An engineer by training, Tulio Larrínaga, Puerto
Rico’s second Resident Commissioner in Congress
moved into politics when Puerto Rico became
a U.S. territory. Like his predecessor, Federico Degetau,
Larrínaga used the Resident Commissioner’s ministerial
powers and his own political savvy to encourage and cajole
U.S. politicians to reform the island’s civil government. In
particular, Larrínaga sought to modify or eliminate aspects
of the Foraker Act that infringed on Puerto Ricans’ popular
sovereignty and limited the Resident Commissioner’s
ability to represent constituents. “Everybody on the floor
of this House knows that it is only due to the courtesy of
the Committee on Rules … not by any law of Congress,
that the Commissioner from Porto Rico is allowed the
privilege of the floor,” Larrínaga declared.1
Tulio Larrínaga y Torres Vallejo was born in Trujillo
Alto, Puerto Rico, on January 15, 1847. He attended the
Seminario Conciliar de San Ildefonso in San Juan.
Larrínaga studied civil engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute in Troy, New York, from 1865 to 1868 and
graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in
Philadelphia in 1871. Among Larrínaga’s projects were
the preparation of a topographical map of Kings County,
New York, and his work for an engineering firm involved
in the construction of Grand Central Station in New York
City. Returning to Puerto Rico in 1872, Larrínaga served
as a municipal architect of San Juan. He also helped found
Ateneo Puertorriqueño (the Puerto Rican Arts and Sciences
Association) in 1876 and served as the head of the English
department in the cultural center. He was a member of
the Royal Economic Society of Friends of the Nation and
the insular library commission. In 1879 Larrínaga married
Berthy Goyro Saint Victor. The couple raised Tulio, Jr.;
Berta; Concepción; and two other children.2
Larrínaga is credited with building the first railroad
in Puerto Rico—a short line that ran from San Juan
several miles south to Rio Piedras—and with introducing
American rolling stock to the island. He served for 10
years as an engineer of the Provincial Deputation, working
extensively on the construction of San Juan Harbor and
on roads elsewhere on the island. He also directed the
works of the 1893 Puerto Rico exposition as a member
of its jury. Cayetano Coll y Toste, a prominent historian
and writer, observes that Larrínaga’s engineering successes
benefited from his ability to maneuver in political circles,
reminiscing that he was “able to gain the good will of
Unconditional Party leader Pablo Ubarri, who exercised
great influence over the island administration.” “One can
go far with friends in high places,” he added. Larrínaga first
became involved in politics when Puerto Rico achieved
autonomy from Spain in 1897, joining the Partido Liberal
de Puerto Rico (Liberal Reform Party of Puerto Rico).
When Puerto Rico came under American governance
in 1898, Larrínaga served as the subsecretary of public
works and as assistant secretary of the interior under the
autonomous government.3
In 1900, along with Luis Muñoz Rivera and others,
Larrínaga founded the Partido Federalista de Puerto Rico
(Federal Party of Puerto Rico), which advocated Puerto
Rico’s joining the United States as a territory but retaining
control of local institutions. (In 1904 Larrínaga would
join the Partido de Unión (Union Party), the successor to
the Partido Federalista, which promoted local autonomy
while reforming political ties between the United States
and Puerto Rico.) During the initial debates over the
structure of a civil government for Puerto Rico in early
1900, Larrínaga came to Washington with a political
delegation advocating for home rule. He testified before
the Senate Committee on Pacific Islands and Porto Rico
regarding S. 2264, a precursor bill to the Foraker Act.
Larrínaga called for free trade between the United States
and Puerto Rico, advocated for territorial status, and
discussed universal male suffrage.4 When he testified before
the House Committee on Insular Affairs, Larrínaga argued
that Puerto Ricans “expect the American Government
will give them a Territorial form of government; that
they will have some Congressional representation of one
or two members,” citing Puerto Rico’s voting experience
with Spain as a precedent.5 During the deliberations on
the Foraker Act, Larrínaga told the Ways and Means
Committee, “Puerto Rico needs a civil government even
more than free trade. The people want to feel that they
have become in a tangible manner attached to the United
States and not a mere dependency.”6
Larrínaga began his elective career as a member of the
insular house of delegates for the district of Arecibo in
1902.7 In 1904 he won election as Resident Commissioner
to the 59th Congress (1905–1907); he served a total of
three terms, winning by a comfortable margin each time.
