Location: Santa Isabel
Date Established: 1906
Date Ceased Operations: 1973
Annual Production Graph
Average Annual Production: 19,197 Tons
Best Production Year: 1953/36,146 Tons
Family Ownership: Cortada
Corporate Ownership: Santa Isabel Sugar Co., Aguirre Sugar Company

 Central Cortada was established on what used to be Estancia Descalabrado, owned by Catalonian immigrant Juan de Quintana ( -1789) on lands granted him by the Spanish Crown in 1737.  It was eventually inherited by his granddaughter Monserrate Quintana Alvarado ( -1888), daughter of Juan José Quintana, the son of Juan de Quintana.  Monserrate married another Catalonian immigrant, Juan Cortada Manzo (1800-1865), therein the name Cortada.  Juan Cortada Manzo and Monserrate Quintana Alvarado had five children: Ramón (1833-1905) who married Sergia Torruellas, Juan (1833-1889) who married three times (1) Mercedes Tirado Finch ( -1871), (2) Vicenta Albizu and (3) Providencia Martorell Goicoechea (1861-1932); Isabel (1845- ); Ana and Manuel ( -1885) Cortada Quintana who married Catalina Guilbee Loudon whose family owned Hacienda Fortuna. 

On August 27, 1868, when a water right to use water from the Descalabrado River was granted for irrigation purposes, ownership of Hacienda Descalabrado was in the name of Juan Cortada Quintana.  Juan together with his brother Ramón Cortada Quintana also operated Cortada & Cia., a crop financing business in Ponce.  Throughout the years they acquired several haciendas including Hacienda Palmarito in 1868.  Some of the haciendas were purchased outright and some acquired in lieu of payment of debt. 

On September 1872 Juan Cortada Quintana became Mayor of Ponce, position he held until February 1874.  It is reasonable to believe that during his tenure as Mayor his attention was not to Hacienda Descalabrado.  During the years following, not everything went without difficulties for the Cortada's.  The cholera epidemic of 1855-1856 that had killed many of the hacienda slaves and the emancipation of slavery in 1873, negatively affected the Cortada's financial condition.  Due to excessive debt, on October 1874 Juan Cortada Quintana sold Hacienda Descalabrado to José Medina who in turn sold it to Julio Mirailh Ortiz.  However, in August 1884 Cortada Quintana acquired back Hacienda Descalabrado from Mirailh.

By 1894 the four largest sugar plantations in the area were Hacienda Destino of Pedro Juan Capó with 1,900 acres, Hacienda Descalabrado with 1,700 acres, Hacienda Santa Isabel with 1,120 acres and Hacienda Florida with 1,104 acres.  By that time, Juan Cortada Quintana had died and the affairs of Hacienda Descalabrado were being handled by his son Juan Cortada Tirado (1864-1937).  

After being "colonos" or sugar planters for Central Aguirre, in 1906 the Santa Isabel Sugar Co. was established with Juan Cortada Tirado as majority stockholder.  Other stockholders were; A. Hartman & Co. of the McCormick-Hartman brothers owners of Central Machete; Rafael Fabian Fabian, also part owner of Central Roig, Central Constancia and Central Pasto Viejo; Sucn J. A. Alcaide, part owner of Central Machete; Luis Francisco Vergés Ramú (1869-1910), part owner of Central Columbia  and of Central Machete, Hugh Guillén; Isidro Abarca; Antonio Alvarez; George T. Parker and Leopoldo Cabassa Pica (1864-1910). 

In 1918, the Chemist for Central Cortada was Antonio Sala Rosado (1885-1956) who was married to my 2nd cousin 2x removed Mercedes Negroni Sanchez.  Sometime between 1930 and 1940, after both Cortada and Central Machete had been acquired by the Aguirre Sugar Company, he became the the Chemist at Central Machete. 

In 1924 the majority stockholder in Santa Isabel Sugar Co. were Juan Quintana Toro, son of Juan Cortada Tirado and his wife Rita Toro Labarthe, and Jacobo Cabassa Hernandez (1891-1978) the son of Leopoldo Cabassa Pica was its Vicepresident.  That year the Aguirre Sugar Companyacquired a 62% majority interest in Santa Isabel Sugar Co.  By 1930 the Santa Isabel Sugar Co. had been liquidated and its assets consolidated with those of Central Aguirre Sugar Co. who from then on operated the sugar mill until its closure.  There are no production numbers for Central Cortada between 1939-1941 and 1942-1944 for an unknown reason. 

In some of the pictures you can see a modern windmill in the background, there are quite a few of these installed as an alternate method of generating electricity in nearby land where sugarcane was grown.  The houses pictured below in a bad state of disrepair, are near the remains of the sugarmill in a small community which we understand used to be the "batey" of the sugar mill.  They were right behind me when I was taking the pictures of the smoke stack.  The design of these houses is different from those of Central Aguirre and the Guanica Centrale but the balcony around the house is a feature that repeats in all. 

In 1911, Juan Cortada Tirado received permission to build a dock in Santa Isabel.  Later on a community called "Playita Cortada", which still exists today, developed around where the dock was and is today one of the few remaining memories of Central Cortada's legacy in the area.