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 in the central midwestern portion of the island on the Cordillera Central, north of Yauco, Guayanilla, and Peñuelas; southeast of Utuado; east of Lares and Ya ...

, and

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, 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 responsibilitie ...

Ponce, Puerto Rico Ponce ( , , ) is a city and a Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality on the southern coast of Puerto Rico. The most populated city outside the San Juan, Puerto Rico, San Juan metropolitan area, Ponce was founded on August 12, 1692Some publ ...

, 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 Adjuntas barrio-pueblo, town and Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality in Puerto Rico located in the central midwestern portion of the island on the Cordillera Central, Puerto Rico, Cordillera Central, no ...

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 Music Institute.

Sports and recreational facilities

Grillasca Salas also had an interest in sports, and in 1949 he inaugurated the Francisco Montaner Stadium 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 Eduardo Ruberté Bisó (5 May 1918 – 30 March 1996) was a Puerto Rican people, Puerto Rican real estate broker and List of mayors of Ponce, Puerto Rico, Mayor of Ponce, Puerto Rico, from 1964 to 1968. Early years Ruberté Bisó was the s ...

(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, historical ...

in the

Antilles The Antilles is an archipelago bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the south and west, the Gulf of Mexico to the northwest, and the Atlantic Ocean to the north and east. The Antillean islands are divided into two smaller groupings: the Greater An ...

dedicated to the

abolition of slavery Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the political movement to end slavery and liberate enslaved individuals around the world. The first country to fully outlaw slavery was France in 1315, but it was later used in its colonies. T ...

. 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 bot ...

and is located next to an outdoors acoustic

amphitheater An amphitheatre ( U.S. English: amphitheater) 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 ('), meaning "place for vie ...

, and is called Abolition Park.

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 (disambiguation), Saint John, most commonly refers to: * San Juan, Puerto Rico * San Juan, Argentina * San Juan, Metro Manila, a highly urbanized city in the Philippines San Juan may also refer to: Places Arge ...

. 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