José Aponte

Infobox Congressman


name= José Aponte Hernández


party= New Progressive Party
term_start =July, 2000
preceded= Néstor Aponte Hernández
succeeded= Angel Peña Rosa
date of birth= Birth date and age|1958|1|19|mf=y
place of birth= San Juan, Puerto Rico
date of death=
place of death=
spouse= Aida Rodríguez Roig
current occupation=Accountant
religion=Roman Catholic
Puerto Rico House Speaker= 28th
term_start2= January 1, 2005
term_end2= Present
predecessor2= Carlos Vizcarrondo Irizarry
successor2= Incumbent

Jose Fernando Aponte Hernández (born January 19, 1958), is an accountant and Speaker of the House of Representatives of Puerto Rico. He was born in San Juan and obtained a bachelor's degree in Accounting from the University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras in 1980.

Aponte is married to Aida I. Rodríguez Roig, and has two sons and one daughter. He currently resides in San Lorenzo. He was the New Progressive Party (NPP) General Secretary during the Rossello administration. One of his older brothers, Néstor, is a state appellate judge, while another, Jorge, was the Director of the Office of Management and Budget during the Rosselló administration. He served a Secretary-General of the New Progressive Party from 1996 to 1997 interim and 1997-1999 in actuality. During this period he got a lot of public attention when in 1998, after the status plebiscite, he grabbed a bat and began hitting cars celebrating the victory of the "None of the Above Option".

After the New Progressive Party elected 32 members of the 51-seat House of Representatives in the 2004 general elections, Aponte was elected the 28th Speaker of the House on January 10, 2005, a position he currently holds, mantain a poor relation with other representants.

He is also a member of the Puerto Rican Republican Party. [http://www.goppr.org/en/3/44.html]