Mayagüez, PR: La Sultana Del Oeste (The Sultan of the West) is the other name that is used to describe Mayagüez, PR a very proud and cultural town that has always been known for its progressive politics. Mayagüez is considered one of the largest cities in Puerto Rico behind San Juan, Ponce, Caguas and Carolina. It has a rich cultural history that dates back to the days of Spain’s colonialism that has produced many of this island nation’s greatest patriots that have fought against slavery and for independence.

Mayagüez might be a West Coast city far from the hustle and bustle of the San Juan Metropolitan area, but for the next 15 days it will be the center of attention not just on the island, but in the Caribbean and Central America where 31countries will be competing in these XXI Central American & Caribbean Games.

Newly constructed waterfront in Mayagüez (Photo LSV)

Having any major sporting event in Puerto Rico an island dubbed, La Isla Del Encanto always involves more than just sports. Over 100 musical performances and artist will be performing in three major stages spread out throughout the town. This is going to be 16 days of a sports, music and artisans festival. Artist like Grand Combo, Victor Manuel, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Olga Tañon, Cultura Profética, Grupo Mania, Andy Montañez are but a few of the headliners that will be performing.

These games will hopefully be an economic stimulant for an island and a particular region that has been hit extremely hard by the lingering economic situation affecting the region. The present unemployment rate for the island is much higher than the 16.9% reported by the government especially in the West Coast area also known as “Porta Del Sol” where unfortunately, the economic sun has not been shining too bright in the last few years.

Brand new track & field, soccer park with new baseball stadium in the foreground have helped give Mayagüez a great facelift. (Photo LSV)

We hope to be reporting and giving you, our readers a daily update of these games that might not receive much attention in the major corporate media. We are also honored to be collaborating with our sister radio program, WKJB 710 AM and WPRA 990 AM in Mayagüez, PR with a special program, Resumen Centro Americano. For those of you who want to hear us, please visit us at www.wkjb710.com from 9 PM to 11 PM.

Though this island suffers from a lot of political divisions, there will be a lot of unity from all sectors for the next two weeks. The present governor from the statehood party is not very popular in this region. The Mayor of Mayagüez is very popular and is from the Commonwealth party and many of the young volunteers are strong advocates for Independence. However, they will all be working together to make sure that Puerto Rico as host of these games looks good to the rest of the world, now if we could only have games like this everyday

Interesting facts

5000 Athletes will be competing, the largest of any other games

1,300 Trainers

1,500 Judges and Referee’s

450 Delegates

51 Sports Facilities

1,700 Technical Volunteers

1,000,000 Visitors expected

33 Sports

17 other towns will also be participating

18,000 Job created

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