His opponent in 1904 was Republican Mateo Fajardo
Cardona. Larrínaga’s Union Party polled 62 percent against
the Republicans’ 38 percent. Larrínaga was re-elected to
the 60th Congress (1907–1909), again by 62 percent,
against Republican candidate Ledo Francisco Paria Capo.
Two years later, he polled 64 percent of the vote against
Republican Roberto Todd and Socialist Santiago Iglesias,
a future Resident Commissioner.8 Larrínaga interpreted
his party’s electoral domination as proof of Puerto Ricans’
displeasure with the provisions of the Foraker Act,
particularly the appointed executive council, which often
undermined acts of the popularly elected insular house
of delegates—which Unionists had consistently pressured
Congress to revise or repeal. Such electoral results, he
noted, show “very clearly that our people are more
determined … to stop the encroaching tendency of that
upper house or executive council.”9
During his tenure in the House, Larrínaga served on
the Committee on Insular Affairs, created to oversee civil
government and infrastructure issues pertaining to the
United States’ territories overseas, including the Philippines,
Guam, and Puerto Rico.10 Unlike his predecessor, Federico
Degetau, who was hamstrung by his lack of floor and
speaking privileges, Larrínaga enjoyed these privileges from
the outset of his congressional career and was well versed
in advocating for Puerto Rican interests in Washington.
During his first term, in the 59th Congress, Larrínaga
submitted six bills and two petitions. Three of the bills
dealt with reforming the structure of the civil government
as defined by the Foraker Act. He also submitted a bill to
amend the law limiting the number of Puerto Ricans who
were admitted to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point
and a bill to expand improvements to San Juan Harbor.11
Additionally, Larrínaga appealed to President Theodore
Roosevelt “for a greater measure of self-government” for
Puerto Rico. “The people of Porto Rico were being treated
as if they were not capable of self-government,” Larrínaga
told Roosevelt, and the acts of the house of delegates “were
practically annulled by the executive council.”12
In an editorial about self-rule in Puerto Rico, Larrínaga
criticized the Washington Post for describing council
members of San Juan municipalities as “self-styled”
politicians. “Those representatives have been selected by the
most genuine representation of the people of Porto Rico,
for the members of the municipal council … are elected
directly by the vote of the people, as well as the house of
delegates,” Larrínaga countered. He described his election
as a mandate to liberalize American rule on the island by
reforming the Foraker Act. “The people of Porto Rico sent
me here to Washington by the largest vote ever cast in the
country to tell Congress and the American people that
we wished to elect our senate as we elect the members of
the house of delegates, so that we could make our own
laws and manage our own local affairs,” Larrínaga wrote.13
In the press and on the House Floor, Larrínaga took
exceptional offense to the executive council, first, because
he objected to the council’s selection by the President of
the United States instead of by popular vote; and second,
because he objected to the council’s extraordinary power
to alter measures approved by the popularly elected house
of delegates. In a floor speech, Larrínaga stressed that
for “many years we have been putting up with all the
encroachment of our masters in that executive council …
we have cooperated with our local government to the verge
of humiliation; but the time has come … when we are
no longer disposed to allow them to go beyond the limits
fixed by the organic act … for the genuine representation
of the people in the lower house.”14 During the second
session of the 61st Congress (1909–1911), chairman of the
House Committee on Insular Affairs Marlin Olmsted of
Pennsylvania submitted H.R. 23000 on Larrínaga’s behalf,
a bill designed to replace the Foraker Act with a more
generous system of Puerto Rican self-government. Whereas
the Foraker Act was a “temporary act” that became
permanent, the new bill would provide a permanent
government for the island. House debates on the bill
demonstrated Larrínaga’s more forceful tack, emphasizing
the shortcomings and anti-democratic tendencies of the
Foraker Act while appealing for greater self-sovereignty on
the island. Larrínaga compared his bill to the Constitution
of the United States. When asked “whether I preferred the
present organic act of Porto Rico to this bill now before the
House … with the provision [in this bill] giving us collective
citizenship … my answer … is I do,” he said. Larrínaga
noted that Chairman Olmsted believed “that the upper
house under the present Foraker Act hindered the lower
house from enacting any legislation whatsoever.” Larrinaga
continued, “He had the honesty to say … what the Porto
Ricans have been saying and protesting against every day
for the last ten years; that you have not given to the people
