Ramón Emeterio Betances

Infobox Person
name = Ramón Emeterio Betances y Alacán


image_size = 250px
caption =
birth_date = birth date|1827|4|8|mf=y
birth_place = Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico
death_date = death date and age|1898|9|16|1827|4|8
death_place = Neuilly-sur-Seine, Île-de-France, France
occupation = Politician, medical doctor, diplomat
spouse =
parents = Felipe Betanzos Ponce
María del Carmen Alacán de Montalvo
children =

Ramón Emeterio Betances y Alacán (April 8, 1827 – September 16, 1898) was a Puerto Rican nationalist. He was the primary instigator of the Grito de Lares revolution, and as such, is considered to be the father of the Puerto Rican independence movement. Since the "Grito" galvanized a burgeoning nationalist movement among Puerto Ricans, Betances is also considered "El Padre de la Patria" (Father of the Puerto Rican Nation). Because of his many donations and help to people in need, he also became known as "The Father of the Poor."

Betances was also the most renowned medical doctor and surgeon of his time in Puerto Rico, and one of its first social hygienists. He had established a successful surgery and ophthalmology practice. Betances was also a diplomat, public health administrator, poet and novelist. He served as representative and contact for Cuba and the Dominican Republic in Paris.

A firm believer in Freemasonry, his political and social activism was deeply influenced by the group's philosophical beliefs. His personal and professional relationships (as well as the organizational structure behind the Grito de Lares, an event that, in theory, clashes with traditional Freemason beliefs) were based upon his relationships with Freemasons, their hierarchical structure, rites and signs.

Early years

Ancestry

Betances was born in Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico, in the building that now houses the "Logia Cuna de Betances" ("Betances' Cradle Masonic Lodge"). Betances' parents were Felipe Betanzos Ponce, a merchant born in Hispaniola (in the part that would later become the Dominican Republic; the surname Betanzos transformed into Betances while the family resided there), and María del Carmen Alacán de Montalvo, a native of Cabo Rojo and of French ancestry. They were married in 1812.

Betances claimed in his lifetime that a relative of his, Pedro Betances, had revolted against the Spanish government of Hispaniola in 1808 and was tortured, executed, and his body burned and shown to the populace to dissuade them from further attempts.Dávila del Valle. Oscar G., [http://www.triplov.com/carbonaria/antilhas/valle_01.htm Presencia del ideario masónico en el proyecto revolucionario antillano de Ramón Emeterio Betances] , available at the Grande Loja Carbonária do Brasil's [http://www.triplov.com/carbonaria/ website] ] Meanwhile, Alacán's father, a sailor, led a party of volunteers that tried to apprehend Roberto Cofresí in 1824 and did arrest some of Cofresí's crew, for which he was honored by the Spanish government. [Ojeda Reyes, Félix, El Desterrado de París: Biografía del Dr. Ramón Emeterio Betances (1827–1898), Ediciones Puerto, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 2001, pp. 2–7]

Betances was the fourth of six children; the oldest of which would die shortly after birth; Betances was the only male among the surviving siblings. The family was described as being of mixed race in records of the day. His mother died in 1837, when he was nine years old, and his father remarried in 1839; the five children he had with María del Carmen Torres Pagán included Ramón's half-brother Felipe Adolfo, [Ojeda Reyes, Félix, "El Desterrado de París", pp. 6, 14] who was not involved in politics (according to Ramón) but was nevertheless arrested following the Grito de Lares years later. [Ojeda Reyes, Félix, "El Desterrado de París", pp. 131–132]

His father eventually bought the Hacienda Carmen in what would later become the nearby town of Hormigueros, and became a wealthy landowner. He owned convert|200|acre|km2|1 of land, a small sugar mill, and some slaves, who shared their duties with free workers. [Ojeda Reyes, Félix, "El Desterrado de París", pp. 8, 12] There is speculation that he later freed his slaves, persuaded by his son Ramón. [Felix Ojeda Reyes speculates this in his book, "El Desterrado de París", p. 42: "A search of slave registries in Cabo Rojo for the decades of 1840s and 1850s has given us no results. We can assure, however, that by 1869 and following years Dr. Betances is not listed as owning any Negro slaves within the jurisdiction. (…) The only Betances listed as owning a Negro slave in Cabo Rojo, in both the 1869 and 1872 censuses, is Ana Betances Torres (Ramón's half-sister)."]

