Santiago Iglesias Pantín (February 22, 1872 – December 5, 1939), was a Spanish-born Puerto Rican socialist and trade union activist. Iglesias is best remembered as a leading supporter of statehood for Puerto Rico, and as the

Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico The resident commissioner of Puerto Rico () is a non-voting member of the United States House of Representatives elected by the voters of the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico every four years, the only member of the House of Representatives ...

in the U.S. Congress from 1933 to 1939.

Biography

Early years

Santiago Iglesias was born in A Coruña,

Galicia Galicia may refer to: Geographic regions * Galicia (Spain), a region and autonomous community of northwestern Spain ** Gallaecia, a Roman province ** The post-Roman Kingdom of the Suebi, also called the Kingdom of Gallaecia ** The medieval King ...

, Spain, where he attended the common schools, and was apprenticed as a cabinet maker. At a young age he stowed away on a ship which landed in Cuba. There he organized workers and, beginning in 1889 was secretary of the Workingmen Trades Circle in Havana. Iglesias subsequently moved to Puerto Rico, and was the founder and

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of three labor papers: * ''Porvenir Social'' (from 1898 to 1900) * ''Union Obrera'' (from 1903 to 1906) * ''Justicia'' (from 1914 to 1925) He was a very active labor organizer in Puerto Rico and was often arrested and jailed for his activities, and was considered

American Federation of Labor The American Federation of Labor (A.F. of L.) was a national federation of labor unions in the United States that continues today as the AFL-CIO. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions eager to provide mutu ...

(AFL) president Samuel Gompers's ally on the island. In fact, Gompers appointed him general organizer of the

for the districts of Puerto Rico and Cuba in 1901. In 1915, he founded the Puerto Rico's Socialist Party, a pro-statehood, pro-labor party (not to be confused with the avowedly Marxist and pro-independence Puerto Rican Socialist Party founded in the 1970s). His Socialist Party, unlike its namesake, did elect its candidates to elective office during many elections. He also served as secretary of the Pan-American Federation of Labor from 1925 to 1933. In 1936, he was wounded during an assassination attempt by Puerto Rican Nationalist Party partisans. After losing a race in 1908 against Tulio Larrínaga for Puerto Rico's non-voting delegate seat in the United States Congress, Iglesias was elected as a Coalitionist Resident Commissioner on November 8, 1932, and was reelected in 1936 for the term ending January 3, 1941. He served in the 73rd, 74th, 75th, and

76th Congress The 76th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, DC from January 3, 1939, ...

es, from March 4, 1933 until his death.

Member of the Senate of Puerto Rico

Iglesias served as a member of the first Senate of Puerto Rico in 1917, and reelected several times, until his election to Congress in 1932. He pushed for many social reforms, many of which did become law, either as part of the PDP's reform agenda in the 1940s or as part of the Constitution of Puerto Rico in 1952.

Resident Commissioner in the U.S. House of Representatives

Iglesias unsuccessfully pushed for legislation to enable Puerto Ricans to elect their own Governor, a concept that did not become law until 1947. He was able to have Puerto Rico included in many

New Deal The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Cons ...

assistance programs, including road construction, the Bankhead-Jones Act that enabled agricultural experimentation, the fight against malaria and the Jones Act exclusion regarding the taxation of shipping between Puerto Rico and other U.S. ports. In Congress, he served on the Insular Affairs, Agriculture, and Labor committees.

Personal life

Married to Justa Pastora Bocanegra in 1902, he had eight daughters, named

America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, Liberty, Equality, Justice, Peace, Light, Fraternity and Fidelity, and three sons, including career military officer Edward Iglesias, and the late Manuel Francisco Iglesias, distinguished Air Force Captain and Lead Crew Radar Office of the B-29s during World War II.

Death and legacy

Iglesias died in office in Washington, D.C. on December 5, 1939 and his body was returned home to Puerto Rico, where it lay in state at the Capitol. Some 200,000 people were said to have filed past the casket and 50,000 are said to have gridlocked the streets of Old San Juan during his funeral. Iglesias's body was interred in a tomb at Santa Maria Magdalena de Pazzis Cemetery in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Early in 1943, a Liberty Ship was named for him.

References

External links

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Memorial Services held in the House of Representatives of the United States, together with remarks presented in eulogy of Santiago Iglesias late a resident commissioner from Puerto Rico frontispiece 1941
{{DEFAULTSORT:Iglesias, Santiago 1872 births 1939 deaths Burials at Santa María Magdalena de Pazzis Cemetery Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives Members of the Senate of Puerto Rico People from A Coruña Puerto Rican people of Galician descent Resident Commissioners of Puerto Rico Socialist Party (Puerto Rico) politicians Migrants from Spain to Spanish Puerto Rico