dependence attempt, who were in exile in New York City as members of the Puerto Rican Revolutionary Committee. It was during this uprising that Fidel Velz unfurled the current flag of Puerto Rico on Puerto Rican soil for the first time. Rumors of the planned event spread to the local Spanish authorities who acted swiftly and put an end to what would be the last major uprising in the island to Spanish colonial rule.
Spanish-American War
In 1898, upon the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, Gu�nica was a small barrio within the jurisdiction of the town of Yauco. It had 60 houses in all and its only defense was eleven members of the 4th Volante de Yauco, a Puerto Rican militia unit, under the command of Lieutenant Enrique M�ndez L�pez. When the convoy with General Nelson Miles, approached the barion, Gu�nica lighthouse keeper Robustiano Rivera immediately gave the alert to the residents of the barrio. All of the residents, with the exception Agust�n Barrenechea, Vicente Ferrer, Juan Mar�a Morciglio, Sim�n Mejil, Salvador Mu�oz, Cornelio Serrano and Pascual Elena who welcomed the invaders, abandoned their homes and joined Rivera on his journey to Yauco where he broke the news of the invading forces to the city's mayor. The first skirmish between Spanish/Puerto Rican and American armed forces was fought in that barrio between the Puerto Rican militia and twenty-eight sailors and Marines, under the command of Lieutenants H. P. Huse and Wood, departed from the SS Gloucester on rafts and landed on the beach, occurred when Lt. M�ndez L�pez and his men attacked and opened fire on the Americans. During the small battle which followed, the Americans returned fire with their machine gun and the Gloucester began to bombard the Spanish position. Lt. M�ndez L�pez and three of his men were wounded and the militia unit was forced to retreat to the town of Yauco. Yauco was also the place where the first major land battle between Spanish/Puerto Rican and