First years in France

Primary education

The young Betances received his primary education from private tutors contracted by his father, a Freemason who owned the largest private library in town. His parents' attitude towards religion and civil authority shaped his personal beliefs in both subjects. [Ojeda Reyes, Félix, "El Desterrado de París", p. 8. Betances is quoted as saying once that he never saw his mother go to any religious service, and that when his father took him to church, he would stand in the back, close to the door, and not pay much attention to Mass.] His father would eventually send him to France, to study at the then-named "Collège Royal" (later named the Lycée Pierre de Fermat) in Toulouse when he was ten years old. A Franco-Puerto Rican family, Jacques Maurice Prévost and María Cavalliery Bey (who also was a native of Cabo Rojo) were appointed as his tutors. Prévost opened a drug store in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, but was forced to return to France (particularly to his native town, Grisolles) for not having finished his pharmacy studies. There is also speculation that Prévost was a Freemason, as was Betances' father.

Betances accompanied the couple in Prévost's return to his country, and would be under their indirect tutelage while boarding at the school. He showed interest in natural and exact sciences early on, and also became a good fencer. [Ojeda Reyes, Félix, "El Desterrado de París", pp. 8, 17–19]

Legal "whitening" of family

While Ramón was in France, his father sought to move the family's registration from the "mixed race" to the "white" (Caucasian) classification of families in Cabo Rojo. The process, when successful, entitled the requester to further legal and property rights for him and his family, and was necessary to allow his daughter, Ana María, to marry José Tió, who was a Caucasian. In the case of Betances' father, the process lasted two years, and was formalized in 1840, but not before having to have the family's lineage and religious affiliations exposed to the general public, something that embarrassed them all. Betances was considerably annoyed by the entire ordeal, since he was the first to acknowledge that he and his entire family were not "blancuzcos" ("whitish", a legal term) but "prietuzcos" ("blackish", as Betances mocked it in his letters) instead. To him the procedure reeked of hypocrisy. [Ojeda Reyes, Félix, "El Desterrado de París", pp. 14–17, 20]

Medicine studies

In 1846, Betances obtained his "bachelors degrees" (equivalents to a modern high school diploma). After an extended vacation in Puerto Rico, he went on to study medicine at the University of Paris (then-named the University of France) from 1848 until 1855, with a short interlude at the University of Montpellier for specific courses in the summer of 1852. [Ojeda Reyes, Félix, "El Desterrado de París", pp. 20, 29–30]

At the time of his arrival in Paris, Betances witnessed the aftermath of the 1848 Revolution and its backlash, the June Days Uprising, earlier that year. His future political views were directly shaped by what he saw and experienced at the time. He considered himself "an old soldier of the French Republic". Inspired by the proclamation of the 2^ème. République, he rejected Puerto Rican aspirations for autonomy (sought from Spain by Puerto Rican politicians since 1810) in favor of Puerto Rican independence.Ojeda Reyes, Félix (as told to Collado Schwarz, Ángel), [http://www.vozdelcentro.org/mp3/prog_17.mp3 Ramón Emeterio Betances: Padre de la Patria, Médico de los Pobres, Poeta, Diplomático de Puerto Rico y Cuba en Francia.] ]

In 1856, he graduated with the titles of Doctor in Medicine and Surgeon. He was the second Puerto Rican to graduate from the University (after Pedro Gerónimo Goyco, a later political leader native of Mayagüez who would eventually interact with Betances when both returned to Puerto Rico). [A nephew (Luis) and a second cousin (José) later graduated from the University of Paris' medical school; the former in the late 1880s, and the latter in the 1920s.] Among Betances' teachers were: Charles-Adolphe Wurtz, Jean Cruveilhier, Jean-Baptiste Bouillaud, Armand Trousseau, Alfred-Armand-Louis-Marie Velpeau and Auguste Nélaton. [ [http://bvs.sld.cu/revistas/his/his%2095/hist0695.htm El doctor Ramón Emeterio Betances, higienista social] , submitted to the Third Betances-Martí Scientific International Conference, Centro de Estudios Martianos, Havana, Cuba, September 2002.]

Father's death and family's economic problems

While Betances was studying medicine in France, his father died (in August 1854) and his sister Ana María would be forced to take over the Hacienda Carmen's management. By 1857 the heirs were forced to give the operation's output to a holding company headed by Guillermo Schröeder. [Ojeda Reyes, Félix, "El Desterrado de París", p. 40. Ojeda Reyes implies that the plantation was later sold, but does not elaborate on the transaction's details.]

First return to Puerto Rico

Cholera epidemic of 1856

Betances returned to Puerto Rico in April 1856. At the time, a cholera epidemic was spreading across the island. The epidemic made its way to Puerto Rico's western coast in July 1856, and hit the city of Mayagüez particularly hard. At the time, Betances was one of five doctors that would have to take care of 24,000 residents. Both he and Dr. José Francisco Basora (who became lifelong friends and colleagues from that point on) would alert the city government and press the city managers into taking preventive action.

