Luis Muñoz Marín
Muñoz officially took office on January 2, 1949. He held the post of Governor for sixteen years, being re-elected again in the 1952, 1956 and 1960 elections. During the 1960 elections, Catholic bishops ruled it would be a sin to vote for PPD candidates due to the party's policy on birth control and disallowing religious teachings in public schools.
During his terms as governor, a Constituent Convention of Puerto Rico, of which he was a member, was convened in which the Constitution of Puerto Rico was drafted. It was approved by the United States Congress in 1952.
In the 1950s, an ambitious industrialization project dubbed "Operation Bootstrap" was envisioned. It was coupled with a program of agrarian reform (land redistribution) which limited the area that could be held by large sugarcane interests. In the first forty years of this century, Puerto Rico's dominant economic product were sugarcane byproducts (sugar and molasses) for mainly U.S. market. Operation Bootstrap enticed U.S. mainland investors to transfer or create manufacturing plants by granting them local and federal tax concessions, but maintaining the access to US markets free of import duties. Another incentive was were the lower wage scales in the densely populated island, which had a rising urban unemployed population.
The program accelerated the shift from an agricultural to an industrial society; and, today, sugar production plays a relatively minor role in the island's economy. The 1950s saw the development of labor-intensive light industries, such as textiles; manufacturing later gave way to heavy industry, such as petrochemicals and oil refining, in the 1960s and 1970s.
Muñoz Marín's development programs brought some prosperity for an emergent middle class. The industrialization was in part fueled by generous local incentives, and freedom from federal taxation, while providing access to continental US markets without import duties. A rural agricultural society was transformed into an industrial working class. Although initially touted as an economic miracle, Operation Bootstrap by the 1960s was increasingly hampered by a growing unemployment problem. As living standards and wages rose, manpower-intensive industries faced competition from outside the United States.
Muñoz Marín also launched "Operación Serenidad" (Operation Serenity), a series of projects geared towards promoting education and appreciation of the arts. [6]
A long-time independence supporter for Puerto Rico, Muñoz reneged of independence as a status alternative for the country during the mid 1940s. There is some speculation on whether his change of political philosophy was reached upon by self-reflection or because of coercion by the United States military establishment in the island, which could not afford a Philippines-like secession from the United States to disrupt the sustainment of various military installations in Puerto Rico (the Philippines reached independence a year after, in 1947, after a long struggle for independence, first from Spain, and later from the United States). There is evidence that Muñoz had a fateful meeting with United States Navy officials in 1946, after which he disavowed independence as a status option for Puerto Ricans. Whether because of coercion or change of heart, his reversal on not pursuing Puerto Rican Independence angered many followers of Muñoz's Popular Democratic Party, who then formed the Puerto Rican Independence Party soon after. Muñoz later opposed independence openly, until his death.
Another faction that confronted Muñoz for his change of status preference was the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico, led by Pedro Albizu Campos. On October 30, 1950 a group of Puerto Rican nationalists staged a revolt which took control of the mountain town of Jayuya (in what has since been called the Jayuya Uprising), attacked the governor's mansion, La Fortaleza, the United States Capitol and Blair House, where United States President Harry S. Truman was staying during a renovation of the White House. These acts led Muñoz to crack down on Puerto Rican Nationalists and advocates of Puerto Rican Independence. These actions by both Muñoz and the United States' Government, which included censorship laws (called "Ley de la Mordaza" or "Gag Law"), the imprisonment of anyone who flew a Puerto Rican flag in the open, and the filing of thousands of intelligence dossiers ("carpetas"), a practice that lasted until the early 1980s, would later be determined as infringing on constitutional rights.
In 1964, he chose not to run for another term, leaving his party's candidacy to his Secretary of State, Roberto Sánchez Vilella who would go on to be elected Governor.
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Personal life
On July 1, 1919, he married American writer Muna Lee. [7] Lee, who hailed from Raymond, Mississippi, was a leading Southern feminist and a rising writer of Pan-American poetry. During their marriage they had two children: Muna Muñoz Lee (also known as Munita) and Luis Muñoz Lee. [8] Due to several periods of trial separation and infidelity on his part, she and Muñoz Marín were divorced on November 15, 1946. The following day, on November 16, 1946, Muñoz Marín married Inés Mendoza. With her, he had two more children: Viviana Muñoz Mendoza and Victoria Muñoz Mendoza.
