Guillermo Vivas Valdivieso

Guillermo Vivas Valdivieso (1881 – ca. 1940) was a Puerto Rican journalist, politician and Mayor of Ponce, Puerto Rico from 1925 to 1928.

Early years

Vivas Valdivieso was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, in 1881.^[3] He had little formal education and starting to work at 12 years old for Olimpio Otero at his store, Bazar Otero. He later became a legal assistant for a law office, and subsequently a bookkeeper for seven years.^[4]

Journalist

At age 14, Vivas Valdivieso founded, together with Alberto Marin and Eduardo Marin, the political autonomist newspaper, La Razon.^[5] Subsequently, he also became the owner and director of the "El Día" newspaper during the time of the Ponce Massacre at the hands of the Insular Police under the governorship of U.S.-appointed Gov. Blanton Winship.^[6][7] He had purchased the paper from its founder, Guillermo V. Cintrón, in August 1928.^[8]

Mayoral term

Vivas Valdivieso is recorded to have been the facilitator of the building of "Modern Ponce". During his administration, he secured a municipal loan of $1.25 million for citywide improvements that would turn the municipality of Ponce, come the administration of his successor Emilio Fagot, into the city it became during the rest of the 20th century. Some of the improvements made included the paving of so far dirt city streets, the creation of the city's sewerage system, the enlargement of the old Acueducto, the repair of rural roads, and facilitating the traffic of rural goods into the city market.^[9] He is also credited with creating the first network of the city's sewer system.^[10]

Honors

He is recognized as one of Ponce's most accomplished journalists at Ponce's Park for Illustrious Ponce Citizens.^[11] In Ponce there is a street in Urbanizacion Las Delicias of Barrio Magueyes named after him.

References

See also

• Ponce, Puerto Rico
• List of famous Puerto Ricans