An emergency subscription fund was established by some of the city's wealthiest citizens. Betances and Basora had the city slave barracks torched and a temporary camp set up for its dwellers. A large field at a corner of the city was set aside for a supplementary cemetery, and Betances set and managed a temporary hospital next to it (which was later housed in a permanent structure and became the "Hospital San Antonio", the Mayagüez municipal hospital, which still serves the city). However, the epidemic struck the city soon after; Betances' stepmother and one of his brothers-in-law would die from it. By October 1856 Betances would have to take care of the entire operation on his own temporarily. [Ojeda Reyes, Félix, "El Desterrado de París", pp. 33–35]

At the time, he had his first confrontation with Spanish authorities, since Betances gave last priority of medical treatment to those Spanish-born military rank and officers who where affected by the disease (they demanded preferential and immediate treatment, and he openly despised them for it). For his hard work to save many Puerto Ricans from the ravages of the cholera epidemic of 1856, Betances was commended by the city's government. However, when the central government established a Chief Surgeon post for the city, Betances (who was the acting chief surgeon) was passed over, in favor of a Spanish newcomer. [Ojeda Reyes, Félix, "El Desterrado de París", pp. 35–36]

Basora and Betances were eventually honored with streets named after each in the city of Mayagüez. The main thoroughfare that crosses the city from north to south is named after Betances; a street that links the center of the city with the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez is named after Dr. Basora.

Exile from and return to Puerto Rico

Abolitionist

Betances believed in the abolition of slavery, inspired not only on written works by Victor Schoelcher, John Brown, Lamartine and Tapia, but also on personal experience, based on what he saw at his father's farm and in daily Puerto Rican life. [Ojeda Reyes, Félix, "El Desterrado de París", p. 44. He described an event in one of his writings that happened in a nearby town where a slave, who had bought his own liberty from his owner, was denied his freedom by a Spanish bureaucrat. The slave then proceeded to kill the owner, his wife and son, and when he was arrested, he upbraided the bureaucrat by saying: "White man, had you given me my liberty this disgrace would not had happened"."] Based on his beliefs, he founded a civic organization in 1856, one of many others that were later called the "Secret Abolitionist Societies" by historians. Little is known about them due to their clandestine nature, but Betances and Salvador Brau (a close friend who later became the official Historian of Puerto Rico) describe them in their writings. Some of these societies sought the freedom and free passage of maroons from Puerto Rico to countries where slavery had been abolished already; other societies sought to liberate as many slaves as possible by buying out their freedom.

The objective of the particular society Betances founded was to free children who were slaves, taking advantage of their need to receive the sacrament of Baptism at the town church, "Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria", which is now the Roman Catholic Cathedral of Mayagüez. Since buying the freedom of slave children cost 50 "pesos" if the child had been baptized, and 25 "pesos" if the child had not, Betances, Basora, Segundo Ruiz Belvis and other members of the society waited next to the baptismal font on Sundays, expecting a master to take a slave family to baptize their child. Before the child was baptized, Betances or his partners gave money to the parents, which they in turn used to buy the child's freedom from his master. The child, once freed, was baptized minutes after. This action was later described as having the child receive the "aguas de libertad" (waters of liberty). Similar events occurred in the city of Ponce. [Ojeda Reyes, Félix, "El Desterrado de París", p. 49. The author quotes Salvador Brau on the matter.]

The baptismal font where these baptisms were performed still exists, and is owned by a local family of merchants, the Del Moral family, who keep it at their Mayagüez house. [ [http://buscador.elnuevodia.com/resultados.aspx Hechavarría, Mónica, "Cobijo de las aguas de libertad", El Nuevo Día, online edition, March 25, 2007] ]

"La vierge de Boriquen" (The "Boriquén" Virgin)

The Spanish governor of Puerto Rico, Fernando Cotoner, threatened Betances with exile in 1858 because of his abolitionist tactics. Betances took a leave of absence from his duties as director of the local hospital and again left Puerto Rico for France, followed by Basora. Soon, his half-sister Clara and her husband, Justine Hénri, would also leave for Paris with his niece, María del Carmen Hénri.

