  It was 14th of April, 1914 when three young men from San Pedro got an inheritance from their grandmother; four acre pieces each, from a twelve acre total property called "San Telmo". This property runs north to south from the edge of the property where the present bar, Rey de Todos is, until the last cement wall where Banyan Bay and the University are. The three were the Guerrero brothers of one lineage; Victor, Juan and Severo. The northern piece, the one still keeping its original name, San Telmo, was given to the younger brother, Leonardo Severo Guerrero and is the one to be referred to here. Severo grew up to be a respectable person on the island, a hard worker at the cocales (coconut plantations), musician, coordinator of theatre plays, carnaval and others. But his special reminder (characteristic) was his big open heart towards anyone. Of course, he was a good Christian. When I came here a few years ago, I met Severo and started to work with him. The road used to pass close to the beach; south of us was hotel Casa Solana (now Royal Palm Inn) and a few local houses along the beach. At the time we met Severo, he was 77 and I was 22. During the week we hardly saw any people, only a few passing by heading towards the cocales, but during the weekend big numbers of San Pedranos would come by to get sugar cane from us or ask Don Severito for coconuts or some other fruits that he planted. I worked for him gathering coconuts in his parcel and others that he was in charge of. I also cleaned and chopped the property. The money we got was enough to live, I mean "catch and kill". I clearly recall one day when we were chopping and burning bush at his place, he stopped for a moment and told me, "I have the feeling this place is going to be well known one day." In spite of his humble trade he always had the spirit of going forward. I thought and looked doubtful to the air, thinking how this could happen, of course I did not know about faith or development. By the time he told me that, I had started in small scale to use the name of San Telmo in everything we did towards the community. Before, this place used to be called "La Ensenada". Don Severito was happy with this name but deep inside he wanted to change it back to its original name "San Telmo." After a while a few skilled people (artists) came to San Telmo and then the name was changed to San Telmo Living Arts. We did a little bit of painting, music, carving, landscaping and other things. We played to survive. We were pushing the name up which of course made Don Severito happy. As the times changed, we slowed down and other friends came from neighboring republics, United States of America, Canada and they settled and started new businesses. Most of the property has been rented out today and we have here a little commercial center consisting of: Rey de Todos Bar, Marina's Mini Tienda, San Telmo's Antojitos, David's Trailers & house rentals, Light of the World Christian Gathering, Riverwalk Nursery, Javier's (the only sailboat man still building on the island) Jessie at Sunrise Real Estate, Famous Bun Man & Pizza, Bamboo Furniture and Daniel is in the motion of opening an art shop and last but not least Mrs. Bertha Hoy, a local lady and her family still own a good piece of San Telmo. To all of you thank you for being part of the original and modern San Telmo.
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