Background
Ramon Baldorioty de Castro was born on 23 February, 1822 in Gaynabo, Puerto Rico.
Ramon Baldorioty de Castro was born on 23 February, 1822 in Gaynabo, Puerto Rico.
He received his early education from the canons of the Cathedral of San Juan and completed his studies in Paris, from whence he returned home in 1853.
He taught mathematics, physics, and botany in several local schools. He represented Puerto Rico at the Paris Exposition of 1867. In 1869-1870 he represented Mayaguez in the Spanish Parliament, the Cortes. In that period, he rejected an offer of a high post in the Spanish Ministry of Finance.
In 1872 Baldorioty de Castro returned to Ponce, where he founded a newspaper, El Derecho. In 1880 he established another paper, La Crónica, as the spokesman for the Autonomists. When the Autonomist Party was officially established in 1887, he was elected its first president, an honor that brought him arrest and imprisonment in Moro Castle. However, he had been released by the time he died in Ponce.