María del Carmen, nicknamed "Lita", was born in 1838. She had met Betances when she was 10, and Betances became instantly fond of her. Once he returned to Puerto Rico from his medical studies he requested the necessary ecclesiastical permissions to marry her (due to the degree of consanguinity between them), which were granted in Rome (then part of the Papal States) after an extended delay. Their marriage was supposed to occur on May 5, 1859 in Paris, but Lita fell sick with typhus and died at the Mennecy house of Dr. Pierre Lamire, a friend from Betances' medical school days, on April 22, 1859 (the Good Friday of that year).

Betances was psychologically devastated by Lita's death. Accompanied by his sister, brother-in-law, local friends and a few Puerto Rican friends residing in Paris at the time (which included Basora, Francisco Oller and another Cabo Rojo native, future political leader Salvador Carbonell), Betances had Lita buried on April 25. Her body was later reburied in Mayagüez, on November 13 of that year. Salvador Brau, a historian and close friend, later wrote that once Betances returned to Puerto Rico with Lita's body, he suspended all personal activities besides his medical work, spent a considerable amount of time caring for her tomb at the Mayagüez cemetery, and assumed the physical aspect that most people identify Betances with: dark suit, long unkempt beard, and "Quaker" hat. [Ojeda Reyes, Félix, "El Desterrado de París", pp. 50–53. Later he would credit Giuseppe Mazzini as an influence for his look: Mazzini wore black garb to mourn for his country.]

Betances immersed himself in work, but later found time to write a short story in French, "La Vierge de Boriquén" (The Boriquén Virgin), inspired in his love for Lita and her later death, and somewhat influenced by Edgar Allan Poe's writing style. Cayetano Coll y Toste later described the story of Lita and Betances in the story La Novia de Betances, [For a Spanish-language version of the story, [http://www.preb.com/apuntes5/noviadeb.htm see here] ] from his book "Leyendas y Tradiciones Puertorriqueñas" (Puerto Rican Legends and Traditions). [Coll y Toste, Cayetano, [http://www.preb.com/apuntes5/noviadeb.htm La Novia de Betances] , transcribed by Negrón Hernández, Luis (editor), Puerto Rico En Breve, available on http://www.preb.com/]

Return to Mayagüez and second exile

Doctor and surgeon

After returning to Puerto Rico in 1859, Betances established a very successful surgery and ophthalmology practice in Mayagüez. [Ojeda Reyes, Félix, "El Desterrado de París", p. 60] Even fierce political enemies such as Spanish pro-monarchy journalist José Pérez Morís regarded Betances as the best surgeon in Puerto Rico at the time. His good reputation in Puerto Rico would survive his stay in the island nation for many years. In 1895, while Betances was living in Paris, the manufacturers of the "Emulsión de Scott" (a codfish liver oil product that is still sold today, manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline in modern times), paid an endorsement fee to Betances to have him appear on advertisements on Spanish language magazines and newspapers all over New York City and the Caribbean, based on his solid reputation as a doctor. [ Rodríguez Vázquez, Eduardo, Dr. Ramón Emeterio Betances: el médico] [Ojeda Reyes, Félix, "El Desterrado de París", pp. 310–312. Antonio Vélez Alvarado, a Puerto Rico independence supporter later credited as the "inventor" of the Puerto Rican flag, and whose brother was a sales representative for Scott & Bowne, was responsible for publishing the ads.]

Betances introduced new surgical and aseptic procedures to Puerto Rico. With the assistance of Venezuelan anesthesiologist Pedro Arroyo, Betances performed the first ever surgical procedure under chloroform in Puerto Rico, in November 1862. [Ojeda Reyes, Félix, "El Desterrado de París", p. 63]

At the same time he spent a considerable amount of time serving Mayagüez's disadvantaged on a pro bono basis, He gave many donations to the poor, and because of this he became known as "The Father of the Poor" among "Mayagüezanos" according to his contemporary, Eugenio María de Hostos.

Exile in the Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic had its first war for independence in 1844, which was successful in obtaining independence from Haiti, although Haitian rule of parts of the country would last intermittently until 1856. Spain reannexed the country at the request of its then-dictator, Gen. Pedro Santana (who attempted to benefit personally from the event), in 1861. A second revolt, the "War of Restoration", sought independence from the Spanish in 1863. Its leaders used Haiti as a guerrilla base, since the Haitian government feared a Spanish takeover and the restoration of slavery in the occupied territories, and was thus sympathetic to their cause. Their stronghold, however, was the Cibao valley in the northeastern part of Hispaniola. [See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Dominican_Republic#Independence_from_Haiti] .]

