Yauco is located south of Maricao, Lares and Adjuntas; east of Sabana Grande and Guánica; and west of Guayanilla.

Yauco became a center for Corsican immigration to Puerto Rico in the 19th century due to its geographical similarity to their homeland.

[3] The Taino natives considered the area of Yauco the capital of Boriken and was governed by Agüeybana, the most powerful Taíno cacique (chief) in the island.

He came up with a plan to test these doubts: he and Urayoán (cacique of Añasco) sent some of their tribe members to lure a Spaniard named Diego Salcedo into a river and drown him.

[4][5] In 1755, the Spanish settlers of the region built a small chapel and named it Nuestra Señora del Santísimo Rosario (Our Lady of the Holy Rosary).

[6] From the mid-19th to the early 20th century, hundreds of Corsican, Italian, French, Portuguese, Irish, Scots, and German immigrants arrived in Puerto Rico, attracted by the Spanish Crown's offer of free land to Catholic white European settlers.

Hundreds of Corsicans and their families immigrated to Puerto Rico from as early as 1830, and their numbers peaked in the 1850s, after European unrest following the Revolutions of 1848, and environmental problems of lengthy drought.

They were supported by leaders of El Grito de Lares, the first major independence attempt, who were in exile in New York City as members of the Puerto Rican Revolutionary Committee.

It had 60 houses in all and was defended only by eleven members of the 4th Volante de Yauco, a Puerto Rican militia unit, under the command of Lieutenant Enrique Méndez López.

Nearly all the residents abandoned their homes and joined Rivera to go to Yauco, where he broke the news of the invading forces to the town's mayor.

Only Agustín Barrenechea, Vicente Ferrer, Juan María Morciglio, Simón Mejil, Salvador Muñoz, Cornelio Serrano and Pascual Elena stayed to welcome the invaders.

They had come from the USS Gloucester on rafts and landed on the beach, where Lt. Méndez López and his men opened fire on the Americans.

During the small battle which followed, the Americans returned fire with a machine gun and the Gloucester began to bombard the Spanish position.

This was also the site of the first major land battle in Puerto Rico during the war between Spanish/Puerto Rican and American armed forces.

The Spanish forces engaged the 6th Massachusetts in a firefight at the Hacienda Desideria, owned by Antonio Mariani, in what became known as the Battle of Yauco of the Puerto Rico Campaign.

[12] Significant rainfall from Hurricane Maria, on September 20, 2017, triggered numerous landslides in Yauco, leaving entire communities cut-off.

A center for emergency operations was set up in the municipality's auditorium parking area, with air-conditioned tarps and tents for evacuated hospital patients and with food being cooked by World Central Kitchen.

The municipal buildings, central square and large Catholic church are located in a barrio referred to as "el pueblo".

The Yauco page lists the murals at Yaucromatic, the view from the top of a mountain in Sierra Alta called Pico Rodadero, the Refugio de Vida Silvestre del Embalse Luccieti,[46] and (for agritourism) a honey production farm in barrio Diego Hernandez called Apiturismo,[47] as places of interest.

Yauco coffees are a revived specialty origin that, at best, display the qualities that made Jamaica Blue Mountain famous: A deep, vibrant, yet restrained acidity and balanced, gently rich flavor.

The Fiestas Patronales de Nuestra Virgen del Rosario is a religious and cultural celebration that generally features parades, games, artisans, amusement rides, regional food, and live entertainment.

[21] Other festivals and events celebrated in Yauco include: Recent genealogical DNA-based testing, which look at specific locations of a person's genome, in order to find or verify ancestral genealogical relationships or to estimate the ethnic mixture of an individual, have found significant Portuguese, Spanish, Native American, Corsican, Irish, Scottish, Germanic European, Italian, North African, West African and European Jewish DNA presence in individuals who are descendants from inhabitants who were born within the geographical area of Yauco and other parts of southwestern Puerto Rico.

[54] These ethnicities have significantly influenced the local culture, to include food, art, some words used in the language, customs, beliefs, and music.