Benjamin Cole (mayor)

Benjamín Cole Vázquez (1919-1993) was the longest serving mayor of the city of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. He is regarded as one of the strongest leaders of the Popular Democratic Party of Puerto Rico (PDP). He was also a postal administrator, legislator, and composer (Tito Puente recorded one of his songs, although he is much better known for being the brother of composer Roberto Cole).

Cole's Ancestry

Cole's father, Frank Cole, was part of the United States Army regiments that invaded the city of Mayagüez on August 11, 1898, during the Spanish-American War. He married Puerto Rican Belisa Vázquez and stayed in the city the rest of his life. The last name took on the Spanish pronunciation and "Cole" became "Co-Lay"IPA|.

Political Beginnings

Benjamin Cole was the postmaster of the city of Mayagüez during the late 1950s. Eventually, he ran (and won) as Mayagüez district representative for the Popular Democratic Party of Puerto Rico (PDP). His use of clever slogans and phrases, early use of electronic media, as well as his strong political machinery and astute use of political tools, gave him a strong voice within the PDP. Cole was a very skilled and eloquent public speaker, as well as a talented, quick-thinking debater and interviewee.

Cole coined a phrase to depict the PDP's esprit de corps that is still used to this day: "¡Fuego Popular!" ("Popular Fire"), a play on words that capitalized on the PDP's traditional campaign color (red), and the fact that the strength of his political power was in fact the average citizen. Some political historians claim that Luis Negrón López's poor acceptance levels as PDP gubernatorial candidate in 1968 were a direct consequence of Cole's use of the phrase "¡Juégame el 315!" ("Play me 315") to depict him as a numbers game runner or "bolitero".

Cole won the election for mayor of Mayagüez in 1968, and was subsequently reelected in 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984 and 1988. He won these contests using the same political tactics that, in part, derailed Negrón's candidacy. Cole's strongest contender for the Mayagüez mayoralship, Jan García, was depicted by Cole as a "fake", since, in Cole's view, Dr. Garcia misrepresented himself to the citizens of Mayagüez by using the prefix "Dr." (most voters had assumed Dr. Garcia was a medical doctor, when in fact he had a Ph.D. in Chemistry and was also a Juris Doctor). In Cole's view, Dr. Garcia's unwillingness to clarify this misrepresented him to the general voter. In another mayoral contest, Cole is known for saying: "I'd say my opponent is a thief and a liar... "but I don't use that kind of language!".

Benjamin Cole was a populist, often relating to the social needs of the poor and working classes of his city. This earned him many political enemies, from inside and outside his political party. His administration was repeatedly accused of corruption, and cleared of most charges. One accusation that was not cleared [ [http://www.tribunalpr.org/opiniones/2005/2005TSPR46.rtf Copy of Puerto Rico Supreme Court document requesting reimbursement of public funds by the PDP on Cole's case] ] , involved a person on city payroll working at the local PDP party clubhouse, although the charges behind this were also politically skewed and only settled many years after Cole's death.

logans and Campaign Strategies

Cole's main campaign strategies captured the essence of him as a populist, and tried to appeal to working class people, picturing him as their "working class mayor". He made frequent use of refrains and slogans, and made a point of using simple language in public while almost always speaking in the third-person while describing his accomplishments. He appealed to common sense when describing current events and explaining public administration strategies, something that political observers acknowledged as being extremely effective, while critics dismissed as demagogy.

An example of his style of campaigning is evidenced by his self-made political slogans. On latter campaigns for reelection, Cole's simple campaign motto was "Cole sigue" ("Cole continues"). Cole's best known musical jingle, a march, was composed by him; its main refrain: "Porque Cole es el alcalde / que ha hecho más por Mayagüez / decimos con alegria: Cole sigue en la alcaldia" ("Since Cole is the mayor / who has done the most for Mayagüez / we gladly say / Cole goes on at City Hall") was featured in his weekly campaign TV show. In one airing, the show opened with the children from his family (his own kids, nieces and nephews) singing the jingle.