At the same time, the Spanish government, which ruled over Puerto Rico, attempted to banish Betances for a second time, but he and Segundo Ruiz Belvis (a lawyer and city administrator who became his closest friend and political companion) fled the island before they were apprehended. Both fled to the northern city of Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic in 1861, where Betances established a close personal friendship with Gen. Gregorio Luperón, the military leader of the northern pro-independence faction (also a one-time president of the Dominican Republic, and a Freemason, as was Betances [Request quotation|date=April 2008 [http://www.periodicoelfaro.com.do/1117/juanventura.html Periódico El Faro] , from Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic] ) who led the efforts to restore Dominican sovereignty over their country. Betances was also a collaborator of Dominican priest (and later Archbishop of Santo Domingo and one-time president of the country), Fernando Arturo de Meriño, who was the revolt's ideological leader (as well as its delegate in Puerto Rico when he was himself exiled by the restored republican government). These two friendships would prove to be key to Betances' own efforts to achieve Puerto Rican independence later on.

The volatility of the Dominican situation was severe at the time: Luperón fought a guerrilla war against the Spanish and Santana and became vice-president of the country (in 1863), only to be exiled to Saint Thomas because of his opposition to president Buenaventura Baez' wishes to annex the country to the United States (in 1864), to later return, provoke a coup d'état and be part of a three-way presidency (1866), only to be exiled once again (1868).Moscoso, Francisco, [http://www.vozdelcentro.org/mp3/prog_144.mp3 Betances, El Grito y St. Thomas] .] Whenever Luperón was in the Dominican Republic, Betances could use it as a base of operations for his later political and military objectives, while offering Luperón logistical and financial assistance in return.

Since Betances' exile depended on who was governing Puerto Rico at the time, a change in government allowed him to return to Mayagüez in 1862. However, a few years later, (1868) Luperón and Betances would both end up exiled in Saint Thomas.

econd return to Mayagüez

After returning to Puerto Rico, Betances and Ruiz proposed the establishment of a municipal hospital to take care of the city's poor. The hospital, named "Hospital San Antonio", was finally constructed in 1865, with subscription funds and an assignment from the Spanish local government. The "Hospital San Antonio" is now an obstetrics and pediatrics hospital in the city.

Ruiz was a Freemason who invited Betances to join his lodge, the "Logia Unión Germana" in nearby San Germán. [ [http://www.rlmithra99.com/masoneria%20en%20PR2.htm Historia de la Masonería en Puerto Rico] , within the page of the Respetable Logia Mithra #99, available at [http://www.rlmithra99.com/index.html] ] They both founded (or revived, depending on the source) the "Logia Yagüez", so as to have a local lodge in Mayagüez. Based on his Masonic beliefs, Ruiz also attempted to establish a university in the city, for which he mortgaged his house. However, the Spanish government actively discouraged the founding of secondary education institutions in Puerto Rico (so as not to have "seedlings for revolt" come out of them), and the project was canceled. [cite web| author=Oscar G. Davila Del Valle| url=http://cuhwww.upr.clu.edu/exegesis/32/Davila.html| title=Presencia del ideario masónico en el proyecto revolucionario antillano de Ramón Emeterio Betances | publisher=Universidad de Puerto Rico recinto de Humacao| language=Spanish| accessdate=2007-08-02]

implicia Jiménez

Betances met his lifelong companion, Simplicia Isolina Jiménez Carlo, in 1864. Jiménez apparently was born in what would later become the Dominican Republic. Her mother's last name, Carlo, rather common in Cabo Rojo, implies that her family had ties to the town. She worked for one of Betances' sisters between 1863 and 1864, and he met her once at his sister's house. Apparently she was infatuated with him strongly enough to appear at his door with a pair of suitcases, asking him to give her shelter, since "no gentleman would leave a woman alone on the street at night." Jiménez then became Betances' common-law wife for thirty-five years, and survived his death in 1898. They would not have any children. Their godchild, Magdalena Caraguel, was eventually adopted by the couple as their daughter."citeweb|title = Quién conoce a Simplicia Jiménez Carlo?| publisher = Carmenlobo.blogcindario.com |author=Nicole Cecilia Delgado | url =http://carmenlobo.blogcindario.com/2006/08/00431-quien-conoce-a-simplicia-jimenez-carlo.html | date = 2006-08-09 | accessdate = 2007-08-31 ] Little else is documented about Jiménez in history books, and Betances rarely mentions her in his works and correspondence.

While still living in Mayagüez, Betances built a house for himself and his wife, which they only lived in for less than two years; the house, named the "Casa de los Cinco Arcos" (House of the Five Arches), still stands on the street that bears his name near the corner with Luis Muñoz Rivera street, south of the city's center.

