Adolfo de Hostos (January 8, 1887 in

Santo Domingo , total_type = Total , population_density_km2 = auto , timezone = AST (UTC −4) , area_code_type = Area codes , area_code = 809, 829, 849 , postal_code_type = Postal codes , postal_code = 10100–10699 (Distrito Nacional) , websi ...

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...

– October 29, 1982 in

San Juan, Puerto Rico San Juan (, , ; Spanish for "Saint John") is the capital city and most populous municipality in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2020 census, it is the 57th-largest city under the jur ...

) served in the mid twentieth century, from January 1936 to 1950, as the fifth

Official Historian of Puerto Rico Pursuant to a law approved in 1903, "An Act for the Approval and Conservation of Certain Historical Data of Puerto Rico", the Puerto Rico Legislature created the Office of the Official Historian of Puerto Rico. The historians who held the position ...

, a position created in March, 1903, by the Puerto Rico Legislature.

Early life

He was the son of

Eugenio María de Hostos Eugenio María de Hostos (January 11, 1839 – August 11, 1903), known as "''El Gran Ciudadano de las Américas''" ("The Great Citizen of the Americas"), was a Puerto Rican educator, philosopher, intellectual, lawyer, sociologist, novelist, an ...

and had several brothers and sisters: Eugenio Carlos, Luisa Amelia, Bayoán Lautaro, Filipo Luis Duarte, María Angelina In 1939, he corresponded with his brother Eugenio Carlos de Hostos excitedly relaying how he hoped to have his publication, , be included in the newspaper Puerto Rico Ilustrado.

Military career

De Hostos had served in the Army and as military aide to Gov. Arthur Yeager before his appointment by Gov.

Blanton Winship Blanton C. Winship (November 23, 1869 – October 9, 1947) was an American military lawyer and veteran of both the Spanish–American War and World War I. During his career, he served both as Judge Advocate General's Corps, U.S. Army, Judge Advoc ...

Official historian

His most prominent publication is "Ciudad Murada", the history of the city of

, the United States' oldest city. After his retirement in 1950, the position of Official Historian remained vacant for 43 years, until the

Puerto Rico House of Representatives The House of Representatives of Puerto Rico ( es, Cámara de Representantes de Puerto Rico) is the lower house of the Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico, the bicameral territorial legislature of Puerto Rico. The House, together with the Senat ...

approved in 1993 Senate Concurrent Resolution 14, authored by Sen.

Kenneth McClintock Kenneth Davison McClintock-Hernández (born January 19, 1957) is a politician who served as the twenty-second Secretary of State of Puerto Rico, one of the four longest serving in that post. McClintock served as co-chair of Hillary Clinton’s Na ...

, designated Dr. Pilar Barbosa. De Hostos spearheaded the excavation at a location in Guaynabo, finding remnants of early European settlement in Puerto Rico. The location is now called the

Caparra Archaeological Site Caparra is an archaeological site in the municipality of Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. It was declared a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1994. The site contains the remains of the first Spanish capital of the island, settled in 1508 and abandoned i ...

. De Hostos made an important contribution to pre-Columbian archaeology with his book titled "Anthropological Papers: Based Principally on Studies of the Prehistoric Archaeology and Ethnology of the Greater Antilles" published in 1941.

Death

Adolfo de Hostos died on October 29, 1982 in San Juan, Puerto Rico and was buried at

Santa María Magdalena de Pazzis Cemetery __NOTOC__ The Santa María Magdalena de Pazzis Cemetery is a colonial-era cemetery located in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico. It is the final resting place of many of Puerto Rico's most prominent natives and residents. Construction began in 1863 under ...

in San Juan.

References

20th-century Puerto Rican historians 1887 births 1982 deaths Burials at Santa María Magdalena de Pazzis Cemetery Dominican Republic emigrants to Puerto Rico Historians of Puerto Rico {{PuertoRico-bio-stub