Juan de Dios Conde was
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 ...
of
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 ...
, in 1836 and again in 1839.
Biography
Conde was born in Guayana, Venezuela, around 1786. He was an
hacienda
An ''hacienda'' ( or ; or ) is an estate (or ''finca''), similar to a Roman ''latifundium'', in Spain and the former Spanish Empire. With origins in Andalusia, ''haciendas'' were variously plantations (perhaps including animals or orchards), ...
owner. Around 1787, he married Felicita Alcoser, and had six children who were all born in Ponce: Juan Elias (ca. 1818), Vicente (ca. 1820), Felicita (ca. 1822), Emilia (ca. 1824), Andres (ca. 1827) and Fernando (ca. 1829).
As an hacienda owner, Conde ran the ''Hacienda San Isidro'' in 1844. In the 1850s, he was also editor of ''
El Ponceño'' newspaper.
First mayoral term (1836)
Conde finished off mayor
Antonio Albizu's 1936 mayoral term. The first permanent
ayuntamiento was established in Ponce while Conde was mayoring the city, by the Provincial Governor
Miguel de la Torre
Miguel de la Torre y Pando, conde de Torrepando (13 December 1786, in Bernales – 1843, in Madrid) was a Spanish General, Governor and Captain General, who served in Spain, Venezuela, Colombia and Puerto Rico during the Spanish American wars ...
. The new ayuntamiento did not meet in a public building, as it is the case now (2019), but instead met at the house of a prominent local citizen,
Domingo Arévalo. Working alongside Conde were
Antonio Albizu and
Juan Rondón
Juan Rondón Martínez (c. 1790 – c. 1843) was Mayor of Ponce, Puerto Rico, in 1843.
Municipal works
Rondón Martinez is best known for having inaugurated, in 1843, Ponce's old cemetery (Viejo Cementerio de Ponce) on Calle Simon de la To ...
, both of whom performed as ''"teniente alcalde"''. Working closely with them were also Juan Pablo Aponte (''regidor decano''), and six council members:
Valentin Tricoche
Valentin is a male given name meaning "strong, healthy, power, rule, terco". It comes from the Latin name ''Valentinus'', as in Saint Valentin. Commonly found in Spain, Romania, Bulgaria, France, Italy, Russia, Ukraine, Scandinavia, Latin America ...
, Geronimo Rabassa,
Pablo Manfredi,
Jose Ortiz de la Renta, Fernando Matute, and Luis Font. Additional personnel at the ''ayuntamiento'' were Luciano Ortiz de la Renta, ''procurador del común'', and Javier de Solis (Council clerk).
Second mayoral term (1839)
Conde was mayor of Ponce during the entire year 1839.
[Eduardo Neumann Gandía. ''Verdadera y Auténtica Historia de la Ciudad de Ponce.'' 1913. San Juan, Puerto Rico: Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña. p. 279.]
Legacy
There is a street in ''Urbanización Las Delicias'' of Barrio
Magueyes in Ponce named after him.
References
See also
*
List of mayors of Ponce, Puerto Rico
This is a list of mayors of Ponce, Puerto Rico's southern economic center, the island's second largest and second most important city.
From 1692 to 1840, the office of mayor in Ponce was filled either by local hacendados or by military office ...
*
List of Puerto Ricans
Mayors of Ponce, Puerto Rico
1780s births
Year of death missing
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