"Padre de la Patria" (Father of the Puerto Rican Nation)

eeds for revolt in Puerto Rico

The Spanish government was involved in several conflicts across Latin America: war with the Dominican Republic, Peru and Chile (see below), slave revolts in Cuba, a bad economic situation in its colonies, among others. It attempted to appease the growing discontent of the citizens of its remaining colonies in the continent by setting up a board of review that would receive complaints from representatives of the colonies and attempt to adjust legislation that affected them. [Ojeda Reyes, Félix, "El Desterrado de París", p. 79] This board, the "Junta Informativa de Reformas de Ultramar" (Overseas Informative Reform Board) would be formed by representatives of each colony, in proportion to their collective population, and would meet in Madrid. The Junta would report to the then Minister of Foreign Affairs, Emilio Castelar.

The Puerto Rican delegation was freely elected by those eligible to vote (male Caucasian property owners), in a rare exercise of political openness in the colony. Segundo Ruiz Belvis was elected to the Junta representing Mayagüez, something that horrified the then governor general of the island. To the frustration of the Puerto Rican delegates, including its leader, José Julián Acosta, the Junta had a majority of Spanish-born delegates, which would vote down almost every measure they suggested. However, Acosta could convince the Junta that abolition could be achieved in Puerto Rico without disrupting the local economy (including its Cuban members, who frowned upon implementing it in Cuba because of its much higher numbers of slave labor). [Ojeda Reyes, Félix, "El Desterrado de París", pp. 80–84] Once he became prime minister in 1870, Castelar did approve an abolition bill, praising the efforts of the Puerto Rico members, sincerely moved by Acosta's arguments. [Ojeda Reyes, Félix, "El Desterrado de París", pp. 84–86]

However, beyond abolition, proposals for autonomy were voted down, as were other petitions to limit the unlimited power the governor general would have upon virtually all aspects of life in Puerto Rico. Once the Junta members returned to Puerto Rico, they met with local community leaders in a famed meeting at the Hacienda El Cacao in Carolina, Puerto Rico in early 1865. Betances was invited by Ruiz and did attend. After listening to the Junta members' list of voted-down measures, Betances stood up and retorted: "Nadie puede dar lo que no tiene" (No one can give others what they don't have for themselves), a phrase that he would constantly use through the rest of his life when referring to Spain's unwillingness to grant Puerto Rico or Cuba any reforms. He would then suggest setting up a revolt and proclaim independence as soon as possible. [Ojeda Reyes, Félix, "El Desterrado de París", pp. 87–88] Many of the meeting's attendants sided with Betances, to the horror of Acosta.

Organizer of the Grito de Lares

In late June 1867 Betances and at least 12 more potential "revolutionaries" were exiled from Puerto Rico by then governor Gen. José María Marchessi y Oleaga as a preventive measure, including Betances, Goyco and Ruiz. A battalion of local soldiers had revolted in San Juan earlier, protesting about their poor pay, compared to that of their Spanish counterparts living in Puerto Rico. Betances later stated that the revolt (called the "Motín de Artilleros" by historians) was unrelated to his revolutionary plans, and that he actually did not mind the troops stationed in Puerto Rico that much, since they would have been ill-prepared for stopping a well-developed pro-independence revolt at the time anyway. Marchesi feared that the United States, which had made an offer to purchase what were then the Danish Virgin Islands, would rather instigate a revolt in Puerto Rico so as to later annex the island—which would make a better military base in the Caribbean—at a lesser economic cost. His fears were not without base, since the then American consul in the island, Alexander Jourdan, suggested precisely this to then Secretary of State William H. Seward, but only after the expulsions (September 1867). [Ojeda Reyes, Félix, "El Desterrado de París", pp. 88–90]

Some of the expelled (such as Carlos Elías Lacroix and José Celis Aguilera) set up camp in Saint Thomas. Betances and Ruiz, on the other hand, left for New York—where Basora had previously gone—soon after. They soon founded the "Revolutionary Committee of Puerto Rico", along with other Puerto Ricans living in the city. After signing a letter that could serve as proof of his intentions of becoming a United States citizen (mainly to prevent his arrest elsewhere) Betances then returned to the Dominican Republic in September 1867, where he attempted to organize an armed expedition that was to invade Puerto Rico. However, under threat of arrest by Buenaventura Báez—who saw Betances as siding with his enemies and wanted him executed—Betances took asylum at the United States embassy in Santo Domingo, and headed for Charlotte Amalie soon after. [Ojeda Reyes, Félix, "El Desterrado de París", pp. 94–104]

The Ten Commandments of Free Men

Betances was responsible for numerous proclamations that attempted to arouse Puerto Rican nationalistic sentiment, written between 1861 and his death. The most famous of these is [http://www.ciudadseva.com/textos/otros/10manda.htm "Los Diez Mandamientos de los hombres libres"] (The Ten Commandments of Free Men), written in exile in Saint Thomas in November 1867. [Ojeda Reyes, Félix, "El Desterrado de París", p. 103. The original manuscript is owned by the Puerto Rican Independence Party, which bought it in 1985.] It is directly based on the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, adopted by France's National Assembly in 1789, which contained the principles that inspired the French Revolution.

