José Ma. Marxuach

Infobox_Mayor
name= José María Marxuach Echavarría
caption=


office= Mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico
term_start= May 12, 1897
term_end= July 1, 1897
term_start= December 11, 1900
term_end= March 7, 1901
lieutenant=
predecessor= Manuel Egozcue Cintrón
successor= Manuel Egozcue Cintrón
birth_date= 1848
birth_place= Aguadilla, Puerto Rico
death_date= 1910
death_place= San Juan de Puerto Rico
profession= Medical Doctor
party= Puerto Rican Republican Party

José María Marxuach Echavarría, was born in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, in 1848, to Don Francisco Marxuach y Ferrer (son of Don Juan Bautista Marxuach i Cot and Doña Francisca Ferrer, merchants based in Mataró, Catalonia), and Doña Beatriz Amalia de Echavarría y Conti, originally from Santo Domingo and a descendant of captain Rafael Conti y Flores, remembered for helping repulse a British invasion in 1796. Following in the footsteps of his maternal uncle, Don José Rafael Echavarría Conti, José María traveled to Spain to study medicine at the University of Zaragoza, from which he graduated in 1871 with a "licenciatura" in medicine and surgery. After his return to Puerto Rico he worked as a general practitioner in various towns on the island, including San Juan. In 1881 he was designated President of the Subdelegation of Medical and Surgical Sciences of Puerto Rico. In 1897 while holding the post of "Primer Teniente de Alcalde" or Deputy Mayor of San Juan he was selected for the post of Mayor "ad interim." During his administration the city's pedestrian and drainage infrastructure–and thus its general level of sanitation–was greatly improved. In the midst of the 1898 U.S. invasion, Dr. Marxuach assisted Dr. Coll y Toste (then serving as Vice-President of the Puerto Rican Red Cross), in treating the wounded during the fighting in San Juan. The following year General George W. Davis, the American Military Governor of Puerto Rico, allowed municipal elections to be held for the first time since the U.S. invasion. The Puerto Rican Republican Party enjoyed a sweeping victory in San Juan, as a result of which Manuel Egozcue Cintrón (a former leader of the Partido Incondicional turned pro-statehood) become "Alcalde"; José María, who was a political associate of Egozcue, obtained a seat in the Municipal Council ("Concejo Municipal"). In 1900 José María was elected Mayor-President ("Alcalde Presidente"). The dual office, a result of Spanish reforms implemented in 1878, combined the executive duties of a municipal mayor with the parliamentary offices of a city council president. José María was succeeded in office by his predecessor, the veteran politician Egozcue Cintrón. Dr. Marxuach died in 1910.

One of his brothers, Dr. José Monserrate Marxuach Echavarría, who married Josefina Plumey E Irizarry, was the father of Lieutenant Colonel Teófilo Marxuach y Plumey (b. 1877) (remembered for being the first the person who fired the first shot in World War I on behalf of the United States) and Acisclo Marxuach y Plumey (b. 1895), honorary consul of Spain in Puerto Rico (1935), second Grand Master of the Order of Saint John the Baptist of Puerto Rico, and owner of one of the most important art and antiquarian collections on the island (encompassing paintings by Ramón Atiles y Pérez, José Campeche, Luis Paret y Alcázar, and Francisco Oller; as well as Spanish incunabula).

External links

*History of Puerto Rico's government (in English) [http://www.linktopr.com/sanjuan_e.html]
*Complete List of Alcaldes of San Juan (in Spanish) [http://www.lmsj.org/alcaldes.htm]
*Resolution Num. 58, Series 2000-2001 (in Spanish) [http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:OS4rgS41XyAJ:home.coqui.net/asamblea/ra/2000-01/R2000-0158.pdf+gilberto+marxuach&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=87]
*Brief History of the Municipal Assembley (in Spanish) [http://home.coqui.net/asamblea/historia.htm]
*Biographies of Alcaldes of San Juan (in Spanish) [http://www.rootsweb.com/~prsanjua/a-sj.htm]
*List of Doctors [http://www.rootsweb.com/~prsanjua/mis-030.htm]
*The Red Cross in Puerto Rico (in Spanish) [http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:gQAAjYRSrUgJ:www.guajataca.net/images/guerra/cap9.]
*Boletín histórico de Puerto Rico [http://books.google.com/books?id=t201AAAAIAAJ&dq=marxuach+espana&q=marxuach+&pgis=1#search]
*A Detailed Account of the Defense of this Area Against the American Fleet... [http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/churchmews/1216/rel.bom.ortega.htm] (in Spanish)
*Gallery of "Alcaldes" [http://home.coqui.net/asamblea/alcaldes.htm]
*The Spanish Economy towards the End of the Ancien Regime [http://books.google.com/books?id=ZMctAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Aunque,+en+este+sentido,+pudiera%22&dq=%22Aunque,+en+este+sentido,+pudiera%22&pgis=1]
*Families Joined by Marriage: Conti-Echavarría [http://www.preb.com/geneal/contiech.htm] (in Spanish)
*Great Orders of Chivalry [http://www.chivalricorders.org/orders/self-styled/selfsty3.htm]
*Foreign Consular Offices in the United States [http://books.google.com/books?id=HCogAAAAMAAJ&dq=consul+marxuach&q=marxuach&pgis=1#search]
*Smithsonian AmericanArt Museum [http://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=UO8834W086365.10072&menu=search&aspect=Browse&npp=50&ipp=20&spp=20&profile=ariall&ri=1&source=%7E%21siartinventories&index=OWNER&term=marxuach&x=0&y=0&aspect=Browse]