Background
Santiago Iglesias Pantín was born in 22 February in A Coruña to working-class parents.
Santiago Iglesias Pantín was born in 22 February in A Coruña to working-class parents.
At the age of 15, he settled in Havana, Cuba, where he became involved in union activities, serving as secretary of the city’s Workers Circle from 1889 to 1896. At the outbreak of Cuba’s second War for Independence in 1895, Iglesias and other labor leaders came under suspicion of Spanish authorities, and he lied to Puerto Rico.
Discovering that no labor movement existed in Puerto Rico, Iglesias began the task of building one. On May Day, 1897, he launched a small newspaper.
Ensayo Obrero, advocating working-class organization. This won Iglesias the attention of Spanish officials, and he was jailed.
Iglesias was still incarcerated when the American occupation of Puerto Rico occurred in July 1898. An attempt by the Spaniards to have him deported to Spain came to the attention of the American military governor, General John Brooke, who released him and made him a personal aide. Under the Americans’ protection, he resumed his pro-labor activities and lobbied successfully for reduction of the workday to 8 hours.
Iglesias soon traveled to the United States, where he established a long and influential relationship with Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor (AFL). Iglesias’ ties to Gompers paid off after his return to Puerto Rico in 1900. The Americans’ attitudes about labor had changed. Iglesias was charged with conspiracy and was given a long prison term; Gompers’ intervention with President Theodore Roosevelt resulted in his release.
Next, Iglesias edited a series of labor newspapers. His Free Federation of Puerto Rican Workers was affiliated with the AFL, whose Puerto Rican representative he became. In 1925 he was named secretary of the AFL-sponsored Pan American Federation of Labor, a post he held until his death. In 1908 he first sought political office as the Free Federation’s candidate for Resident Commissioner in Washington.
Under Iglesias’ direction, the Socialists grew rapidly. They elected him to the new insular Senate in 1917 (where he served until 1933) and sent several representatives to the lower house. In 1928, in alliance with the conservative but pro-statehood Republicans, they gained almost half the seats in the legislature. But as the junior partner in the alliance, the Socialists’ popularity began to recede. Their failure to formulate a convincing program during the Great Depression added to their troubles. Undoubtedly, an additional reason for the Socialists’ decline was Iglesias’ absence in Washington as Resident Commissioner from 1933 until his death. By 1938 many Socialist leaders and rank-and-file members bolted to the new Popular Democratic Party of Luis Muñoz Marín.