Jaime Benítez Rexach
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Jaime Benítez Rexach (October 29, 1908 – May 30, 2001) was a Puerto Rican author, academic and politician. He was the longest serving chancellor and the first president of the
University of Puerto Rico The University of Puerto Rico (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Universidad de Puerto Rico;'' often shortened to UPR) is the main List of state and territorial universities in the United States, public university system in the Commonwealth (U.S. i ...
. From 1973 to 1977, he served two terms in Congress as the Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico.


Early life

Jaime Benítez Rexach was born on
Vieques Vieques (; ), officially Isla de Vieques, is an island, town and municipality of Puerto Rico, and together with Culebra, it is geographically part of the Spanish Virgin Islands. Vieques lies about east of the mainland of Puerto Rico, measuri ...
, a small island about twenty miles off the shore of mainland Puerto Rico, to Luis Benítez and Candida Rexach. Among his ancestors were the noted Puerto Rican poets María Bibiana Benítez, Alejandrina Benítez de Gautier, and
José Gautier Benítez José Martín Antonio Gautier Benítez (April 12, 1848 – January 24, 1880) was a Puerto Rican poet of the Romantic Era. Early years Gautier Benítez was born in Caguas, Puerto Rico to Rodulfo Gautier and the Puerto Rican poet, Alejandr ...
. His mother died when he was seven years old, and his father died a year later. It fell to his older sister, who lived 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 ...
, to raise him and his siblings. Benítez attended local public schools. In 1926 he left the island to attend
Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private Jesuit research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic higher education, Ca ...
in Washington, D.C., where he received an LL.B. degree in 1930 and an LL.M. in 1931. That same year he passed the District of Columbia bar examination and returned to Puerto Rico. He earned an M.A. at the
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
in 1938.


Career

In 1931 Benítez began a career in education at the
University of Puerto Rico The University of Puerto Rico (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Universidad de Puerto Rico;'' often shortened to UPR) is the main List of state and territorial universities in the United States, public university system in the Commonwealth (U.S. i ...
that spanned four decades: he was associate professor of social and political sciences (1931–1942), chancellor of its main campus in
Río Piedras Rio or Río is the Portuguese and Spanish word for "river". The word also exists in Italian, but is largely obsolete and used in a poetical or literary context to mean "stream". Rio, RIO or Río may also refer to: Places United States * Rio, Flo ...
(1942–1966) for nearly 30 years. In 1948, during his tenure as chancellor, the university's pro-independence student body invited nationalist leader
Pedro Albizu Campos Pedro Albizu Campos (June 29, 1893Luis Fortuño Janeiro. ''Album Histórico de Ponce (1692–1963).'' p. 290. Ponce, Puerto Rico: Imprenta Fortuño. 1963. – April 21, 1965) was a Puerto Rican attorney and politician, and a leading figure in ...
to the
Río Piedras Rio or Río is the Portuguese and Spanish word for "river". The word also exists in Italian, but is largely obsolete and used in a poetical or literary context to mean "stream". Rio, RIO or Río may also refer to: Places United States * Rio, Flo ...
campus as a guest speaker. Benítez did not permit Albizu access to the campus. As a result, the students protested and went on strike. The university was temporarily shut down and the leaders of the strike expelled from the university.Biografía de Juan Mari Brás
; accessed 8 July 2015.
As chancellor, Benítez also attracted many distinguished scholars and artists who had left Spain after its civil war, including Nobel Prize-winning poet
Juan Ramón Jiménez Juan Ramón Jiménez Mantecón (; 23 December 1881 – 29 May 1958) was a Spanish poet, a prolific writer who received the 1956 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his lyrical poetry, which in the Spanish language constitutes an example of high ...
and Catalan cellist
Pablo Casals Pau Casals i Defilló (Catalan: ; 29 December 187622 October 1973), known in English as Pablo Casals, In 1966, Benítez became the first president of the university, position in which he served until 1971. When Benítez began teaching, the university had five thousand students; by the time he left, the number of students at the university increased to forty thousand under his leadership. Benítez published numerous articles, essays, and books. He was the author of a number of books that concern the university system, or the "house of studies" (''casa de estudios'') as he referred to it, including ''Junto a la Torre—Jornadas de un programa universitario'' (1963); ''Ética y estilo de la universidad'' (1964); ''La universidad del futuro'' (1964); and ''Sobre el futuro cultural y político de Puerto Rico'' (1965). From 1956 to 1971 he was the director and a contributor to ''La Torre'', the University of Puerto Rico literary review. He maintained an active role in numerous national and international organizations: he was a member of the United States National Commission for the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...
) from 1948 to 1954, and attended the UNESCO conventions in Paris, France (1950) and Havana, Cuba (1952); he was a member of the Constitutional Convention of Puerto Rico, for which he was drafted while attending an UNESCO meeting, and the chairman of the Drafting Committee on the Bill of Rights from 1951 to 1952. In 1956, he was elected a Fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
. He served as president of the National Association of State Universities from 1957 to 1958. A close associate of the political leader
Luis Muñoz Marín José Luis Alberto Muñoz Marín (February 18, 1898April 30, 1980) was a Puerto Rican journalist, politician, statesman and was the first elected governor of Puerto Rico, regarded as the "Architect of the Puerto Rico Commonwealth." In 1948 he ...
, who became Puerto Rico's first elected governor in 1949 and helped achieve a locally drafted Constitution in 1952, Benítez was part of the Constitutional Convention and collaborated in the drafting of the Bill of Human Rights included in the new Constitution, which recognized citizens' social and economic rights as well as their human rights, as well as the initial draft of the Constitution's Preamble. The two fell out in 1957, however, when Muñoz declared his "loss of confidence" in Benítez and accused him of using his university position to build a rival political movement to his own Popular Democratic Party, or PDP. Benítez won a vote of confidence in the Council on Higher Education by one vote. They were publicly reconciled before the 1960 elections, although the relationship remained rocky throughout the 1960s. In 1966, the university statutes were changed again to permit greater political activity on the campus and Benítez was effectively kicked upstairs to the new and less powerful post of university president, which he gave up in 1971 due to political pressures under the first non-PDP administration since the 1930s.


