Julio Vizcarrondo

Infobox Person
name = Julio Vizcarrondo Coronado

---

image_size = 150px
caption = Julio Vizcarrondo Coronado
birth_date = birth date|1829|12|09|mf=y
birth_place = San Juan, Puerto Rico
death_date = 1889
death_place = Madrid, Spain
occupation = Journalist, Political activist
spouse =
parents =
children =

Julio Vizcarrondo Coronado (December 9 1829 – 1889) was a Puerto Rican abolitionist, journalist, politician and religious leader. He played an instrumental role in the development and passage of the Moret Law which in 1873 abolished slavery in Puerto Rico. Vizcarrondo was also the founder of the Protestant movement in the Iberian Peninsula in the 19th century.

Early years

Vizcarrondo was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico to Dr. Jose Bonifacio Vizcarrondo y Ortiz de Zarate and María Josefa Coronado y Martínez. His family were the owners of slaves who worked thier Hacienda. Vizcarrondo received his primary education in the capital city of Puerto Rico and his secondary education in Madrid, Spain and Paris, France. [http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Park/3785/julio.html Julio Vizcarrondo] ]

Journalist

Upon his return to the island, Vizcarrondo Coronado began to write for a local newspaper, where he expressed his liberal ideas and his position against slavery. The Spanish government considered his remarks as treacherous, and the appointed governor of the island, Lieutenant General Juan de la Pezuela y Cevallos (1848-1851), ordered his exile to the United States.

Exile and return

In 1850, Vizcarrondo arrived in New York City and joined the "International Conference of Paris against Slavery" as Secretary of the Permanent Committee of said organization. In New York he met and married Henriette Brewster y Cornell and converted to Protestantism, the faith of his wife. In 1854, Vizcarrondo returned to Puerto Rico and continued writing articles and expressing his ideas. Vizcarrondo granted his slaves their freedom and became a defender of the rights of the Black Puerto Rican slaves. He often denounced, in the island's courts, the slave owners who mistreated their slaves, thereby making many enemies. Vizcarrondo also denounced what he felt was the mistreatment of the Puerto Ricans and Puerto Rico in general by the colonial Spanish government. In 1857, he established the newspaper "El Mercurio" (The Mercury) and later established the "La Casa de la Caridad de San Ildefonso", an educational institution which provided free education to children of little or no means. The director (principal) of the institution was his wife. In 1863, he was named secretary of the commission in charge of moving the remains of Juan Ponce de Leon from its resting place in the Church of San José to the Cathedral of San Juan. Vizcarrondo continued to make enemies because of the liberal ideas which he expressed in his newspaper.

Vizcarrondo published various books on math, history and geography which were used in his school. In 1866, he also wrote a spelling book relying upon ancient methods of learning to read titled "El Silabario Puertorriqueño" (The Puerto Rican primary textbook) which was declared a textbook and used in the schools of the island. Vizcarrondo published the "Elementos de Historia y Geografía de Puerto Rico" (The Elements of History and Geography of Puerto Rico) which was made a textbook. [ [http://newdeal.feri.org/pr/pr03.htm Puerto Rico in the Great Depression] ]

In Madrid

In 1863, Vizcarrondo moved to Madrid where he joined other Puerto Ricans and Cubans who were also abolitionists. During his stay, Spain suffered the consequences of a cholera plague. Vizcarrondo and his friends founded the "Sociedad de Amigos de los Pobres" (Friends of the Poor Society), an organization to help rescue, feed and assist those affected the most and also offered his house as a temporary hospital. The government of Spain awarded him a medal in recognition of his heroic deeds during the cholera epidemic. He later co-founded the "Hospital del Niño Jesus". The origins of Protestantism in the Iberian Peninsula in the 19th century can be traced to Vizcarrondo. As president of the Central Committee of the Spanish Evangelical Union, he attempted and failed to establish a Protestant church in Madrid. [ [http://www.barcelona2004.org/eng/banco_del_conocimiento/documentos/ficha.cfm?idDoc=1085 Protestantism in Spain and its commitment with society] ] Despite this setback, on January 24 1869 he was able to convince the mayor of Madrid to grant the members of the Protestant faith permission to hold their religious services in public. [ [http://www.cedt.org/biograf.htm RESEÑAS BIOGRÁFICAS DE ABOLICIONISTAS] ]

Political career

Vizcarrondo joined the Spanish Republican Party. He helped in the preparation of the Liberal Revolution as Secretary of the revolutionary committee of Madrid. When the government discovered his role, he was exiled to France; however, he returned shortly after the revolution triumphed. Once again he was given a position in the revolutionary committee of Madrid, and he helped reorganize the Sociedad Abolicionista (Abolitionnist Society). ["Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery"; By David Brion Davis; Page 325; Published 2006 Oxford University Press US; ISBN:0195140737] In 1873, Vizcarrondo – together with Ramon Baldorioty de Castro, Luis Padial and the Spanish Minister of Overseas Affairs, Segismundo Moret – presented a proposal for the abolition of slavery in Puerto Rico and Cuba. On March 22 1873, the Spanish Government approved the proposal which became known as the Moret Law."Historia de La Esclavitud Negra En Puerto Rico" (The history of Black Slavery in Puerto Rico); By Luis M. Díaz Soler; Page 270; Published 1981 Editorial UPR; ISBN:084770095X]

Later years and legacy

On May 1 1880, Vizcarrondo and Rafael María de Labra became the founders of the Sociedad Nacional Democrática (National Democratic Society), a political party whose main goal was to ask for more autonomy for both Puerto Rico and Cuba. In 1886, he was elected as the representative for his party of the district of Ponce, Puerto Rico. In the Spanish Parliament, Vizcarrondo recommended an autonomy modeled after the type that Canada had at that moment. In 1887, he participated in a massive campaign directed against the Spanish appointed governor of Puerto Rico, Romualdo Palacios, which resulted in the governors replacement. In 1889, Julio Vizcarrondo Coronado died in Madrid.

The government of Puerto Rico has honored Vizcarrondo's memory by naming schools in the towns of Carolina and Cayey after him. [ [http://showhighschool19143.athletesadvance.com/ Julio Vizcarrondo Coronado school] ] [ [http://puerto-rico.schooltree.org/public/Julio-Vizcarrondo-Ycoronado-098197.html Vizcarrondo school in Cayey] ]

ee also

*List of famous Puerto Ricans

References

Further reading

*"Sugar, Slavery, & Freedom in Nineteenth-century Puerto Rico" By Luis A. Figueroa; Published 2005 UNC Press; SBN:080785610X

External links

*es icon [http://www.cedt.org/biograf.htm Biografías de abolicionistas] (The Biographies of the Abolitionists)
*es icon La [http://www.protestantes.net/Enciclo/iencic.html#v Enciclopedia del protestantismo en España] (The Encyclopedia of Protestantism in Spain)
*es icon Conferencia [http://www.barcelona2004.com/esp/banco_del_conocimiento/documentos/ficha.cfm?idDoc=1085 "El protestantismo en España y su compromiso con la sociedad"] , (Protestantism in Spain and its role in Society) by Gabino Fernández Campos