Grito de Lares, also referred to as the Lares revolt, the Lares rebellion, the Lares uprising, or the Lares revolution, was the first of two short-lived revolts against Spanish rule in Puerto Rico, staged by the Revolutionary Committee of Puerto Rico on September 23, 1868. Having been planned, organized, and launched in the mountainous western municipality of Lares, the revolt is known as the Grito de Lares . Three decades after rebelling in Lares, the revolutionary committee carried out a second unsuccessful revolt in the neighboring southwestern municipality of Yauco, known as the Intentona de Yauco (The Attempted Coup of Yauco). The Grito de Lares flag is recognized as the first flag of Puerto Rico.
Grito de Lares
Original Revolutionary Flag of the Grito de Lares, c. 1868
The city's nickname, Ciudad del Grito can be seen on an overpass as one enters Lares.
Ramón Emeterio Betances, co-leader of the revolt
Puerto Rico, officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Caribbean island, Commonwealth, and unincorporated territory of the United States. It is located in the northeast Caribbean Sea, approximately 1,000 miles (1,600 km) southeast of Miami, Florida, between the Dominican Republic and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and includes the eponymous main island and several smaller islands, such as Mona, Culebra, and Vieques. With roughly 3.2 million residents, it is divided into 78 municipalities, of which the most populous is the capital municipality of San Juan. Spanish and English are the official languages of the executive branch of government, though Spanish predominates.
A 20th-century reconstruction of an 8th-century Taíno village, located at the spot in which their ballpark and remains were discovered in 1975, in the aftermath of Hurricane Eloise
Artist's depiction of Juan Ponce de León, Puerto Rico's first governor
1625 attack on San Juan by Boudewijn Hendricksz
Sugar haciendas, like the one depicted above, ran a significant portion of the Puerto Rican economy in the late 19th century.