Ramón Emeterio Betances

Ramón Emeterio Betances y Alacán was a Puerto Rican independence advocate and medical doctor. He was also an abolitionist, diplomat, public health administrator, poet, and novelist. He claimed in his lifetime that a relative of his, Pedro Betances, had revolted against the Spanish government of Hispaniola in 1808.

About Ramón Emeterio Betances in brief

Ramón Emeterio Betances y Alacán was a Puerto Rican independence advocate and medical doctor. He was also an abolitionist, diplomat, public health administrator, poet, and novelist. Betances claimed in his lifetime that a relative of his, Pedro Betances, had revolted against the Spanish government of Hispaniola in 1808 and was tortured, executed, and his body burned and shown to the populace to dissuade them from further attempts. In 1846, Betances obtained his baccalauréat, but not before having to have his family’s lineage and religious affiliations exposed to the general public. He is considered to be the father of the Puerto Rico independence movement, and is also known as ‘El Padre de la Patria’ because of his charitable deeds for people in need. He had established a successful surgery and ophthalmology practice. He served as representative and contact for Cuba and the Dominican Republic in Paris, France. His political and social activism was deeply influenced by the group’s philosophical beliefs. His parents were Felipe Betanzos Ponce, a merchant born in Hispaniola, and María del Carmen Alacón de Montalvo, a native of Cabo Rojo and of French ancestry. They were married in 1812. His father eventually bought the Hacienda Carmen in what would later become the nearby town of Hormigueros, and became a wealthy landowner. He owned 200 acres of land, a small sugar mill, and some slaves, who shared their duties with free workers.

There is speculation that he later freed his slaves, persuaded by his son Ramón. He also had a half-brother Felipe Adolfo, who was not involved in politics, but was nevertheless arrested following the Grito de Lares years later. His mother died in 1837, when he was nine years old, and his father remarried in 1839; the five children he had with Maria del Carmen Torres Pagán included Ramón’s half- brother Felipe. He showed interest in natural and exact sciences early on, and also became a good fencer. While Ramón was in France, his father sought to move the family’s registration from the \”mixed race\” classification to the \”white race\” classification. The process, when successful, entitled the requester to further legal property rights for him and his family. In the case of Betances’ father, José Tiózco Tiézco, it lasted two years and was formalized in 1840, but it was not formalized for him until 1846. His entire family were not ‘blancuzcos’ but ‘Blancetcos’ Betances was the first to acknowledge that he was not a Blancuzco and his entire family had not been embarrassed by the procedure, since he was embarrassed that he had to have to have them all reeked of hypocrisy instead of exposing them all to the public.

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