Eugenio María de Hostos y de Bonilla (January 11, 1839August 11, 1903), known as ("The Great Citizen of the Americas"), was a Puerto Rican educator, philosopher, intellectual, lawyer, sociologist, novelist, and Puerto Rican independence advocate.

Early years and family

Eugenio María de Hostos y de Bonilla was born on January 11, 1839, to a well-to-do family in the Barrio Río Cañas of Mayagüez, Captaincy General of Puerto Rico (present-day Puerto Rico). His parents were Eugenio María de Hostos y Rodríguez (1807–1897) and María Hilaria de Bonilla y Cintrón (died 1862, Madrid, Spain), both of Spanish descent. In 1852, his family sent him to Bilbao, Spain, where he graduated from the Institute of Secondary Education (high school). After he graduated, he enrolled at the Complutense University of Madrid in 1857.

Independence advocate

During his one-year stay in the United States, he joined the Cuban Revolutionary Committee and became the editor of a journal called La Revolución. Hostos believed in the creation of an Antillian Confederation () between Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Cuba. This idea was embraced by fellow Puerto Ricans Ramón Emeterio Betances and Segundo Ruiz Belvis. One of the things which disappointed Hostos was that in Puerto Rico and in Cuba there were many people who wanted their independence from Spain, but did not embrace the idea of becoming revolutionaries, preferring to be annexed by the United States. during which he helped develop the country's educational system and spoke against the harsh treatment given to the Chinese who lived there. He then moved to Chile for two years. During his stay there, he taught at the University of Chile and gave a speech titled "The Scientific Education of Women". He proposed in his speech that governments permit women in their colleges. Soon after, Chile allowed women to enter its college educational system. On September 29, 1873, he went to Argentina, where he proposed a railroad system between Argentina and Chile. His proposal was accepted and the first locomotive was named after him. Their wedding was officiated by the Archbishop of Caracas, José Antonio Ponte, and their maid of honor was the Puerto Rican poet, abolitionist, women's rights activist and Puerto Rican independence advocate Lola Rodríguez de Tió. He returned to the Dominican Republic in 1879 and in February 1880 the first normal school was inaugurated. He was named director and he helped establish a second normal school in the city of Santiago de los Caballeros.

Later years and death

Hostos returned to the United States in 1898 before relocating with his family to Santo Domingo in January 1900. In his last years, Hostos actively participated in the Puerto Rican and Cuban independence movements; his hopes for Puerto Rico's independence after the Spanish–American War turned into disappointment when the United States government rejected his proposals and instead converted the island into its own colony.

On August 11, 1903, Hostos died in Santo Domingo, aged 64. He is buried in the National Pantheon located in the colonial district of that city. Per his final wishes, his remains are to stay permanently in the Dominican Republic until the day Puerto Rico is completely independent. Then and only then, does he want to be reinterred in his homeland. Hostos wrote his own epitaph: There is a monument honoring Hostos in Spain.

  • A municipality was named after him in the Dominican Republic, in Duarte Province.

Monuments

In Puerto Rico there are multiple monuments dedicated to Hostos:

  • One sculpture created by Tomás Batista was located in a small plaza at the side of Highway 2 at the northern entrance to his native city of Mayagüez. It has since been relocated in front of the entrance to the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus;
  • Another was created by José Buscaglia Guillermety. Recently, located inside the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus in San Juan.
  • A 1998 sculpture is in the center of Plaza de la Beneficencia in Old San Juan.

Schools

The Municipality of Mayagüez inaugurated a cultural center and museum near his birthplace in Río Cañas Arriba ward. The city of Mayagüez also has named in his honor:

  • A high school building inaugurated in 1954;
  • A highway (now avenue) in 1961;
  • Eugenio María de Hostos Airport, formerly El Maní Airport, in 1986.
  • In 1995, the Eugenio María de Hostos School of Law was established in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. The Hostos Law School aspired to achieve the development of legal professionals who are also responsive to the needs of their communities and embraced Hostos' educational philosophy.

