Luis Llorens Torres

Luis Llorens Torres (born May 14, 1876 in Juana Díaz , Puerto Rico ; † June 16, 1944 in Santurce , San Juan , Puerto Rico) was a Puerto Rican poet, playwright, journalist and politician who campaigned for the independence of his homeland began.

Life

His parents Luis Aurelio del Carmen Llorens and Marcelina Soledad de Torres were wealthy owners of a coffee plantation , which is why he had close contact with nature. After completing his school education in Mayagüez and Maricao , he went to Spain . At the University of Barcelona , he studied law and at the University of Granada he earned a doctorate in philosophy and literature . During his time in Spain he published his first volume of poetry, Al Pie de la Alhambra , which he dedicated to his friend Carmen Rivero.

In 1901 he returned to Puerto Rico and married. He moved to Ponce , where he founded his own law firm (who later joined Nemesio Canales ) and collaborated with the Lienzos del Solar newspaper . During this time he wrote his works Sonetos Sinfonicos , Voces de la Campana Major and Alturas de America .

The political situation had changed significantly in his absence, as Puerto Rico had been annexed by the United States . Torres therefore joined the Unionist Party, which defended the ideal of independence. He conveyed his views in his poem El Patito Feo (The Ugly Duckling). From 1908 to 1910 he was a representative of Ponce in the Chamber of Deputies. On February 8, 1912, he wrote a manifesto with Matienzo Cintrón, Manuel Zeno Gandía and others that saw the time for Puerto Rico's independence come. The authors of the manifesto founded the Independence Party with Eugenio Benítez Castaño and Pedro Franceschi , whose sole goal was independence. Castaño was president of the short-lived party. In 1913 Torres created the literary publication La Revista de Las Antillas with Nemesio Canales . He campaigned for independence until his death.

The Puerto Rican government named a building project after him. A street in San Juan, a high school in Juana Diaz, and a children's academy in New York also bear his name. There are also statues in front of the aforementioned high school and on Plazita Famosa in Juana Diaz.