Jorge Díaz Cruz (September 15, 1914 – 1998) served as Associate Justice of the Puerto Rico Supreme Court. Cruz was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico to a family of well-known public figures. His great-grandfather was Román Baldorioty de Castro, the founder of Puerto Rico's autonomist movement, His grandfather was journalist and author Arístides Díaz y Díaz, and his father served as Superintendent of Public Education. A 1930 graduate of Central High School in Santurce, Puerto Rico, he obtained his bachelor's degree as well as his law degree at the

University of Puerto Rico School of Law The University of Puerto Rico School of Law is a law school in Puerto Rico. It is one of the professional graduate schools of University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus and the only law school in the University of Puerto Rico System. It ...

. He practiced law in

Yauco, Puerto Rico Yauco () is a Yauco barrio-pueblo, town and Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality in southern Puerto Rico. Although the Yauco barrio-pueblo, downtown is inland, the municipality stretches to a southern coast facing the Caribbean Sea. Yauco ...

for 35 years, refusing the entreaties of

Puerto Rico Senate The Senate of Puerto Rico ( es, Senado de Puerto Rico) is the upper house of the Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico, the territorial legislature of Puerto Rico. The Senate, together with the House of Representatives of Puerto Rico, control t ...

Majority Leader

Luis Negrón López Luis Negrón López (April 19, 1909 - September 18, 1991) was a politician from Puerto Rico. Negrón was among the founding members of the Popular Democratic Party ''(PPD)'' and served as Senator and as candidate for Governor of Puerto Rico in ...

and Governor Luis Muñoz Marín to accept appointments to public office. Finally, in 1973, he allowed his friend, Governor Rafael Hernández Colón to place his name in nomination for Associate Justice, a nomination strongly supported by the Governor's father, former Associate Justice

Rafael Hernández Matos Rafael Hernández Matos Cardoza (October 24, 1902 – June 7, 1996) served as Associate Justice of the Puerto Rico Supreme Court. Born in Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico Rafael Hernández Matos was a graduate from the University of Puerto Rico School of ...

and by Negrón López. He served on the Court for 11 years, until his retirement on May 16, 1984. Díaz Cruz died in 1998, at the age of 83.

Sources

*La Justicia en sus Manos by Luis Rafael Rivera, Associate justices of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico Puerto Rican judges 1914 births 1998 deaths 20th-century Puerto Rican lawyers 20th-century American judges {{US-state-judge-stub