; coffee replaced 53 sugar mills that ran on enslaved labor.
San Sebastián exists because the Taíno invented the hammock—and because someone kept weaving them. On October 17, 1492, Columbus noted the 'curious hanging beds' of the Taíno on Boriquén: jamacas that protected sleepers from soggy ground, snakes, and forest animals. Five centuries later, San Sebastián still weaves them. The Museo de la Hamaca traces the craft's evolution; master artisans continue the tradition that earned the town its nickname 'Ciudad de la Hamaca,' Cradle of the Hammock.
The formal municipality began in 1752 when Captain Cristóbal González de la Cruz won permission to convert cow farms into an agricultural village. Named San Sebastián de Las Vegas del Pepino, later shortened to 'San Sebastián del Pepino,' the settlement occupied mountainous interior terrain that would define its economy. By the 1820s, post-1815 immigration had brought capital and enslaved labor: 53 wooden sugar mills, four distilleries, expanding coffee and cotton production.
Coffee ultimately won the agricultural contest. The municipality's position in Puerto Rico's northwestern mountains proved ideal for shade-grown arabica. Today San Sebastián remains a significant coffee producer alongside cattle and dairy operations. The inland location—bordered by Isabela and Quebradillas to the north, Lares to the east, Las Marías to the south, Moca and Añasco to the west—created rural character that persists.
By 2026, San Sebastián tests whether indigenous craft, colonial coffee, and mountain isolation constitute heritage tourism or economic limitation. The hammocks still hang; the question is what else does.