U.S. Congress

In 1972, he was elected
Resident Commissioner Resident commissioner was or is an official title of several different types of commissioners, who were or are representatives of any level of government. Historically, they were appointed by the British Crown in overseas protectorates (such a ...
of Puerto Rico for a four-year term. In the
U.S. House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...
he was assigned to the Committee on Education and Labor, an important committee assignment for a man who cared deeply about education and who had an interest in social and labor conditions in Puerto Rico. In the 94th Congress, Benítez introduced legislation to extend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to Puerto Rico. He showed interest in the affairs of U.S. territories, sponsoring legislation to allow American Samoa to elect a governor and lieutenant governor, and supporting the authorization of a loan to the Virgin Islands Government. While in Congress he was a strong advocate of the current status of Puerto Rico, which he felt was preferable to statehood or independence. A bill to enhance Puerto Rico's relationship with the U.S., H.R. 11200, died in committee.


After Congress

After an unsuccessful reelection bid, Benítez returned to Puerto Rico. He taught at the
Inter-American University of Puerto Rico The Inter American University of Puerto Rico (Spanish: ''Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico''; often abbreviated to ''UIPR'' or ''Inter'') is a private Christian university with its main campus in San Germán, Puerto Rico. It also has ...
(IAU) from 1980 to 1986. He was a professor of government at the American College in Bayamón, Puerto Rico.


Legacy

Following his death, in 2002 the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico's Metro campus, where Benítez taught between 1980 and 1986 and of which he was a Distinguished Professor for the first two years, published a compilation of his speeches under the title of ''Discursos'' (Speeches). On September 8, 2008, the IAU unveiled the publication of a biography of Benítez, edited by former San Juan mayor Héctor Luis Acevedo, at a ceremony hosted by
Senate of Puerto Rico The Senate of 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 the legislative branch of ...
president
Kenneth McClintock Kenneth Davison McClintock-Hernández (born January 19, 1957) is a politician who served as the twenty-second Secretary of State of Puerto Rico, one of the four longest serving in that post. McClintock served as co-chair of Hillary Clinton’s N ...
at the Puerto Rico Capitol Building, with Benítez's daughter, Margarita Benítez, in attendance. The activity was followed by the opening of an exhibition of photographs of Benítez, open to all Capitol visitors. The University of Puerto Rico honored him with a series of commemorative acts commencing on the one hundred anniversary of his birth, October 29, 2008, with a series of conferences lasting for three days. The road connecting the front gates of the Río Piedras campus to Highway 1, known as University Avenue, was renamed Paseo Jaime Benítez. Additionally, the main amphitheater of the
Medical Sciences Medicine is the science and practice of caring for patients, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pract ...
campus was named after Benítez. In 2008, the Jaime Benítez National Park, at the easternmost part of the
Condado Lagoon Condado Lagoon () is located in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It is an effluent body of water that flows freely between the Condado and Miramar neighborhoods of Santurce, a barrio of San Juan. Background Its tributary stream of water forms part of t ...
, was inaugurated in the presence of the then-governor
Aníbal Acevedo Vilá Aníbal Salvador Acevedo Vilá (born 13 February 1962) is a Puerto Rican politician and lawyer who served as the governor of Puerto Rico from 2005 to 2009. He is a Harvard University alumnus ( LL.M. 1987) and a graduate of the University of ...
and his wife Luisa Gándara who both arrived by kayak and sporting PPD-red-colored swimwear. The project was developed by the Puerto Rico National Parks Company and the governor took the opportunity to attack his opponent, and eventual successor,
Luis Fortuño Luis Guillermo Fortuño Burset (born 31 October 1960) is a Puerto Ricans, 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 Secre ...
for his financial dealings as then-resident commissioner, a post previously held by Benítez under the PPD. The new
General Studies North America Some North American universities offer the Bachelor of General Studies degree. England, Wales and Northern Ireland General Studies is a GCSE and former A-level examination offered to 16- to 18-year-olds in England, Wales and North ...
building at the Río Piedras campus was named after Benítez in 2009. On March 3, 2010, the former
Secretary of Health A health minister is the member of a country's government typically responsible for protecting and promoting public health and providing welfare spending and other social security services. Some governments have separate Minister of Mental Health, ...
, Dr. Enrique Vázquez Quintana, offered a conference at the Luis Muñoz Marín Foundation, reviewing Benítez's trajectory as chancellor, his involvement in the creation of the Medical Sciences campus and the effect this had on the island's public health.