of Porto Rico any power whatsoever to enact their own
laws.”15 After extensive debate, the bill passed the House on
June 15, 1910, and was referred to the Senate Committee
on Pacific Islands and Porto Rico, where it died.16
In January 1906, Larrínaga submitted to the House
a memorial petition from the municipal councils of 52
towns in Puerto Rico. The petition requested that voters
continue to be permitted to elect the members of the house
of delegates by popular vote and that the presidentially
appointed executive council be replaced with an insular
senate of 14 members also elected by popular vote. As for
the directors of the island’s six principal administrative
departments, who were selected by the President, the
petition asked that they “be appointed by the governor
of Porto Rico with the advice and consent of the insular
senate.” The petition was submitted to the Committee on
Insular Affairs, and no further action was taken.17 In 1907
Larrínaga and the house of delegates lobbied President
Theodore Roosevelt, unsuccessfully, to select a native Puerto
Rican to serve as secretary of Puerto Rico to administer the
insular government’s executive-branch duties.18
On November 21, 1906, President Roosevelt visited
Puerto Rico en route from a visit to the Panama Canal. He
was greeted by a number of political dignitaries, including
Larrínaga. During his visit, Roosevelt promised to
“continue to use every effort to secure citizenship for Porto
Ricans. I am confident that this will come in the end,” he
continued. “My efforts will be unceasing to help you along
the path of true self-government, which must have for
its basis union, order, liberty, justice, and honor.” When
Roosevelt returned to the United States, he vigorously
lobbied Congress to grant full citizenship to Puerto
Ricans, including an appeal in his sixth Annual Message to
Congress.19 Five days after submitting the Annual Message,
Roosevelt delivered a special message to Congress praising
the natural beauty of the island and the effectiveness of its
government and reiterating his belief in the “desirability
of conferring full American citizenship upon the people
of Porto Rico.” “I cannot see how any harm can possibly
result from it, and it seems to me a matter of right and
justice to the people of Porto Rico,” Roosevelt insisted.
“They are loyal, they are glad to be under our flag, they are
making rapid progress along the path of orderly liberty.”
In the New York Times, Larrínaga noted, “Mr. Roosevelt’s
visit had a healthful influence on the political feeling of
the country. There was a sentiment of discouragement
prevailing on the island. The people thought they were
forgotten, but this feeling has now dissipated.”20
To supplement such public statements, Larrínaga
quietly pressured Roosevelt and Insular Affairs Committee
chairman Henry Cooper of Wisconsin to move legislation.
Seizing the momentum generated by Roosevelt’s visit to
the island, Cooper introduced H.R. 17661, a bill to grant
full citizenship to Puerto Ricans. As Larrínaga rounded
up the support from other Members, he commented,
“The present relation we bear to the United States is
ridiculous.… When I went to Europe recently I could say
I was a member of the House, yet had to admit I was not
an American citizen.” Larrínaga noted that “Spaniards and
other foreigners may come to the island, and after a short
time become naturalized as American citizens, but the
people of Porto Rico, who have lived all their lives there,
must remain without citizenship.” When Cooper brought
the bill to the House Floor, James Beauchamp (Champ) Clark of Missouri, a future Speaker of the House, objected
to debating the bill on the grounds that it “ought to be
considered in a full House.” Cooper attempted to schedule
a debate for unanimous consent in the next week, but Clark
objected again. This resistance effectively killed the bill.21
During his second term in the 60th Congress
(1907–1909), Larrínaga honed his forceful criticisms
of the Foraker Act, tying Puerto Rican dissatisfaction
to anti-American sentiment. During a debate about the
disapproval of certain laws of the Territory of New Mexico,
Larrínaga criticized the Foraker Act as a “leaden block
that closed the sepulcher where the liberties and rights
of a million freemen are buried.… Instead of … self-government
… you will find … the executive is mixed
with the legislative, and officers that are appointed by the
Executive go down there to make the laws for a people
whose customs they do not know; for a people whose faces
they have never seen before … and for a people whose laws
and language they do not know.” Larrínaga also discussed
the economic policies in the act that crippled Puerto Rico’s
economy and “ruined the country, because no provision
was made to protect our main industry, the industry of
the poor man, the coffee industry.” Larrínaga dismissed
U.S. statesmen, including House Speaker Joe Cannon,
who claimed credit for enhancing Puerto Rico’s economy
and political standing. “I hear every day in the political
campaign here, ‘We have made Porto Rico prosperous.’
