Andrés Grillasca Salas (6 January 1888 – 19 December 1973) was a Puerto Rican farmer from

Adjuntas, Puerto Rico Adjuntas (, ) is a small mountainside town and municipality in Puerto Rico located central midwestern portion of the island on the Cordillera Central, north of Yauco, Guayanilla, and Peñuelas; southeast of Utuado; east of Lares and Yauco; and ...

, and

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...

Ponce, Puerto Rico Ponce (, , , ) is both a city and a municipality on the southern coast of Puerto Rico. The city is the seat of the municipal government. Ponce, Puerto Rico's most populated city outside the San Juan metropolitan area, was founded on 12 August 1 ...

, from 2 January 1941 to 9 May 1956. Until the 1990s administration of

Rafael Cordero Santiago Rafael Cordero Santiago (24 October 1942 – 17 January 2004), better known as "Churumba", was the Mayor of Ponce, Puerto Rico, Ponce, Puerto Rico, from 1989 to 2004. Many considered him as a synonym of Ponce, being baptized as "El León Mayor ...

, Grillasca Salas had the distinction of being the longest-serving mayor of the city (16 years). He was known to always dress in white clothes.

Early years

Grillasca Salas was born in the neighboring town of

Adjuntas Adjuntas (, ) is a small mountainside town and municipality in Puerto Rico located central midwestern portion of the island on the Cordillera Central, north of Yauco, Guayanilla, and Peñuelas; southeast of Utuado; east of Lares and Yauco; an ...

in 1888. He was the son of Francisco Grillasca and Jesusa Salas. He married Angela Trani.

Political life

Grillasca Salas defeated future governor of Puerto Rico

Luis A. Ferre Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archaic ...

in the bid for mayor of Ponce in 1940.

Juan Morel Campos Music Institute

In 1947 Grillasca established the Escuela Libre de Música de Ponce. The school is now known as the

Juan Morel Campos Juan Morel Campos (16 May 1857 – 12 May 1896), sometimes erroneously spelled ''Juan Morell Campos'', was a Puerto Rican composer, considered by many to be responsible for taking the genre of danza to its highest level. He composed over ...

Music Institute.

Sports and recreational facilities

Grillasca Salas also had an interest in sports, and in 1949 he inaugurated the

Francisco Montaner Stadium The Estadio Francisco ("Paquito") Montaner (English: ''Francisco ("Paquito") Montaner Stadium'') is a multi-use stadium in Ponce, Puerto Rico. It is home to the Leones de Ponce team of the Puerto Rico Baseball League (LBPPR) and FC Leones of ...

in Ponce. He also established a fund for the creation of a second new sports venue in Ponce. To accomplish it, he established a special contribution for every sports activity held in the city. Still short of funds, the project was not developed for many years. However, during the administration of mayor Eduardo Ruberté Bisó (1964–1968), new interest in the project developed and construction started on what was then called the Ponce Coliseum. It was later renamed the Juan "Pachín" Vicens Auditorium, in honor of the greatest figure in Ponce basketball.

Abolition Park

Grillasca Salas is also remembered for building, in 1956, what is to this day the only

monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, his ...

in the

Antilles The Antilles (; gcf, label=Antillean Creole, Antiy; es, Antillas; french: Antilles; nl, Antillen; ht, Antiy; pap, Antias; Jamaican Patois: ''Antiliiz'') is an archipelago bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the south and west, the Gulf of Mex ...

dedicated to the

abolition of slavery Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The British ...

. The monument is now surrounded by a

park A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are urban green space, green spaces set aside for recreation inside t ...

with graceful

gardens A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate both ...

and is located next to an outdoors acoustic

amphitheater An amphitheatre (British English) or amphitheater (American English; both ) is an open-air venue used for entertainment, performances, and sports. The term derives from the ancient Greek ('), from ('), meaning "on both sides" or "around" and ...

, and is called

Abolition Park Abolition refers to the act of putting an end to something by law, and may refer to: * Abolitionism, abolition of slavery * Abolition of the death penalty, also called capital punishment * Abolition of monarchy *Abolition of nuclear weapons *Abol ...

Death, honors, and legacy

Grillasca Salas died in Ponce on 19 December 1973. He was 85 years old. The cause of his death was "cerebral arteriosclerosis with terminal pneumonia." He was buried at

Cementerio Civil de Ponce Cementerio Civil de Ponce (Ponce Civil Cemetery), a.k.a., Cementerio Municipal de Ponce, is a historic burial ground in Ponce, Puerto Rico. It was founded in 1901. It was designed by Manuel V. Domenech. Some of the people buried at Cementerio ...

. Grillasca Salas is honored at Ponce's Park of Illustrious Ponce Citizens. Only six, of over 100 Ponce mayors, are honored there. He is remembered as a mayor who fought for the autonomy of the municipality of Ponce from the centralization forces at the Central Government in

San Juan San Juan, Spanish for Saint John, may refer to: Places Argentina * San Juan Province, Argentina * San Juan, Argentina, the capital of that province * San Juan, Salta, a village in Iruya, Salta Province * San Juan (Buenos Aires Underground), ...

. In Ponce, there is a private housing development named after him ("Villa Grillasca"), as well as a hospital, Hospital Oncologico Andres Grillasca, named in his honor.''Historia del HOAG.''
HOAG. 2018. Retrieved 10 February 2018.

Early years

Political life

Juan Morel Campos Music Institute

Sports and recreational facilities

Abolition Park

Death, honors, and legacy

See also

References

Further reading