The "Grito" and its aftermath

Betances is considered a pioneer of Puerto Rican liberalism. His ideas resulted from his exposure to republicanism and social activism in France through the middle part of the 19th. century. These ideas, considered subversive in the severely restricted Puerto Rico of the era, had nevertheless a considerable impact in the island nation's political and social history. His ideas on race relations alone had a major impact on economics and the social makeup of the island.

In the Greater Antilles

Political events in Puerto Rico and Cuba between the late 1860s and 1898 forced a liberalization of Spanish policy towards both territories, and Betances was directly involved as a protagonist in both circumstances. As a firm believer in "Antillanismo" (the common improvement and unity of the countries that formed the Greater Antilles) Betances was also a strong supporter of the sovereignty of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. A Dominican historian and political leader, Manuel Rodríguez Objío, likened Betances' revolutionary work to that performed by Tadeusz Kościuszko for Poland, Lithuania and the United States of America. Paul Estrade, Betances' French biographer, likens him to Simón Bolívar, Antonio José de Sucre, Bernardo O'Higgins and José de San Martín. [http://html.rincondelvago.com/ramon-emeterio-betances.html Biografia del Dr.Ramón Emeterio Betances en Rincón del Vago] .com]

José Martí considered Betances one of his "teachers", or sources of political inspiration, and his diplomatic and intelligence work in France on behalf of the Cuban revolutionary junta greatly aided the cause, before it was directly influenced by the intervention of Gen. Valeriano Weyler as governor and commander of the Spanish forces in Cuba, and by the Maine incident later on. [Cuban author Frank Fernandez states in his book "La sangre de Santa Águeda: Angiolillo, Betances y Cánovas" that Betances arranged for two Cuban conspirators to travel to Havana from Spain and blow Weyler up with dynamite, but that the financing for the attempt was retracted from at the last minute. As quoted in cite web| author=José M. García Leduc| url=http://uprhmate01.upr.clu.edu/exegesis/ano9/v25/25_5.html| title=Ramón Emeterio Betances: Renovación historiográfica en los albores del centenario de su fallecimiento | publisher=Universidad de Puerto Rico| language=Spanish| accessdate=2007-08-02]

Paul Estrade, Betances' French biographer, assesses his legacy as an Antillean this way: "The Antilles have developed political, social and scientific ideas that have changed the world, and that Europe has used. Not everything has (an European) source. Betances is the maximum expression of this reality." [ [http://www.primerahora.com/noticia/otros_asi/espectaculos_asi/reuniran_legado_completo__de_betances/51728 "Reunirán legado completo de Betances"] , Primera Hora (online edition), April 14, 2007.]

Medical

Betances wrote two books and various medical treatises while living in France. His doctoral thesis, "Des Causes de l'ávortement" (The Causes for Miscarriage) examines various possible causes for the spontaneous death of a fetus and/or his mother, was later used as a textbook on gynecology at some European universities. According to at least one medical practitioner who examined it in 1988, his attempt to explain the theory behind spontaneous contractions leading to childbirth were not very different from modern-day theories on the matter. [Ojeda Reyes, Félix, "El Desterrado de París", p. 30]

Betances' experiences handling the Mayagüez cholera epidemic led to another book, "El Cólera, Historia, Medidas Profilácticas, Síntomas y Tratamiento", which he authored and published in Paris in 1884 and expanded in 1890. The book was later used as a public health textbook in dealing with similar cholera epidemics in Latin America.

Betances also wrote several medical articles while in France. One of the articles examines elephantiasis; another deals with surgical castration, called "oscheotomy" at the time. Both books were also based on personal experience: there is evidence about a surgery he performed in Mayagüez on a Spanish government official with an elephantiasis lesion of the scrotum the size of a grapefruit for which the costs were paid for by the local government; another patient he operated upon had a lesion that weighted 26 lb/11.8 kg. [Ojeda Reyes, Félix, "El Desterrado de París", pp. 63–64] He also wrote an article on urethral obstructions in male patients (see above).

