José Celso Barbosa Alcalá (abt. 1857 - 1921)

Born about 27 Jul 1857 in Bayamón, Puerto Rico

Died 21 Sep 1921 at about age 64 in San Juan, Puerto Rico

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Biography

José Barbosa Alcalá is Notable.

José Barbosa Alcalá is a part of US Black heritage.

Here is just a quick summary if you are pressed for time, but I encourage you to read on because this man was amazing.:

José Celso Barbosa, a doctor and a politician, was born in Bayamón, Puerto Rico in 1857. He received his medical degree from the University of Michigan. He was a member of the Autonomous Party led by Baldorioty de Castro. In 1899, he founded the Republican Party of Puerto Rico that advocated statehood for the island. He was a member of the Executive Cabinet from 1900 to 1917 and a member of the Senate from 1917 to 1921. He died in San Juan in December of 1921.

Barbosa was born in 1857 in the city of Bayamón, Puerto Rico to parents of African and European ancestry. He received his primary and secondary education at Puerto Rico’s prestigious Jesuit seminary, where he was the first racially-mixed student to attend. After graduating from the Seminary, Barbosa tutored private students to save money to attend college.

While in New York Barbosa learned English in a year and ended up having a bout of pneumonia. His attending doctor recommended that he study medicine instead of law, which is what he wanted to be, a lawyer.

He enrolled at the University of Michigan in 1877, after being rejected from the College of Physicians and Surgeons (which became Columbia University Medical School) because of institutional racism.

After graduating he returned to Puerto Rico to practice medicine in his hometown. He initiated an early form of health insurance, encouraging employers to pay a fee to cover the future health needs of their employees. In 1893, Barbosa founded the first Puerto Rican cooperative and named it El Ahorro Colectivo.

On July 4, 1899, Barbosa and a group of supporters founded Puerto Rico’s first political party. For this, he became known as the father of the Statehood for Puerto Rico movement. At the time, he explained, “We want and we ask for equality. Not colonial control or protection. We [support] the same ideal of the American union with equality in rights and in duties.”

On June 1900, President William McKinley named Barbosa, along with 4 other Puerto Ricans, as part of an Executive Cabinet under U.S.-appointed Governor Charles H. Allen, the first civilian governor of the island. He served on the cabinet until 1917.

With representative elections authorized in 1917, Barbosa ran for an at-large seat. He was elected, serving as a member of the first Puerto Rican Senate, from 1917 to 1921.

Barbosa is celebrated — and his birthday is an official holiday — largely because of his political work, although he was also an active medical practitioner and public servant. He had to face and overcome racial prejudice. His work for equality became his primary political as well as professional motivation. He wrote, “Puerto Rico aspires to reach all the rights granted by U.S. Citizenship, in the same method, in the same manner, under the same form, and under the full integrity as the one enjoyed by the residents of any of the regions that are called States of the American Union. To that we aspire, that is what we want, that is what we shall have.” This is what he advocated for all of his life.

Sources

• https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9Q97-YSDN-5JW

• https://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/1898/barbosa.html

• Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9791328/jos%C3%A9-celso-barbosa : accessed accessed 16 April 2018), memorial page for Dr José Celso Barbosa (7 Sep 1857–21 Sep 1921), Find A Grave: Memorial #9791328, citing Cementerio Santa María Magdalena de Pazzis, San Juan, San Juan Municipality, Puerto Rico, USA ; Maintained by Find a Grave.

• http://kentakepage.com/dr-jose-celso-barbosa-the-father-of-puerto-rican-statehood/

Wikidata: Item Q1709098, en:Wikipedia