Elsewhere in the United States, there are other schools named after him:

  • In 1970, the City University of New York inaugurated Hostos Community College, located in the South Bronx. The school serves as a starting point for many students who wish to seek careers in such fields as dental hygiene, gerontology, and public administration.
  • There is an intermediate school in Brooklyn, New York named for Hostos (I. S. 318).
  • There is a pre-K and kindergarten school named for him in Union City, New Jersey.
  • Eugenio María de Hostos Microsociety School, an elementary school in Yonkers, New York is named for him.
  • Eugenio María de Hostos Bilingual Charter School, a bilingual K-8 charter school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is named for him.
  • The City of New York also named a playground after him.

Portals

The Miguel Cervantes Virtual Library of Spain has dedicated a portal on its website to Eugenio María de Hostos.

His works were digitized by the National Foundation of Popular Culture of Puerto Rico in November 2019.

Works

Among his written works are the following:

  • La Peregrinación de Bayoán (1863);
  • "Las doctrinas y los hombres" (1866);
  • "El día de América";
  • "Ayacucho" (1870);
  • "El cholo" (1870);
  • "La educación científica de la mujer" (1873);
  • "Lecciones de derecho constitucional. Santo Domingo: Cuna de América" (1887);
  • Moral Social (1888, Imprenta García Hermanos);
  • "Geografía evolutiva" (1895).

thumb|Eugenio María de Hostos, Plaza de la Beneficencia, San Juan, Puerto Rico

Family

Hostos and Belinda Otilia de Ayala y Quintana had six children:

  • Eugenio Carlos (1879–1959)
  • Luisa Amelia ( 1881)
  • Bayoán Lautaro (b. 1885)
  • Adolfo Jose (1887–1982)
  • Filipo Luis Duarte (1890–1969)
  • María Angelina (1892–1982)

Ancestry

The Ostos family name originated in Écija, Seville, as early as 1437. Eugenio de Ostos y del Valle was born in Écija around the year 1700 and later moved to Camagüey, Cuba, where he married María Josefa del Castillo y Aranda in 1735. Their son Juan José de Ostos y del Castillo was born in Camagüey in 1750 and moved to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Sometime after France seized control of the entire island of Hispaniola in 1795, Juan José changed the spelling of his surname to Hostos.

See also

  • List of Puerto Rican writers
  • List of Puerto Ricans
  • Puerto Rican literature
  • Caribbean literature

References

Further reading

  • Ainsa, Fernando. "Hostos y la unidad de América Latina: raíces históricas de una utopía necesaria". Cuadernos Americanos 16 (1989): pp. 67–88
  • Colón Zayas, Eliseo R. "La escritura ante la formación de la conciencia nacional. La peregrinación de Bayoán de Eugenio María de Hostos". Revista Iberoamericana 140, Vol. 53 (1987): pp. 627–34
  • Gutiérrez Laboy, Roberto. Eugenio María de Hostos. Proyecto Ensayo Hispánico. Ed. José Luis Gómez Martínez. University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia. <!-- year?; ISBN? -->
  • Mead Jr., Robert G. "Montalvo, Hostos y el ensayo latinoamericano". Hispania 39 (1956): pp.&nbsp;56–62; also Perspectivas Americanas, Literatura y libertad. Nueva York: Las Américas, 1967; pp.&nbsp;89–102
  • Ramos, Julio. Divergent Modernities: Culture and Politics in Nineteenth-Century Latin America (transl. John D. Blanco). Durham, NC: Duke University Press (2001), pp.&nbsp;43–48
  • Sánchez, Luis Alberto. "Eugenio María de Hostos". Escritores representativos de América. Madrid: Gredos 2 (1963): 147–54
  • Sánchez Álvarez-Insúa, Alberto. "Moral Social de Eugenio María de Hostos". Arbor, 183 (724): 211–216 (2007).
  • Villanueva Collado, Alfredo. "Eugenio María de Hostos ante el conflicto modernismo/modernidad". Revista Iberoamericana 162–163 (January–June 1993): pp.&nbsp;21–32
  • Chronology on Hostos
  • Webpage of the "Eugenio Maria de Hostos Foundation"