Portal:Puerto Rico/Selected biography/4

Ramón Emeterio Betances (April 8, 1827 – September 16, 1898), was a Puerto Rican nationalist, and the primary instigator of the Grito de Lares revolution. As such, he is considered to be the father of the Puerto Rican independence movement commonly referred to "El Padre de la Patria" (Father of the Puerto Rican Nation). He was the most renowned medical doctor and surgeon of his time in Puerto Rico, and one of its first social hygienists. He was also a diplomat, public health administrator, poet and novelist. A firm believer in Freemasonry, his political and social activism was deeply influenced by the group's philosophical beliefs. (more...)