Segundo Ruiz Belvis

Segundo Ruiz Belvis ( born May 13, 1829 in Hormigueros, Puerto Rico, † November 3, 1867 in Valparaíso, Chile ) was an abolitionist who fought for the independence of Puerto Rico.

Life

Belvis attended school in Aguadilla. At the University of Caracas, Venezuela, he managed a degree in philosophy. He also completed a law degree from the Central University of Madrid.

In 1859 he returned to Puerto Rico, where he campaigned for the abolition of slavery. First he freed the slaves in his hacienda. Then he became friends with Ramón Emeterio Betances and joined the secret organization The Secret Abolitionist Society. The group baptized and emancipated thousands of black children slaves and held in the Cathedral of Mayagüez the " aguas de libertad " ( waters of liberty ). Later Belvis moved to Mayagüez, where he practiced as a lawyer. The citizens of the city called him " the justice of the peace."

1865 Belvis occurred in Madrid on as representative of the abolitionist movement before the Cortes Generales. Although the Spanish rulers einstuften his ideas as dangerous, they nevertheless marked the beginning of a movement that eventually led to the liberation of the slaves in the rest of the Spanish colonies in Latin America.

Upon his return to Puerto Rico Belvis realized that the Spanish Governor José María Marchesi Oleaga did not agree with his liberal ideas, which is why he was exiled with his friends into exile. In 1866, he finally landed in New York City, where he founded the Revolutionary Committee of Puerto Rico (Comité Revolucionario de Puerto Rico), together with Betances and other patriots. This led to the plan of an armed expedition to the island, which eventually led to the Grito de Lares. During this time ill Belvis, which did not prevent him, however, to travel to the Chilean city of Valparaíso, in order to obtain financial support for the planned revolution there. Belvis died in Chile and did not learn that the Grito de Lares failed. The realization of his dream of the end of slavery in Puerto Rico on March 22, 1873, he did not live.

Segundo Ruiz Belvis In honor of many roads and a school named after him in Puerto Rico. In Chicago there is a cultural center and in the Bronx borough of New York City a " Diagnostic and Treatment Center ", which also bear his name.

• Abolitionist
• Person (Puerto Rico)
• Born in 1829
• Died in 1867
• Man