Luis Porrata-Doría

Luis Porrata-Doría (ca. 1845 - ca. 1925) was Mayor of Ponce, Puerto Rico in 1898.^[1] He is best remembered for his forced resignation as mayor following his municipal government’s poor response to the catastrophic Category 5 San Ciriaco hurricane that occurred during his administration.^[2] He was the father of Ponce architect Francisco Porrata-Doria.

Circumstances leading to Porrata Doria’s resignation

A devastating hurricane, called San Ciriaco, had hit the southern coast of Puerto Rico on August 8, 1899. A year earlier the United States had invaded the island and installed a military central government based in San Juan. General Nelson A. Miles had been installed by the President of the United States as the first American military governor of the Island, and Porrata-Doría had been elected mayor by the people of Ponce as was the electoral practice for many decades under the old Spanish system.^[3]

San Ciriaco, however, proved to be the test of the mayorship of Porrata-Doría. As a result of the impact of the hurricane, a number of demonstrations took place around the island to denounce the poor response of various municipal governments to the disaster. “The most serious demonstration of tension took place in Ponce, where damage and mortality had been extensive, especially for the poor. A large crowd of several hundred indigent residents gathered to denounce Mayor Porrata Doria for not giving the population adequate warning or taking appropriate measures. A detachment of the U.S. Fifth Cavalry broke up the demonstrations, but the mayor was eventually forced to resign.”^[4]

At this point the military governor, General Miles, appointed as interim mayor of Ponce the U.S. military commanding officer for Ponce, Major Albert L. Myer. In 1900, Major Myer was replaced by a popularly-elected civil mayor, Pedro Juan Rosaly.^[5]

References

1. ↑ Ponce. Puerto Rico Encyclopedia.
2. ↑ The Hurricane of San Ciriaco: Disaster, Politics, and Society in Puerto Rico, 1899-1901. By Stuart B. Schwartz. Hispanic American Historical Review. Vol 72, No. 3. (1992) Pages 316-317. Duke University Press.
3. ↑ The Hurricane of San Ciriaco: Disaster, Politics, and Society in Puerto Rico, 1899-1901. By Stuart B. Schwartz. Hispanic American Historical Review. Vol 72, No. 3. (1992) Pages 316-317. Duke University Press.
4. ↑ The Hurricane of San Ciriaco: Disaster, Politics, and Society in Puerto Rico, 1899-1901. By Stuart B. Schwartz. Hispanic American Historical Review. Vol 72, No. 3. (1992) Pages 316-317. Duke University Press.
5. ↑ The Hurricane of San Ciriaco: Disaster, Politics, and Society in Puerto Rico, 1899-1901. By Stuart B. Schwartz. Hispanic American Historical Review. Vol 72, No. 3. (1992) Pages 316-317. Duke University Press.

See also

• Ponce, Puerto Rico
• List of famous Puerto Ricans