I wish you had,” he declared. “Then no discontent
would exist, and perhaps I could be looked upon by my
countrymen with more kind regard. I wish you had made
Porto Rico happy, but you have not, Mr. Speaker.”22
Like his predecessor Degetau, Larrínaga counted among
his major legislative interests the retention of the Puerto
Rico regiment of the U.S. volunteer infantry from the U.S.
Army. The regiment comprised two battalions of volunteer
infantry that were authorized by Congress in 1899 and
1900. Introduced on Larrínaga’s behalf by Chairman of the
Committee on Military Affairs John Hull of Iowa, H.R.
18618 provided for the establishment of the Puerto Rico
Provisional Regiment as a full infantry regiment in the U.S.
Army. The House passed the bill with a small majority,
but three times Larrínaga then attempted to persuade
his colleagues to concur with the Senate’s amendments;
eventually the House passed the revised bill and President
Roosevelt signed it into law on May 27, 1908.23
To promote his constituents’ livelihoods, Larrínaga tried
to shield Puerto Rican export markets from exorbitant
tariffs.24 In 1907 he corresponded with President
Roosevelt, Secretary of State Elihu Root, and various
subordinates about the negotiations for French tariffs that
would adversely affect Puerto Rico’s ailing coffee industry.
The French, in a commercial agreement with the United
States, proposed a “maximum tariff of 300 francs per 100
kilograms of coffee imported into the French markets,”
Larrínaga wrote. “This [tariff rate] would mean the closing
of those markets to our main staple. We depend wholly
today on France and Cuba for the disposal of four-fifths of
our coffee crop, and you can well imagine, Mr. President,
what a terrible blow the closing of those markets would
be to the island,” he continued.25 Larrínaga also appealed
to Root, writing the tariff issue is “a question of life and
death to our coffee-planters. As long as our coffees do
not receive protection at our home markets, we shall
have to depend upon foreign markets for their sale … to
preserve the existence of our plantations.”26 Root informed
Larrínaga that the 1908 Commercial Agreement between
the United States and France “provided for the application
of the minimum rate … in return for certain specified
concessions in favor of products of the United States,
including Porto Rico” and would take effect in February
1908. In the final agreement, products such as coffee were
imported “at the rates of the minimum tariff or at the
lowest rates” applicable, though such concessions could
be revoked by the French president if additional tariffs
were added.27 Larrínaga’s lobbying efforts probably saved
the Puerto Rican coffee industry. His interest in foreign
affairs received a boost when President Roosevelt selected
him as a U.S. delegate to the Pan-American Conference
in Rio de Janeiro. He also represented the United States at
interparliamentary conferences, in Berlin in 1908 and in
Brussels in 1910.28
Larrínaga secured appropriations and used his experience
as an engineer to promote infrastructure projects in Puerto
Rico. He had extensive experience with the construction of
San Juan Harbor during his tenure as chief engineer for the
project, and later, in 1908, he corresponded with Secretary
of the Interior James R. Garfield about improvements.
After securing a $657,000 appropriation for the dredging
of San Juan Harbor, Larrínaga stressed to Garfield that the
project should begin immediately, despite the protests of
Governor Regis H. Post. Congress’s approval to fund the
project was “in accordance with specific plans prepared
by the War Department, and we cannot expend a single
dollar out of that appropriation for any other part of the
work than that fixed in those plans,” Larrínaga reminded
Secretary Garfield.29
Larrínaga retired at the end of the 61st Congress and
returned to his engineering career. He remained politically
active by serving on the territorial executive council. On
April 28, 1917, he died of heart trouble in Santurce, a
suburb of San Juan.30
View Record in the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress
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