Cole made extensive use of electronic media for campaigning, and refused to use posters, flyers or painted signs as part of his campaign propaganda, since he felt like such use would make his city dirty. Instead, he focused on neighborhood-specific community "rallies" and meetings, loudspeaker vehicles, television, radio and media outlets.

On the other hand, Cole's political organization in Mayagüez was perceived by many to be the strongest of any mayoral candidate in Puerto Rico. Some of his ward leaders claim (to this day) to know the political affiliation of every one of their neighbors, a tactic that could allow scientific targeting of voters by background.

Cole's Mayagüez

Cole authored the law that created the Mayagüez Zoo (first and only zoo in Puerto Rico) when he was a legislator. During his tenure as a mayor, Cole put considerable emphasis in public works. As a result, his administration developed many local landmarks in Mayagüez: the "Palacio de Recreación y Deportes" (the local sports arena), the "Parque de los Próceres" (Mayagüez's largest park), the "Ciudad del Retiro" apartment complex for retirees, two public transportation terminals, a multi-storied parking garage, a state of the art Little League baseball stadium, plus the acquisition and reconstruction of the "Teatro Yagüez" (the local municipal theater) and the remodeling of the city's center square -the "Plaza de Colón"- City Hall, the Asilo de Beneficencia (better known for being the first home of Salvador Agron) and the "Plaza del Mercado", the local site for the farmer's and produce market. The Cole administrations demolished two slums (the Palmita section of Barrio Barcelona, traditionally a municipal dump since the mid-1840's, and the Rabo del Buey slum in downtown Mayagüez) and promoted community redevelopment of these areas. Most recent development projects in Mayagüez have centered around "renovating" the projects developed by Cole.

Mayagüez was repeatedly awarded the status of Puerto Rico's Cleanest City during Cole's tenure.

Cole's Family

Benjamín Cole had four children with his first wife, music teacher (and long-time organist for the Roman Catholic cathedral of Mayagüez) Angelina Simón. His sons with Simón were all professional musicians at one time or another, while his daughter was the voice-over announcer for WIPM-TV, the public PBS television station in the city. None were involved in politics.

After marrying his second wife, Nereida Falto, Cole's involvement in politics fully included his family, often campaigning with Falto and their three children (two daughters and a son). Away from the limelight he was a rather quiet, devoted family man.

Given many "ad honorem" roles by her husband as both advisor and co-campaigner, Nereida Falto de Cole gained a reputation for being a frank (sometimes blunt) public campaigner, a tenacious networker and a strong public administrator. At times, political adversaries tried to gain leverage of this by stating that Cole was merely a front man for his wife, and that the city of Mayagüez was being run by a woman (at a time when sexism was very prevalent in politics and public life in Puerto Rico). Cole's public acknowledgment of his wife as his most trusted advisor was an innovation in Puerto Rican politics that has rarely occurred before or since. Their teamwork as public administrators and political campaigners resonated with voters and supporters.

After Cole's death, many wanted Mrs. Cole to run for mayor of Mayagüez, she declined the offer repeatedly and has chosen to work as a private entrepreneur managing public housing projects in the western part of the island.

Cole's Legacy

Some political observers have likened Cole's political campaigning style as a cross between those of George A. Smathers (in both his speaking style and way to address opponents) and Richard J. Daley (his local party organization was allegedly the Puerto Rican equivalent of the Chicago Democratic Machine) in the United States. Cole's political acumen and strong populist government made him the subject of a biographical book, "Benjamin Cole - the Last Cacique: Leadership and Politics in a Puerto Rican City" (a book of published by the University of Pittsburgh Press in 1994). The book was written by the current Chilean ambassador to India (also a former ambassador to South Africa), and former professor at the University of Puerto Rico - Mayaguez, Jorge Heine.

References

Other Links

* [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0822937417 Amazon's reference to Heine's book]