Juan Rullán Rivera
Encyclopedia
Juan Rullán Rivera (born 1884) was Puerto Rican
Puerto Rican people
A Puerto Rican is a person who was born in Puerto Rico.Puerto Ricans born and raised in the continental United States are also sometimes referred to as Puerto Ricans, although they were not born in Puerto Rico...

 politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

 who served as the Mayor of the city of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

. Juan Rullán was born on November 19, 1884 in the Juan Alonso Barrio of Mayagüez; his parents were Juan Rullán and Ramona Rivera. He had his primary education in "El Liceo de Mayagüez".

Political career

When he got involved in politics he began as a follower of Antonio R. Barcelo
Antonio R. Barceló
Antonio Rafael Barceló y Martinez was a lawyer, businessman and the patriarch of what was to become one of Puerto Rico's most prominent political families...

, but it did not take long for him to become its standard bearer in Mayagüez. He was nominated and elected mayor of Mayagüez in 1920, winning by 2,111 votes. He won again in the 1924 elections being nominated by the newly established "Alianza Puertoriqueña" Party, winning over the Coalitión
Coalition (Puerto Rico)
The Coalition was an electoral alliance in Puerto Rico.The Coalition was formed in 1924, composed of the Republican Party and the Socialist Party. It was generally in favor of statehood and is generally regarded as representing the interests of United States sugar corporations. It held a majority...

 candidate Rafael Marange by over 4,000 votes. He again won in th 1928 elections also being nominated by the Aliancista Party, winning over Coalitión
Coalition (Puerto Rico)
The Coalition was an electoral alliance in Puerto Rico.The Coalition was formed in 1924, composed of the Republican Party and the Socialist Party. It was generally in favor of statehood and is generally regarded as representing the interests of United States sugar corporations. It held a majority...

 candidate Alfonso González by only 425 votes.

As mayor of the city he was involved in numerous projects. He built a new aqueduct
Aqueduct
An aqueduct is a water supply or navigable channel constructed to convey water. In modern engineering, the term is used for any system of pipes, ditches, canals, tunnels, and other structures used for this purpose....

 with a modern filtration plant under the direction of Ing. Monsiur Lefranc. He also built the new Mayagüez City Hall
Mayagüez City Hall
The Casa Consistorial De Mayaguez or as it is more commonly known Alcaldia de Mayagüez is the City Hall for the Municipality of Mayagüez. It is located in front of the Colón Main Square facing the Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria Cathedral.-History:...

 under the direction of the engineers/architects Adriano González Martínez, Alonso Aguilar and Ignacio Flores. Under his terms as mayor other projects were also built such as, the Luis Muñoz Rivera Park, he converted the old municipal jail into the Muñoz Rivera School, which now serves as as the Hostos School of Law
Eugenio María de Hostos School of Law
The Facultad de Derecho Eugenio Maria de Hostos is a law school located in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. The School was founded by Fernando Bayrón, Juan Mari Brás and Carlos Rivera Lugo in 1995...

, he rebuilt the historic San Antonio Hospital and he also rebuilt the Mariano Riera Palmer School which had been mostly destroyed by the earthquake of 1918
1918 Puerto Rico earthquake
The San Fermín earthquake, also known as the Puerto Rico earthquake of 1918, was a major earthquake that struck the island of Puerto Rico at 10:14am on October 11, 1918. The magnitude for the earthquake has been reported at around 7.5 ; however, that might not be an exact number...

. During his second term as mayor he had almost all the main streets of the city paved with tar
Tar
Tar is modified pitch produced primarily from the wood and roots of pine by destructive distillation under pyrolysis. Production and trade in tar was a major contributor in the economies of Northern Europe and Colonial America. Its main use was in preserving wooden vessels against rot. The largest...

, later on the streets were paved with concrete
Concrete
Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...

.

Personal life

Juanín Rullán married doña Dolores Cuebas, herself from Mayagüez. They had only one daughter Lolita Eneida Rullán de Rúa.

Footnotes

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