Luis A. Ferré

Painting by Luis A. Ferré

Don Luis Alberto Ferré Aguayo (born February 17, 1904 in Ponce , Puerto Rico , † October 21, 2003 in San Juan , Puerto Rico) was a Puerto Rican engineer, industrialist, politician, philanthropist and patron of the arts. From 1969 to 1973, the son of a Cuban immigrant was the third governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico . He founded the Partido Nuevo Progresista , which campaigned for Puerto Rico to become a state of the United States .

education

Ferré studied engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , where he made his bachelor's degree in 1924 and his master's degree in 1925 . He also studied music at the New England Conservatory of Music . During this time he lived in Boston , where he admired the American way of democracy.

Industry

On his return to Puerto Rico, he turned his father's company, Porto Rico Iron Works , into a successful business which made him a fortune. In 1948 he acquired the El Día newspaper , which became the most popular newspaper in Puerto Rico under the title El Nuevo Día . In the 1950s, Empresas Ferré acquired the cement factories of Puerto Rico and Ponce, which made a profit in the economic boom that Puerto Rico was experiencing at that time due to the ambitious industrialization projects as part of Operation Bootstrap .

Political career

Ferré became politically active in the 1940s. He ran unsuccessfully as mayor of Ponce (1940) and as local commissioner for Puerto Rico (1948).

MP

In 1948 Puerto Ricans were given permission to elect their governor. Luis Muñoz Marín took office, whereupon a movement for a Commonwealth relationship with the United States developed. In 1951 there was a referendum on the draft of the first US Congress- approved constitution for Puerto Rico. Ferré abstained when his Pro-Statehood party voted for the referendum. He saw in it "an acceptance of a colony and the condemnation of people to an endless state of second class citizenship". However, Ferré later took part in the constitutional assembly that resulted in the referendum to draft the constitution. In 1952, the Constitution of Puerto Rico was adopted, creating the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. In the same year Ferré was elected to the House of Representatives. He ran for the Partido Estadista Republicano and began his work as a member of parliament on January 11, 1953.

Governor and senator

In 1967 there was a plebiscite on whether Puerto Rico should become an independent nation, a US state, or remain in the Commonwealth of Nations. The majority of Puerto Ricans chose the latter option. A dispute in the Pro-Statehood party led by Miguel García Méndez prompted Ferré and a few fellow campaigners to found the new progressive party PNP.

In the next general election in 1968, Ferré ran for governor and narrowly defeated Luis Negrón Lopez, the candidate of the Popular Democratic Party , which the PPD had to give up after 20 years.

In his work as governor of Puerto Rico, Ferré defended the minimum wage and gave workers a Christmas bonus. He visited the Puerto Rican troops in the Vietnam War . In 1970 his first wife Lorencita died after years of bed rest in La Fortaleza . Her daughter Rosario Ferré is a recognized novelist and writer.

During his tenure, Luis A. Ferré paid particular attention to the problems of the young people he brought into the public service . He pushed through the lowering of the voting age to 18 years, supported the youth organization of the PNP as party leader and helped young politicians like Antonio Quiñones Calderon and Francisco "Pompy" Gonzalez to high posts in the administration, led a campaign for a 26-year-old House candidate , nominated later Senate President Kenneth McClintock as puerto Rican representative for the 1971 youth conference held the White house and strengthened the scholarship programs for colleges .

Even before the US Congress set up the Environmental Protection Agency , Ferré had set up the Environmental Quality Board in Puerto Rico , which was responsible for protecting the environment on the island.

In 1972 Ferré stood for re-election, but lost to the PPD candidate Rafael Hernández Colón . However, he remained active in politics and was elected to the Puerto Rico Senate in 1976 . From 1976 to 1980 he served as its president and until 1985 he remained a senator.

A few years after he left La Fortaleza, he married the nurse and later doctor Tiody de Jesus.

Even after his time as Senator, Ferré remained faithful to politics and represented the United States Republican Party on the island. From 1989 to 1991 he formed the PNP's negotiating team with former Governor Carlos Romero Barceló , former Representative Benny Frankie Cerezo , PNP leader Kenneth McClintock and former Congress member David Gerken , while Congress met with that of Senator J. Bennett Johnston introduced the law of Puerto Rico's political status.

Renaissance man

Ferré received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1991

Ferré was a talented pianist who recorded several albums of his piano music. On January 3, 1959, he founded the Ponce Museum of Art in his hometown, which began with 71 paintings from his personal collection and today houses more than 3,000 exhibits. The Centro de Bellas Artes , the center for performing arts, in Santurce bears his name as does the main highway from San Juan to Ponce. He also assisted in founding the Casals Festival (organized by his cousin Pau Casals ) and the Puerto Rico Music Conservatory. He was a member of the brotherhood Phi Sigma Alpha (ΦΣΑ). He was also an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1967 .

For his services as a philanthropist and defender of democracy, US President George HW Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom on November 18, 1991 .

Death and inheritance

On September 29, 2003, Ferré came to the hospital with a urinary tract infection , where he had to undergo an operation on October 1 for an intestinal obstruction . In the hospital, he contracted pneumonia that resulted in respiratory failure on the morning of October 21 . He died three and a half months before his 100th birthday.

His body was first laid out in Puerto Rico's Capitol in San Juan, then taken to his museum in Ponce, before a state funeral took place at which many politicians (including George HW Bush) paid their final respects.

In addition to the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which was later awarded to his sister Sor Isolina Ferré, Luis A. Ferré received many other awards. The famous sculptor Tomás Batista created a bust that is on display in the Ponce Museum of Art.

Web links

• the White House via Don Luis A. Ferré (English)
• Centro de Bellas Artes Luis A. Ferré (Spanish)
• Museo de Arte de Ponce (Spanish)
• Entry with the NGA