Location: Añasco
Date Established: 1883
Date Ceased Operations: 1918
Annual Production Graph: N/A
Average Annual Production: N/A
Best Production Year: N/A
Family Ownership: Bianchi, Pagán
Corporate Ownership: South Porto Rico Sugar Co.

The 1984 essay Añasco: Notas para su Historia by Dr. Carlos Gaztambide Arrillaga, states that Juan Bianchi Mattei ( -1829) was the promoter and original owner of Central Pagán.  Since the sugar mill was established many years after the death of Bianchi Mattei, it would be correct to rather state that the origins of the sugar mill can be traced back to Juan Bianchi Mattei.

Juan Bianchi Mattei was born in Barrettali, Corsica from where he emigrated to Puerto Rico in 1818 and established himself in Añasco where he was a sugarcane planter.  In 1826 he married Isla Margarita, Venezuela born Luisa Bracetti Cuevas (1802-1885), sister of Mariana Bracetti.  Juan Bianchi Mattei died in 1829 just three years after his marriage and only three months after the birth of his only son Juan Bianchi Bracetti (1829-1902).  In 1831 Luisa married a second time to Manuel Pagán Gonzalez ( -1873) who raised her son as his own.  In his adult life, Juan Bianchi Bracetti adopted the name Juan Bianchi Pagán in honor of his step-father.

Central Pagán was located about five minutes southeast of the town of Añasco near the train station.  It began with the consolidation of several sugar factories acquired by Manuel Pagán and his step-son Juan Bianchi Pagán.  Among the haciendas acquired were Hacienda Elisa, Hacienda Librada, Hacienda Cipriana and Hacienda Ursula.  Hacienda Librada was established ca. 1831 by Tomás Gómez de la Torre in Barrio Dagüey, it was later acquired by Dominican immigrant Eugenio Garnier Gros (1832-1918).   Hacienda Cipriana​​​​​​ was established by the Canary Islands emigre Rafael Mangual and his wife Fidela Mayans and later owned by their son Manuel María Mangual Mayans (1831-1856).   It was at one time one of the largest sugar estates on the island consisting of seven hundred and seventy acres of land in Barrio Sabanetas of Mayagüez and Barrio Rio Cañas of Añasco.  Due to excessive debts it was acquired by Juan Bianchi Pagán during the last quarter of the 19th Century. 

Juan Bianchi Pagán married Rosario Rosafá Estrada, descendant of a family from Almería, Andalusia, Spain.  They had four children; Estela Bianchi Rosafá (1858- ) who married Rafael Arrillaga Garcia de Quevedo whom she divorced in 1903 then married a second time José Monagas Garcia, Francisco Bianchi Rosafá (1866-1945) who married Estela Green Morales, Juan Bianchi Rosafá (1867-1937) who never married and Rosario Bianchi Rosafá (1882- ) who married Miguel Esteve Blanes.

Juan and Francisco Bianchi Rosafá took care of the sugar mill affairs after the death of their father in 1902 until 1910 when it was leased to the South Porto Rico Sugar Corp. They as well as Miguel Esteve and Francisco's children, were also involved in the sugar industry as part owners of Central Coloso.

The only identifiable remains of the sugar mill are the four columns pictured below which seem to have been the base of a water tank or something similar.  They are located in the area today known as Comunidad Pagán.  These pictures were taken by Carlos Alemán in August 2023.  The chimney belonged to Hacienda Librada.