Jose Celso Barbosa

José Celso Barbosa (Bayamón, July 27, 1857 — San Juan, September 21, 1921), was a Puerto Rican physician, sociologist, and political leader.

Biography

Education and development

Barbosa was born in the city of Bayamón, Puerto Rico on July 27, 1857. His home was humble, his father was a renowned bricklayer and his mother a housewife. Barbosa received his primary and secondary education in Puerto Rico. He was the first mixed-race resident to attend the prestigious Puerto Rico Jesuit Seminary. After graduating from seminary, he tutored private students to save money for college.

In 1875, he moved to New York to attend high school, where he learned English in a year. His goal in life was to become a lawyer, but after a bout with pneumonia in New York, his doctor recommended that he study medicine, rather than law.

In 1876, he was admitted to the University of Michigan medical school. Barbosa graduated with the highest honor of the class of 1880. He returned to the island where he set up his practice in his hometown. However, the Spanish government did not recognize Barbosa's medical degree, as he had not attended one of the prestigious European universities.

The intervention of the American consul on the island was required for the degree of Barbosa to be recognized. Barbosa was the first person on the entire island with an American medical degree. He practiced medicine all over the island, and introduced the innovative idea of having employers pay a fee for their employees' future medical needs (a very early system of health insurance).

Cooperative Work

Prior to 1873, one of the preceding instances of the cooperative sense in Puerto Rico was the Friends of the Country Economic Society in 1813, which was dedicated to the promotion of commerce and education. This society sponsored the first newspaper specialized in the dissemination of economic information: the Diario Económico. Throughout the 19th century, different boards were formed, made up of peasants who worked together to harvest crops, fix roads and build churches. It was a collective management, but not paid. In 1873, two very important events occurred in Puerto Rico: the abolition of slavery and the repeal of the system that forced day laborers to register in a notebook with personal information in order to get a job. Being found without the notebook, constituted a crime that was paid with public work at half the day. In this year, organizations such as labor unions and charitable and educational societies were created. It is then in this new legal context, which is allowed, a third event of great significance for Puerto Rican cooperativism: the first attempt at cooperative organization with the mutual aid society, Los Amigos del Bien Público.

By the year 1893, the mutual aid society, Los Amigos del bien Público, founded by the cooperative member Santiago Andrade, provided credit to its members. From this activity, a cooperative called El Ahorro Colectivo was created in 1894. This cooperative represented an integrated vision of cooperative organization, it integrated various business activities in the same entity. By 1896 it had a provision store, a warehouse and a bakery added to the management of savings and credit. One of its founders was the doctor and political leader José Celso Barbosa (1857-1921). Barbosa, identified Santiago Andrade as the first factor in the evolution of the spirit of association among the working class and described him as a "modest, obscure, poor worker, but with a clear intelligence, generous desire, persevering will and influence among the working class…".

Political career

Barbosa was a member of the autonomous party led by Román Baldorioty de Castro, but left the party due to ideological differences. He founded the pro-statehood Republican Party of Puerto Rico on July 4, 1899 as a consequence of the Spanish-American War, in which Puerto Rico became a territory of the United States.

Became known as the "Father of the statesman movement" for Puerto Rico. In 1900, Barbosa became a member of the executive cabinet until 1917 and a member of the senate from 1917 to 1921. In 1907, he founded the newspaper “El Tiempo”, the first bilingual newspaper on the island. His daughter, Pilar Barbosa, would one day be a renowned historian and political activist who would carry on her father's work.

Death

José Celso Barbosa died in San Juan on September 21, 1921. He was buried in the Santa María Magdalena de Pazzis cemetery in Old San Juan.

Acknowledgments

In honor of Barbosa's achievements, Puerto Rico has declared his birthday, July 27, an official holiday. Barbosa's house in Bayamón has been converted into a museum in which many of his awards, certificates, books, and other artifacts of interest are on display.

On July 20, 2006, the United States House of Representatives approved the act of designation of the Dr. José Celso Barbosa Post Office Building, to designate the United States Postal Service facility located at 100 Avenida RL Rodríguez in Bayamon, Puerto Rico, such as the Dr. José Celso Barbosa Post Office building.

On August 1, 2006, United States President George W. Bush signed the legislation. It is now Public Law 109-253.

Descendants

Barbosa had 12 children, including Roberto C. Barbosa, who was a dentist, Guillermo H. Barbosa, who became a surgeon, and Pilar Barbosa de Rosario, who was the first official historian of Puerto Rico and married José Ezequiel Rosary beads. Her cousin Jesus of hers gave birth to Oddosia & # 34;Thea & # 34; Barbosa. Her daughter Nixsa Lebron Barbosa who married Ernesto Meléndez Nieves. They had two sons who later moved to Florida, where one became a lawyer and the daughter an accountant who gave birth to Davíd Rivera, one of the last known descendants of Barbosa. By that time the Barbosa surname had been removed from his lineage.