1. Nemesio Canales was a Puerto Rican essayist, journalist, novelist, playwright, politician and activist who defended women's civil rights.
16 Facts About Nemesio Canales
1. 2.
Nemesio Canales was the firstborn of Rosario Canales Quintero and Francisca Rivera Rivera.
3.
Nemesio Canales received his primary and secondary education in schools in Utuado and Jayuya.
4.
In 1896, Nemesio Canales went to Spain and enrolled in the University of Zaragoza to study medicine and law.
5.
In 1898, when the United States declared war against Spain, Nemesio Canales abandoned his studies and went to Baltimore, where he enrolled in Baltimore's College of Law in 1903.
6.
In Ponce, Nemesio Canales joined the law firm of Luis Llorens Torres.
7.
Nemesio Canales served in the House of Representatives of Puerto Rico as a member of the Unionist Party, which promoted economic progress of the working class.
8.
In 1909, Nemesio Canales presented a bill to the House giving women their full civil rights, including the right to vote, which was defeated 23 votes to 7.
9.
Nemesio Canales served as a lecturer in the School of Law of the University of Puerto Rico.
10.
Nemesio Canales co-founded with Luis Llorens Torres, the Revista de las Antillas.
11.
Nemesio Canales wrote short novels and a comedy called El Heroe Galopante, which debuted on stage in 1923 after his death.
12.
On September 14,1923, Nemesio Canales was on board the steamer San Lorenzo bound for New York City with the intention of going to Washington, DC, as a legal assistant to a legislative Puerto Rican commission when he died.
13.
Nemesio Canales was buried at the Santa Maria Magdalena de Pazzis Cemetery.
14.
Nemesio Canales' body was exhumed from the Santa Maria Magdalena de Pazzis Cemetery in the Old San Juan and taken to the Nemesio Canales Family Residence Museum, where he was interred beside the house the same day.
15.
Nemesio Canales's younger sister, Blanca Canales Torresola, was a leader of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party which was presided by Pedro Albizu Campos.
16.
Nemesio Canales's cousins were Elio Torresola, Griselio Torresola one of two Puerto Rican nationalists who attempted to assassinate United States President Harry Truman and Doris Torresola, all high-ranking members of the party involved in the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party Revolts of the 1950s.