This octagonal chimney is located in the Barrancas sector of Barrio Machete in Guayama, southwest of Central Machete in an area that in the late 19th Century was home to severall other sugar factories including Hacienda Reunión, Hacienda Josefa and Hacienda Matías Pica among others.  It was brought to our attention by Carlos Alemán who took the aerial picture below around the year 2019.  Neighbors in the area, though with no degree of certainty, said the chimney belonged to what used to be Hacienda Barrancas.

The document Sitios Arqueológicos de Guayama prepared by the State Historic Preservation Office attached to the Office of the Governor of Puerto Rico, identifies the chimney as belonging to Hacienda Las Mercedes.  This document also identifies Hacienda Barrancas about a mile northeast of Hacienda Las Mercedes very close and due west of Hacienda Verdaguer and Central Machete. 

The document also shows the Barrancas Sector as being part of  Barrio Machete of Guayama.  In an 1853 list of property values by barrios in Norma Medina Carrillo PhD essay Hacienda Esperanza, Molino Vives, Guayama Puerto Rico, Barrio Machete is listed but a Barrio Barrancas is not, reason we conclude that Barrancas is a sector within Barrio Machete.

In our page dedicated to Central Machete, which was established in 1906, reference is made to a website by David Capiello Ortiz that states Central Machete was the consolidation of Hacienda Carlota, Hacienda Santa Elena, Hacienda Pica, Hacienda Barrancas and Hacienda Olimpo. He identifies the owner of hacienda Barrancas as the Sucn. Antonio J. Alcaide Hernandez who died in 1897. 

Luis A. Figueroa, in his book Sugar, Slavery and Freedom in Nineteenth Century Puerto Rico, mentions several times a Hacienda Barrancas but makes no reference to a Hacienda Mercedes.  When stating the plantation owners who freed slaves during the years 1868 to 1872 prior to the abilition of slavery in 1873, he mentions French citizen Arístides Pillot and his son Mauricio of Hacienda Barrancas.  He also references Arístides Pillot as owner of Hacienda Barrancas in 1860 when Zenón Pillot, a liberto or freed slave, purchased his freedom or received a "carta de libertad" from Arístides.  Figueroa also states, "In 1879, one of the owners of the then abandoned Hacienda Barrancas, Don Mauricio Pillot..." 

Norma Medina Carrillo Ph. D in her essay Hacienda Esperanza, Molino Vives, Guayama Puerto Rico states that sugar became an important crop in Guayama after the Royal Decree of Graces of 1815 which allowed the arrival of immigrants from countries other than Spain.  In a table listing haciendas in Barrio Machete between 1825 and 1865 she includes Hacienda Barrancas owned by Frenchman Arístides Pillot as well as Hacienda Mercedes owned by Italian immigrant Francisco Molinari.  Aside from the report by the State Historic Preservation Office, this is the only other reference to a Hacienda Mercedes or Las Mercedes we could find.

Francisco Molinari emigrated from Genoa in 1841 and established residence in Patillas where he became a plantation owner.  He was member of the firm Molinari, Espendez & Cia. owners of Hacienda San Isidro in Patillas.  Ownership of Hacienda San Isidreo is verified  by a water right to take water from the Jacaboa River for irrigation purposes granted to Molinari, Espendez & Cia. on March 23, 1866.  Molinari, Espendez & Cia. was declared bankrupt in 1868 and according to a reorganization plan approved that year, Francisco continued to operate the hacienda as debtor in posession. 

Molinari married Rufina Sanchez, their daughter Rufina Molinari Sanchez was the second wife of Ignacio Diaz Joglar owner of Hacienda Carlota and Haciena Palés.  He moved his residence from Patillas to Guayama in the 1880s, we gather after selling Hacienda San Isidro to Dr. José A. Amadeo.

In his 1902 book Biografía de las Riquezas de Puerto Rico by José Ferreras Pagán, neither Hacienda Mercedes, Las Mercedes or Barrancas is listed as in operation at the time.  This fact supports what was stated above by Luis A. Figueroa in his book that by 1879 Hacienda Barrancas was already abandoned. 

Carlos Alemán identifies the coordinates for this chimney as 17.949653, -66.135397.  These coordinates are basically the same as those for the location of Hacienda Barrancas on the State Historic Preservation Office at 17.955844, -66.123032.  We therefor conclude this chimney is what remains of what was Hacienda (Las) Mercedes.  We base our conclusion on the information in the State Historic Preservation Office report which clearly verifies the location and existence of both Hacienda Barrancas and Hacienda (Las) Mercedes.