Eugenio Maria de Hostos
-- citizen of the Americas...
One of those marvelous brains that accomplished an unbelievable amount of work and whose influence radiated to every corner of the Spanish speaking world, is Eugenio Maria de Hostos; one of those geniuses that seem to be capable of doing any amount of intellectual work in any number of different spheres.One of the higher voices in the collective conscience of Latin America, De Hostos was an imposing figure--an investigator, a thinker, critic, sociologist, journalist but above all a teacher and a man of action. He is truly one of the crests of the continent's culture and a true citizen of the Americas...
Born in Mayaguez on January 11,1839, son of Eugenio de Hostos and Hilaria de Bonilla. He studied his elementary education at a private San Juan school and later went to Spain where he finished a Bachelor's degree at the University of Bilbao and a law degree at Madrid Central University. He fought through the press during that time for autonomic reforms and the abolition of slavery. He joined the Republican movement against the monarchy, receiving from them the promise of an autonomic government as soon as the Spanish Republic would be instituted. Later, seeing his ideals and his hopes shattered, he turned openly a separatist. He lived for two years in New York City editing the official paper of the Cuban revolutionaries: La Revolucion.
In 1871 he left for South America. In Peru he fought for the cause of the exploited chinese workers. In Chile, he was the first to fight for the scientific instruction of women and was a part of The Academy of Fine Arts of Santiago.. In Argentina he was instrumental in the creation and construction of the Trans- Andean Railroad. In 1874 he returned to New York and edited the America Ilustrada. In that same year he moved to the Dominican Republic where he worked at Las tres Antillas, defending his ideal of an Antillean Confederation. In 1877 he started teaching in Caracas, Venezuela. There he married a Cuban national, Belinda de Ayala.. In 1879 he moved to Santo Domingo, founding the Escuela Normal. After the American invasion of Puerto Rico in 1898 he returned to the island creating the Patriotic League which asked from the United States the rights of the Puerto Rican people to decide their destiny through a plebiscite; he failed since he did not have the backing of the masses.
He left again for the Dominican Republic where he asummed the direction of the Colegio Central and later the Department of Public Instruction. De Hostos was very much loved in the Republic to the extent of being revered as a national of that country. He died in Santo Domingo on August 11, 1903 and his remains rest at the Cathedral of Santo Domingo to this day.
