Teodoro Moscoso
Teodoro Moscoso and Puerto Rico’s Operation Bootstrap by Alex W. Maldonado tells us about the life of Teodoro Moscoso, the architect of the “economic miracle” which most experts did not believe could happen in Puerto Rico.
Teodoro Moscoso was born in Barcelona on November 26, 1910. His mother, named Alejandrina Mora Fajardo, was a Spaniard from the Balearic island of Majorca. His father, also named Teodoro, was a pharmacist. He wanted to have a son that could help him accomplish, a branch of pharmacies through Puerto Rico. Moscoso attended school in New York and became a good English speaker. He graduated from Ponce High School; soon after this, he was attending the Philadelphia School of Pharmacy. After studying there for 3 years he insisted to his father, to transfer him to the University of Michigan. He wanted to go there because it offered liberal arts courses which he wanted to study. After graduation in 1932 Moscoso returned to Ponce to work at his father’s pharmacy. He married Gloria Sánchez Vilella, sister of future Puerto Rico governor Roberto Sánchez Vilella (1965-1969).
Pharmacy work bored Moscoso, and in the mid 1930’s when the Ponce Housing Authority (PHA) was about to lose a two million dollar grant, Pedro Juan Rosaly, a PHA board member approached Moscoso’s father and asked if his son could help. Moscoso’s command of the English language was what drew the interest of PHA officials. Moscoso saved the grant and from 1937 to 1941 he build nearly one thousand housing units, clearing many Ponce slums in the process.
It was Moscoso’s work at PHA which captured the interest of the newly appointed governor of Puerto Rico, Rexford G. Tugwell. Tugwell was a member President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s brain trust, a group of well educated, committed Americans who went to Washington during the Great Depression to try to lift the nation out of the economic crisis. After a chance meeting when Tugwell visited Moscoso’s pharmacy in Ponce, Teodoro went to work in La Fortaleza as assistant for housing. The title was a formality in order to get Moscoso a salary for his work, but the actual duties were far broader.
Another important event in Teodoro Moscoso’s life occurred in the summer of 1940 when Moscoso met Luis Muñoz Marín.
Teja, Jesus F. De La. A Revolution Remembered: The Memoirs and Selected Correspondence of Juan N. Seguin. Austin: State House Press, 1991.
The nineteenth century introduced several great leaders into this world, many recognized by historians today. These men, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and others, have all been honored and commemorated for their contributions. One such leader, José Martí, continues to remain anonymous outside the Hispanic community, and hidden in the shadows cast by these men. His name does not appear in the history books or on the tongues of many proud Americans, for he was neither a citizen of America nor an American hero.
Laura Briggs's work Reproducing Empire: Race, Sex, Science, and U.S. Imperialism in Puerto Rico continues a recent trend in connecting colonial histories to that of domestic issues affecting imperial powers, “colonialism was not something that happened ‘over there,’ with little or no effect on the internal dynamics and culture of the imperial power itself …. On the contrary, colonialism has had a profound effect on the culture and policy of the mainland.” Additionally, Briggs work pushes back against the traditional belief that U.S. colonial policy forced the sterilization of a large segment of the island’s female population. This argument was made famous by the documentary film “La Operacion”.
In 1991 assemblyman Del Toro stated that, "The point of this conference is to say to you that you can do it too... You can influence how the government and how society goes on. And that's very important." Angelo Del Toro is a very good example that everything is possible in this world, if you believe in yourself that you can do it. However, for Angelo Del Toro it wasn't easy to become the leader that he became. It took him a lot of steps to get where he got. First, he started influencing people in his community, he moved to the city level, and later to the state level becoming an assemblyman for 20 years.
Benitez, Gerardo, Latin American Perspectives: The Maquiladora Program Its Challenges Ahead, THE WHARTON JOURNAL, December 11, 1995.
Crassweller, Robert D. Trujillo: The life and times of a Caribbean dictator. New York: Macmillan.1966.
Such inequality was not the only thing early Puerto Rican migrants experienced on the island. They also experienced severe economic set backs. Under the domination of the United States, Puerto Rico did not have control over their means of production. Instead, the United States possessed that power and transformed their island into a metropolitan economy. Workers were subjected to the changing demands of US capital expansion, and their migratory movements were shaped accordingly.
Guillermo - (Memo): Enrique Castiliio he was very studious, he was always studying and you get the feeling that he knew it was his only way out.
In the United States, Football is one sport that most men love watching, may it be on television or live stadium (Chandler, 1988). For example, men are willing and able to sit down at home in front of the television for more than six hours just watching the football games and wouldn’t sit down doing any other thing for more than 15 minutes. The questions needed to be asked in the back of our minds are; by the men watching football games, what are the gains met and what the satisfactions are they get after watching them after hours, weeks and even months. What attracts them to devote most of their spare time to watching the football games? One obvious answer to this is the entertainment within the games as the men get something to entertain them apart from what they do in their boring daily routines. Taking another directional argument; rather than the amusement football games offer to the men, they offer some thi...
..., "Major Problems In Mexican American History" The Mexican Immigrant Experience, 1917-1928, Zaragosa Vargas (233)
The rise of the sugar staple and downfall of coffee in Puerto Rico, as caused by the United States, resulted in a migration of Puerto Rican workers. They moved to sugar processing areas on the island, in search of jobs. Among these workers were musicians. Musicians could not sustain themselves on music alone. Therefore, just as the rest of the population had to follow the jobs, so did the...
Known as the world’s most popular sport, professional soccer has helped create and define different groups of people around the world for longer than a century. The hoopla surrounding teams, geographic areas fans dwell in, and political ideals associated with individual clubs have carved an identity for millions of supporters whose heart and soul becomes dedicated to their favorite players, stadiums, and coaches. Soccer teams and their fans can give us a window into how people can be divided and defined by their allegiances and ideals, and why those with similar views band together to create a familiar environment for themselves.
Life in Mexico was, before the Revolution, defined by the figure of the patron that held all of power in a certain area. Juan Preciado, who was born in an urban city outside of Comala, “came to Comala because [he] had been told that [his] father, a man named Pedro Paramo lived there” (1). He initially was unaware of the general dislike that his father was subjected to in that area of Mexico. Pedro was regarded as “[l]iving bile” (1) by the people that still inhabited Comala, a classification that Juan did not expect. This reveals that it was not known by those outside of the patron’s dominion of the cruel abuse that they levied upon their people. Pedro Paramo held...
Every weekend hundreds of thousands of sports fans pack the stadiums of their favorite team and ruthlessly engage in fandom. Some fans tailgate before the game and casually support their team by sporting a jersey and team colors, while others may dress up in absurd outfits, like one Raiders fan who has dressed up in a gorilla suit for the last 16 years. From wicked costumes and body paint, to inappropriate jeers at opposing fans, Eric Simmons was determined to reach a conclusion as to why humans are so entrenched by sports. Simmons does not try to push the world in a certain direction, rather, he utilizes real-life examples, rhetorical questions, and studies and statistics to inform the reader on why fans have developed an intense love for
What is it about sports that make people so emotionally charged? If it is “only a game”, why does fan behavior sometimes border onto fanaticism? These are some questions that have been asked time and time again while researching fan behavior. The reasons for such loyalist, crazy fan mentality can be attributed to several psychological, biological and social reasons. The thrill of competition and result based format of sporting events creates an atmosphere charged with emotion that binds sports fans together. Sports fans thrive and feed off energy in this sphere. The addictive nature of the emotional experience of watching a team play and sharing their wins and losses motivates fans to invest heavily in their teams leading to extremely emotional fan behavior.