Literary

Betances was also one of the first Puerto Rican "writers-in-exile".Acevedo, Ramón Luis (as told to Collado Schwarz, Angel), [http://www.vozdelcentro.org/mp3/prog_121.mp3 Dr. Ramón Emeterio Betances: el literario] ] In 1851, a small group of Puerto Rican university students in Europe formed the "Sociedad Recolectora de Documentos Históricos de la Isla de San Juan Bautista de Puerto Rico", a society that attempted to research and catalog historical documents about Puerto Rico from firsthand government sources. Betances became the Society's researcher in France. The result of the Society's research was published in an 1854 book, for which Betances contributed. Inspired by Alejandro Tapia y Rivera, the Society's organizer, who had written a novel inspired in Puerto Rican indigenous themes while studying in Madrid, Betances writes his novel: "Les Deux Indiens: Épisode de la conquéte de Borinquen" (The Two Indians: an episode of the conquest of Borinquen), and publishes it in Toulouse in 1853, with a second edition published in 1857 under the pseudonym "Louis Raymond". This novel would be the first of many literary works by Betances (most of which were written in French), and is notable for its indirect praise of Puerto Rican nationhood which, he suggests, was already developed in pre-Columbian Puerto Rico. This type of "indigenist literature" would become commonplace in Latin America in later years. He also wrote poetry in both French and Spanish for literary magazines in Paris, chiefly inspired by Alphonse de Lamartine and Victor Hugo.

Major works

*"Toussaint Louverture, Les Deux Indiéns" (1852)
*"Un premio de Luis XIV" (1853)
*"Las cortesanas en París" (1853)
*"La Vierge de Borinquén" (1859)
*"La botijuela" (a.k.a. "Aulularia", translation from the Latin original by Plautus, 1863)
*"El Partido Liberal, su progreso y porvenir" (translation from the French original by Édouard René de Laboulaye, 1869)
*"Washington Haitiano" (essay about Alexandre Pétion, 1871)
*"Los viajes de Scaldado" (1890)

Betances also wrote one of the two prologues of the book "Les détracteurs de la race noire et de la République d'Haiti" ("The detractors of the black race and the Republic of Haiti", 1882)cite web| author=José M. García Leduc| url=http://uprhmate01.upr.clu.edu/exegesis/ano9/v25/25_5.html| title=Ramón Emeterio Betances: Renovación historiográfica en los albores del centenario de su fallecimiento | publisher=Universidad de Puerto Rico| language=Spanish| accessdate=2007-08-02]

Notes

All references are in Spanish unless otherwise noted.

References

Primary sources:

*Ojeda Reyes, Félix, "El Desterrado de París: Biografía del Dr. Ramón Emeterio Betances (1827–1898)", Ediciones Puerto, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 2001. (ISBN-13: 978-0942347470)
*Thomas, Hugh. "Cuba: The pursuit for freedom". Da Capo Press Inc. New York, New York, United States, 1971.(ISBN: 0-306-80827-7)

econdary sources:

From "La Voz del Centro", a collection of podcasts hosted by Angel Collado Schwarz (all in Spanish, MP3 format):
* [http://www.vozdelcentro.org/mp3/prog_17.mp3 Ramón Emeterio Betances: Padre de la Patria, Médico de los Pobres, Poeta, Diplomático de Puerto Rico y Cuba en Francia.] - with Félix Ojeda Reyes, Betances' biographer
* [http://www.vozdelcentro.org/mp3/prog_120.mp3 Dr. Ramón Emeterio Betances: el médico] - with Eduardo Rodríguez Vázquez
* [http://www.vozdelcentro.org/mp3/prog_121.mp3 Dr. Ramón Emeterio Betances: el literario] - with Ramón Luis Acevedo
* [http://www.vozdelcentro.org/mp3/prog_144.mp3 Betances, El Grito y St. Thomas] - with Francisco Moscoso

ee also

*List of famous Puerto Ricans
*Grito de Lares

External links

* [http://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/1898/betances.html Ramón Emeterio Betances - Library of Congress]
* [http://uprhmate01.upr.clu.edu/exegesis/ano9/v25/25_5.html Ramón Emeterio Betances]

Persondata
NAME=Betances y Alacán, Ramón Emeterio
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Betances, Ramón Emeterio (Spanish); Betances, Ramón E. (Spanish)
SHORT DESCRIPTION=politician, medical doctor, diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH=April 8, 1827
PLACE OF BIRTH=Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico
DATE OF DEATH=September 16, 1898
PLACE OF DEATH=Neuilly-sur-Seine, Île-de-France (region), France