Hernán Padilla Ramírez (born May 5, 1938) is a retired physician and former two-term Mayor of
San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Biography
After training as a
nephrologist
Nephrology (from Greek'' nephros'' "kidney", combined with the suffix ''-logy'', "the study of") is a specialty of adult internal medicine and pediatric medicine that concerns the study of the kidneys, specifically normal kidney function ( ...
, he entered private practice and joined the military with the
Puerto Rico National Guard
The Puerto Rico National Guard (PRNG) – es, Guardia Nacional de Puerto Rico– is the national guard of the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The Constitution of the United States specifically charges the National Guard with dual federal and s ...
and the
U.S. Army Reserve
The United States Army Reserve (USAR) is a reserve force of the United States Army. Together, the Army Reserve and the Army National Guard constitute the Army element of the reserve components of the United States Armed Forces.
Since July 20 ...
in
Fort Meade
Fort George G. Meade is a United States Army installation located in Maryland, that includes the Defense Information School, the Defense Media Activity, the United States Army Field Band, and the headquarters of United States Cyber Command, the ...
Maryland. He was sent to active duty during the
Gulf War
The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a Coalition of the Gulf War, 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Ba'athist Iraq, ...
and assigned to
Walter Reed Army Medical Center
The Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC)known as Walter Reed General Hospital (WRGH) until 1951was the United States Army, U.S. Army's flagship medical center from 1909 to 2011. Located on in the Washington, D.C., District of Columbia, it se ...
. In 1967, he became politically active, participating in the pro-statehood campaign leading to the July 27 political status plebiscite, as a leader of
Estadistas Unidos (Statehooders United), a non-partisan group founded by long-time
Statehood Republican Party gubernatorial candidate
Luis A. Ferré. On August 20, 1967, at the assembly in Carolina, Puerto Rico at which the organization was dissolved, Padilla and other party leaders proposed the creation of a new political party that would eventually be known as the New Progressive Party (NPP) or Partido Nuevo Progresista (PNP) in Spanish.
In January, 1969 and after the NPP's electoral triumph and his own election as a state representative, in spite of being a freshman, he was selected as House Majority Leader for the 1969-1973 term. After the NPP's defeat in 1972 and his own reelection, he served as Minority Whip until 1977.
In 1976, he won the NPP nomination for mayor of San Juan after a three-way competition with attorney
Baltasar Corrada del Río
Baltasar Corrada del Río (April 10, 1935 – March 11, 2018) was a Puerto Rican politician. He held various high political offices in the island, including President of the Puerto Rico Civil Rights Commission, Resident Commissioner (1977–19 ...
and Senator
Sila Nazario, and was elected to the post in November of that year, succeeding newly elected Governor
Carlos Romero Barceló
Carlos Antonio Romero Barceló (September 4, 1932 – May 2, 2021) was a Puerto Rican politician who served as the governor of Puerto Rico from 1977 to 1985. He was the second governor to be elected from the New Progressive Party (PNP). He als ...
and
Carlos S. Quirós who served a days-long stint as mayor following Romero's swearing-in as governor and the official beginning of the 1977-1981 term. His term as mayor was marked by a major expansion of sports and community facilities and the first attempt to wrestle with San Juan's looming solid waste crisis. He also served as President of the
U.S. Conference of Mayors, being the first Hispanic in that position. Hernan Padilla built the San Juan's Municipal Tower in Hato Rey, San Juan's Central Park, the Pedrin Zorilla Coliseum, Paseo de Diego, and others installations. He also created San Juan's Municipal police department.
Reelected as mayor
in 1980, Padilla became increasingly dissatisfied with Romero and the incumbent governor's capacity to lead the party to another victory in 1984 after barely winning reelection by less than one-half of one percent margin in 1980. The tensions between both leaders led to Padilla splitting from the NPP and creating the
Puerto Rican Renewal Party
The Puerto Rican Renewal Party — or Partido Renovación Puertorriqueña (PRP) in Spanish — was a short-lived Puerto Rican political party founded on August 28, 1983, in Ponce, Puerto Rico. The party was disbanded in 1987.
The part ...
(PRP), and aspiring for governor under the PRP banner. Pro-statehood votes in 1984 were split between the PRP and the NPP, which renominated Romero, resulting in the
Popular Democratic Party return to power, through the election to an unprecedented non-consecutive second term, of
Rafael Hernández Colón
Rafael Hernández Colón (October 24, 1936 – May 2, 2019) was a Puerto Rican politician who served as the governor of Puerto Rico from 1973 to 1977 and 1985 to 1993 for a total of three terms. An experienced politician, Hernández held the ...
as governor.
After 1984, he returned to medical practice as a
nephrologist
Nephrology (from Greek'' nephros'' "kidney", combined with the suffix ''-logy'', "the study of") is a specialty of adult internal medicine and pediatric medicine that concerns the study of the kidneys, specifically normal kidney function ( ...
, serving with the National Capital Area for Kaiser Permanente. In 1991 he was the subject of one television advertisement by Kaiser that was regularly aired across the United States.
Padilla channelled his post-1984 political energies through national initiatives, serving as chairman for the
US Council for Puerto Rico Statehood (USCPRS). He has rejoined the NPP and was the surprise keynote speaker at the party's August 2010 convention in
Río Grande, Puerto Rico, at the invitation of party president, Gov.
Luis Fortuño
Luis Guillermo Fortuño Burset (born 31 October 1960) is a Puerto Rican politician who served as the governor of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States, from 2009 to 2013.
Fortuño served as the first secretary of econom ...
, who considers Padilla one of his mentors.
Padilla now lives in
Miramar, Florida. He is a member of
Fraternidad Fi Sigma Alfa since 1956.
In 2009, he was appointed to represent 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 Sen ...
on the five-member
board of directors of the
Puerto Rico Public-Private Partnerships Authority that regulates public-private partnerships in Puerto Rico.
Dr. Padilla writes a weekly column in the largest circulation newspaper in Puerto Rico,
El Nuevo Dia
EL, El or el may refer to:
Religion
* El (deity), a Semitic word for "God"
People
* EL (rapper) (born 1983), stage name of Elorm Adablah, a Ghanaian rapper and sound engineer
* El DeBarge, music artist
* El Franco Lee (1949–2016), American p ...
, about current political, ideological, economic and administrative issues in Puerto Rico. He also writes a column for
El Sentinel, a Spanish weekly publication of the Sun Sentinel in South Florida. His columns can be accessed at his blog: http://blog.hernanpadilla.com.
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Padilla, Hernan
1938 births
Living people
Mayors of places in Puerto Rico
Mayors of San Juan, Puerto Rico
Puerto Rican nephrologists
National Guard (United States) officers
New Progressive Party members of the House of Representatives of Puerto Rico
People from Mayagüez, Puerto Rico
People from Miramar, Florida
Puerto Rican military officers
United States Army reservists
Presidents of the United States Conference of Mayors