Grads in Cayey receive scholarships in tour guide training program
- The San Juan Daily Star
- 11 hours ago
- 2 min read
By THE STAR STAFF
Cayey Mayor Rolando Ortiz Velázquez and District 29 (Cidra-Cayey) Rep. Gretchen Hau Irizarry participated in Sunday’s graduation ceremonies for the town’s senior classes in a festive event held at a packed Municipal Theater, with more than 1,000 participants.
“In our city of Cayey we generated the Student Guides project, where the municipality contributes $5,000 for graduation expenses, and in exchange, the students cooperate as tour guides, after training,” the mayor said.
The municipal initiative began in 2022 on the occasion of the reopening of the Ramón Frade León public square in Cayey. “This is based on the proven principle of mutual aid and self-effort, where the municipality makes a cash contribution for the expenses inherent to graduations, and students contribute to the tourist development of the city,” Ortiz Velázquez said.
The Plaza de Cayey generated international news in 2022 for the discovery of an archaeological site with the remains of more than 500 individuals of various races and ages. As indicated, some of the remains were of people from West Africa, who are understood to have arrived on the island as slaves.
“In view of this discovery, a special design was developed to create an area in which visitors can examine detailed reproductions of finds and where an explanation of the archaeological work is offered,” Hau said. “The foundations of the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption were also discovered there, the resting place of the bodies of the founders of the city. We have an area in homage to our ancestors, and at the other end a sculpture of Frade doing his pictorial work, but we also have kiosks with a variety of offerings, [including] a carousel designed especially for Cayey, as a center for family and tourist fun.”
During the ceremony, the graduates’ achievements were highlighted as they take “a very important step,” and the mayor appealed to family values and education as an impetus to continue moving forward.