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Retirement, death, and legacy
After leaving the post of Governor, Muñoz Marín would continue his public service as a member of the Puerto Rico Senate until 1970. In 1968, Muñoz had a serious dispute with Governor Roberto Sánchez Vilella. Muñoz, who was still an influential figure inside the Popular Democratic Party, decided to deny Governor Sánchez the opportunity to run for another term in 1968. Governor Sánchez then purchased the franchise of The People's Party (Partido del Pueblo) and decided to run for governor under this new Party. Many members of the Popular Democratic Party voted for Sánchez, thus leading to the PPD's first electoral defeat ever, and the election of Luis A. Ferre, a statehooder, as Governor. Muñoz Marín and Sánchez Vilella's friendship was severely strained after this.
After resigning his Senate seat in 1970, Muñoz traveled all over Europe and met with many political figures of the time. He returned to Puerto Rico in 1972 to promote the gubernatorial candidacy of Senate President Rafael Hernández Colón, the new leader of the Popular Democratic Party.
On April 30, 1980 Luis Muñoz Marín died at the age of 82, after suffering complications from a severe stroke. His funeral became an island-wide event, dwarfing his own father's funeral in 1916, and attended by tens of thousands of followers.
Muñoz's tenure as governor saw immense changes in Puerto Rico. The island was shifting from mainly rural to an urban society; second-generation Puerto Ricans in the continental states now equal or outnumber those from the island. Puerto Rico achieved degrees of autonomy it never had seen; a constitution was written. However, to some, the idealist and nationalist of Muñoz's youth had required a Faustian accommodation with the might and wealth of United States. To some, Muñoz had abandoned the youthful adherence to Puerto Rican Independence and instead cemented Puerto Rico's current commonwealth status. Others see Luis Muñoz Marín as the person who heralded the modern Puerto Rico. Others fault his strategies was to seek reduction in the growth of population by 1) encouraging migrant labor in US which lead to large urban, mainly poor, Puerto Rican neighborhoods in the Northeast, and 2) by encouraging family planning measures.
Marín was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on December 6, 1962 by President John F. Kennedy and was featured twice on the cover of Time Magazine. The articles called him "one of the most influential politicians in recent times, whose works will be remembered for years to come." In 1957 Marín received an LL.D. from Bates College.
His daughter Victoria Muñoz Mendoza, also became involved in the politics of Puerto Rico, and in 1992 made an unsuccessful bid for Governor. The main civil airport on the island of Puerto Rico bears his name – Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport – as well as other educational institutions.
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See also
- List of Puerto Rican writers
- List of Puerto Ricans
- Puerto Rican literature
- List of Governors of Puerto Rico
- Puerto Rican Politics
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References
- ^ Don Luis Muñoz Marín: el último de los próceres.. The World of Puerto Rican Politics. Retrieved on 2007-10-01.
- ^ Luis Muñoz Marín: Primeros Años. Fundación Luis Muñoz Marín. Retrieved on 2007-10-01.
- ^ a b c d Luis Muñoz Marín: El Político. Fundación Luis Muñoz Marín. Retrieved on 2007-10-01.
- ^ a b Muñoz Marín, Luis. Encyclopædia Britannica: Guide to Hispanic Heritage. Retrieved on 2007-10-01.
- ^ Puerto Rican Labor Movement. Center for History and New Media, George Mason University. Retrieved on 2007-10-01.
- ^ Operación Serenidad. Fundación Luis Muñoz Marín. Retrieved on 2007-10-02.
- ^ JONATHAN COHEN (December 20, 2004). MUNA LEE: A PAN-AMERICAN LIFE. The Americas Series of the University of Wisconsin Press. University of Wisconsin Press. Retrieved on 2007-10-01.
- ^ Robert Jackson (May 2004). Muna Lee. The Mississippi Writers and Musicians Project. Starkville High School. Retrieved on 2007-10-01.
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External links
- Luis Muñoz Marín Foundation (Spanish)
- 1949 Time Magazine Cover featuring Luis Muñoz Marín
- 1958 Time Magazine Cover featuring Luis Muñoz Marín
| Preceded by Rafael Martínez Nadal |
President of the Senate of Puerto Rico 1941–1949 |
Succeeded by Samuel R. Quiñones |
| Preceded by Jesús T. Piñero |
Governor of Puerto Rico 1949–1965 |
Succeeded by Roberto Sánchez Vilella |
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