Aguas Buenas was originally a sector of
Caguas known as
Aguabuena. In 1798, a group of residents started establishing their houses near some of the rivers in the area and started calling the sector
Aguas Claras. The quantity of residents incremented with time and on July 25, 1832, they organized a meeting and commissioned Francisco de Salas Torres and Ramón Díaz to do the necessary arrangements for the region to be declared a municipality. A resident, Julian López, offered part of his estate to be used for the construction of a town square, a church, the city hall, and the priest house. The town was officially founded on May 25, 1838, and the name was changed to
Aguas Buenas. Francisco de Salas Torres was declared the first mayor. Initially, the economy of the town relied on coffee plantations and commerce. At the end of the 19th century, the town's population was close to 7,000. In 1906, mayor Don José E. Morales bought nearly six
acres of terrain from Don Guillermo Díaz Delgado. In these lands, the sectors of La Pajilla, El Pueblito and El Guanábano were established, expanding the town's area. The epicenter of the
2010 Aguas Buenas earthquake, popularly known as the
Nochebuena Earthquake, was centered between the barrios
Juan Asencio,
Mulita and
Sonadora.
Hurricane Maria on September 20, 2017, triggered numerous landslides in Aguas Buenas with the significant amount of rainfall. Between1,000 and 3,000 homes in Aguas Buenas were destroyed or suffered significant damage as a result of the hurricane. A year after the hurricane struck, many older residents refused to leave their damaged homes and continued to live in their homes, without a reconstructed roof, but with a blue tarp for a roof. The hurricane winds and rain damaged infrastructure and caused the entire electrical system to collapse. == Geography ==