23 Facts About Leopoldo Figueroa

Leopoldo Figueroa, known as "The deacon of the Puerto Rican Legislature", was a Puerto Rican politician, journalist, medical doctor and lawyer.

Leopoldo Figueroa changed political ideals and by 1948 was a member of the Partido Estadista Puertorriqueno.

Leopoldo Figueroa became interested in politics at an early age due to the influences of his father who was a personal friend of the Puerto Rican political leader Luis Munoz Rivera and his uncle Sotero Figueroa, a close friend of Cuban revolutionary leader Jose Marti.

When he was 14 years old, Leopoldo Figueroa began participating in the political activities of the "Puerto Rican Federal Party", a party which supported greater self-rule for the island founded by Munoz Rivera.

Leopoldo Figueroa graduated from the Central High School of San Juan and moved to Cuba to study medicine at the University of Havana.

Leopoldo Figueroa supported independence and belonged to the Unionist subcommittee of the town of Catano.

In 1906, Leopoldo Figueroa decided to study medicine at the University of Havana in Cuba, but not without having published the article "Adios Patria" in the newspaper "El Eco de Catano," an article in which he promised to return and to fight for his country against the new tyrant, the United States.

Leopoldo Figueroa earned his medical degree in 1910 and returned to Puerto Rico.

Leopoldo Figueroa continued in his political activities upon his return to the island.

Leopoldo Figueroa's motion was opposed by party leaders Herminio Diaz Navarro, Rafael Cuevas Zequeira and Martin Travieso and was not accepted.

Leopoldo Figueroa was re-elected to the same political position as before but now as member of the new political organization.

Besides his political obligations, Leopoldo Figueroa continued to practice his medical profession as director of the Maternity Hospital in San Juan.

Leopoldo Figueroa began to doubt that the United States would grant Puerto Rico its independence and that said ideals were more wishful thinking then realistic.

Leopoldo Figueroa realized that the passage of the Jones-Shafroth Act, which imposed a conditional US citizenship upon the people of Puerto Rico, who had neither asked for nor wanted it, made it clear that the United States had no intentions of granting Puerto Rico independence.

Leopoldo Figueroa then began to associate himself with political organizations whose ideals were pro-statehood.

Leopoldo Figueroa then decided to study law at the University of Puerto Rico and in 1927, he earned his degree.

Leopoldo Figueroa joined the latter and later the pro-statehood Puerto Rican Republican Party, known as the Partido Estadista de Puerto Rico, founded in 1899, by Dr Jose Celso Barbosa.

Leopoldo Figueroa was elected to the Puerto Rican House of Representatives in 1933 and in 1940, representing the districts of Bayamon-Catano-Guaynabo.

Leopoldo Figueroa pointed out that the law violated the civil rights of Puerto Ricans.

Leopoldo Figueroa was elected to the Puerto Rican Senate in 1952,1956,1960 and 1964, representing the Republican Union.

Leopoldo Figueroa was a member of the Constitutional Convention of Puerto Rico.

Leopoldo Figueroa joined the new organization and served in the House of Representatives and as the organizations first representative in the Board of the State Elections.

Leopoldo Figueroa continued in his political profession until his death on October 15,1969.