Santiago Iglesias

Santiago Iglesias Pantín (February 22, 1872 – December 5, 1939) was a Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico, a "delegate" or nonvoting member to the United States House of Representatives.

Iglesias was born in A Coruña, Galicia, Spain, where attended the common schools, and was apprenticed as a cabinet maker. He moved to Cuba and was secretary of the Workingmen Trades Circle in Havana from 1889 to 1896.

Iglesias then moved to Puerto Rico, and was the founder and editor of three labor papers:
* "Porvenir Social" (from 1898 to 1900)
* "Union Obrera" (from 1903 to 1906)
* "Justicia" (from 1914 to 1925)

He was appointed general organizer of the American Federation of Labor for the districts of Puerto Rico and Cuba in 1901, and he was a member of the Puerto Rican senate from 1917 to 1933. He then served as secretary of the Pan American Federation of Labor from 1925 to 1933. In 1936, he was wounded during an assassination attempt by Puerto Rican Nationalist Party partisans.

Iglesias was elected as a Coalitionist Resident Commissioner on November 8, 1932, and was reelected in 1936 for the term ending January 3, 1941. He served in the 73rd, 74th, 75th, and 76th Congresses, from March 4, 1933 until his death.

He had three sons and eight daughters, including labor activist America Iglesias Thatcher.

Iglesias died in Washington, D.C., and was interred in the San Juan Cemetery, in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

References

CongBio|I000002 [http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=I000002]

ee also

*List of famous Puerto Ricans