Death

He died on May 30, 2001. He was survived by his wife, Luz "Lulu" Martínez de Benítez (''née'' Martínez Martínez); two daughters, Clotilde and
Margarita A margarita is a cocktail consisting of tequila, triple sec, and lime juice. Some margarita recipes include simple syrup as well and are often served with salt on the rim of the glass. Margaritas can be served either shaken with ice (on the rock ...
, and a son, Jaime. Upon his death a law was passed to give his widow a life pension of $20,000, which she received until her own death on July 5, 2005. Jaime Benítez Rexach was interred at Santa Maria Magdalena de Pazzis Cemetery in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Since Benítez had been crucial in creating the Medical Sciences campus, the Society of Graduate Doctors of the UPR, on the occasion of the centenary of his birth, donated $20,000 for a mausoleum designed by Javier Toro, to be built on his tomb. The mausoleum would an inscription containing "the last two lines of the Hymn to the Alma Mater or Hymn to Life composed by
Francisco Arriví Francisco Arriví (June 24, 1915 – February 8, 2007), a.k.a. ''Paco,'' was a writer, poet and playwright known as "The Father of the Puerto Rican Theater." Early years Arriví (birth name: Francisco Arriví Alegria was born in Santurce, a s ...
and Augusto Rodríguez in 1938: "To Jaime Benítez: glory to the fighter, honor to the University."


Fundación Jaime Benítez-Rexach

The Fundación Jaime Benítez-Rexach de la Universidad de Puerto Rico en Arecibo (FJBR) is a non-profit organization and grant-making body formed in 2001 in memory of Jaime Benítez Rexach, who had died some months prior. Based in the
University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo The University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo (UPRA or UPR Arecibo) is a public college in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. It is part of the University of Puerto Rico. UPR-Arecibo was previously the (CRA, 'Arecibo Regional College') and (CUTA, 'Arecibo Techn ...
, the primary goals of the foundation are to "collaborate in satisfying the socio-cultural, educational and economic needs of the institution."


See also

*
List of Puerto Ricans This is a list of notable people from Puerto Rico which includes people who were born in Puerto Rico (Borinquen) and people who are of full or partial Puerto Rican people, Puerto Rican descent. Puerto Rican citizens are included, as the governm ...
* Benitez's tree frog (''Hypsiboas benitezi''), a species of
frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely semiaquatic group of short-bodied, tailless amphibian vertebrates composing the order (biology), order Anura (coming from the Ancient Greek , literally 'without tail'). Frog species with rough ski ...
named in honor of Jaime Benítez Rexach * List of Hispanic Americans in the United States Congress


References


External links

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Benitez Rexach, Jaime 1908 births 2001 deaths Burials at Santa María Magdalena de Pazzis Cemetery Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Puerto Rico Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Georgetown University Law Center alumni People from Vieques, Puerto Rico Presidents of the University of Puerto Rico Puerto Rican academics 20th-century Puerto Rican educators Resident commissioners of Puerto Rico University of Chicago alumni 20th-century American academics Benítez family 20th-century members of the United States House of Representatives