San Juan - Trinidad

The settlement of San Juan was established around the year 1790 by Governor José Maria Chacon. Chacon had just improved the track to San José (St. Joseph), apparently making it a carriage road, and just about the half-way point, near where the road was joined by a track from the Valley of Santa Cruz, he established this settlement. Shortly before this he had divided the island into districts, referred to as quarters, and the Quarter within which was situated the settlement of San Juan, was known as Aricagua, which was the Arawak name for the river flowing through it. -Towns and Villages of Trinidad and Tobago by Michael Anthony