Jaime Benítez was Puerto Rico’s leading scholar for
nearly 70 years. From his first teaching assignment
in 1931, he rose to become a major influence on
Puerto Rican and American education, serving nearly 30
years as chancellor and then president of the Universidad
de Puerto Rico. Elected Resident Commissioner in 1972,
Benítez focused on solidifying Puerto Rico’s status as a
commonwealth during his tenure in Congress. In many
respects he was a consummate insider and a loyal member
of the Partido Popular Democrático (Popular Democratic
Party, or PPD), but Benítez never shied away from
confrontations with party leadership. In the U.S. House,
his animated personality and considerable intelligence won
him friends on both sides of the aisle. Democrat Phillip Burton of California spoke of the “enormous commitment
and concern and unique intellect [of] the Resident
Commissioner… and [of] what a joy it is to listen to and
associate with such a decent human being.”1
Benítez was born on Vieques, an island east of Puerto
Rico, on October 29, 1908, to Luis Benítez and Candida
Rexach. He counted among his ancestors some of Puerto
Rico’s most respected 19th-century poets, Maria Bibiana
Benítez, Alejandra Benítez, and Jose Gautier Benítez. When
Jaime Benítez was seven, his mother, and then his father,
died within a year of each other. Jaime went to live with
an older sister in San Juan, where he enrolled in the public
schools. In 1926 he moved to Washington, D.C., to begin
studies at Georgetown University. He graduated in 1930,
completing a master’s degree in law the next year. After
passing the District’s bar exam, he returned to Puerto Rico
in 1931 and accepted a teaching position at the Universidad
de Puerto Rico. Benítez and his wife, LuLu Martinez, had
two daughters, Clotilde and Margarita, and a son, Jaime.2
Founded in 1903, the Universidad de Puerto Rico was
a middling institution when Benítez began teaching in its political and social science department during the
Great Depression. After taking leave to earn a second
master’s degree from the University of Chicago in 1938,
Benítez returned to Puerto Rico. He accepted another
teaching position at the university, and three years later he
became chancellor until 1966, when he became president
of the university.3
Described by a contemporary as “vivid, voluble, ardent
for his country’s good and obviously talented,” Benítez
rebuilt the school’s curriculum from the bottom up,
implementing far-reaching reforms regarding the teaching
of Puerto Rico’s cultural heritage.4 Enrollment surged from
5,000 to roughly 40,000 students, and by 1964, under
Benítez’s direction, the Universidad de Puerto Rico was
known as “one of the great Spanish-language universities
of the world.”5 The university opened campuses across
the island and added professional schools for health care
and architecture.6 Benítez became a standard-bearer for
academic freedom and sought to implement policies
safeguarding students and faculty from political pressures
in and out of the classroom. “Politicians out!” was one of
Benítez’s signature phrases; later, historians described his
policies as “paternalistic.”7
Early during his tenure at the university, Benítez began
an association with the PPD that lasted throughout his
career. He was known around the San Juan area as a party
stalwart, and at least one historian suggests that Benítez
was appointed chancellor so that he could help implement
the PPD’s broad agenda.8 By mid-century, Benítez had
assumed a larger role in the island’s civic society and in
international efforts to promote peace. From 1951 to 1952,
Benítez was a member of Puerto Rico’s constitutional
convention; his familiarity with democratic political
institutions and his theories on government earned him
the chairmanship of the committee on the bill of rights—which worked to guarantee Puerto Ricans human, social,
and economic liberties.9 Benítez’s role in shaping the
curriculum at the Universidad de Puerto Rico paved the
way for his membership on the United States’ National
Commission for the United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) from 1948 to 1954.
Benítez also served as president of the national association
of state universities from 1957 to 1958.10
By the late 1950s, Benítez’s relationship with PPD
leadership had begun to fray. Puerto Rico’s charismatic
and immensely popular governor, Luis Muñoz Marín,
suspected Benítez was molding a competing political
group at the university, and in 1957 Muñoz reported a
complete “loss of confidence” in his college administrator.11
By 1960 the two had reportedly reconciled, but in the
next decade they engaged in what the Washington Post
called a “distressing and undeclared feud.” The two
formidable personalities were likely more similar than they
imagined. Benítez, said a later governor, “was to higher
education what [Luis] Muñoz Marín was to politics.”12 In
1966 the insular legislature appointed Benítez university
president—a post which some observers described as less
influential. Benítez relinquished the seat five years later.13
After Muñoz Marín stepped down from the PPD in
the late 1960s, the new leadership nominated Benítez
for Resident Commissioner in the U.S. House of
Representatives in 1972. The PPD had lost elections across
the island four years earlier to the upstart pro-statehood
Partido Nuevo Progresista (New Progressive Party, or
PNP), but by 1972 the PPD had regrouped, and many
islanders again favored commonwealth status. Benítez’s
opponent in the general election was PNP incumbent Jorge Córdova-Díaz, a popular and ambitious candidate who
had transformed the office of Resident Commissioner. But
the PNP had come under heavy criticism for mismanaging
insular affairs, breathing new life into the all-important
status question. The general assumption was that any vote
for the PPD “meant a vote for commonwealth status and
permanent union with the United States.”14 The election
cycle that year was at all levels particularly and “untenably
partisan,” the San Juan Star lamented.15
“Benítez’s vision of this island,” wrote a political
commentator during the election, “is deeply rooted in
the era of the 40’s when he made his greatest political
and educational contributions to this island.”16 In the
1970s, as in the 1940s, Benítez favored a position of
“limited autonomy”—a stance that was distinctly at
odds with Córdova-Díaz’s and with the PNP’s platform
supporting statehood.17 Benítez reassured voters that all
“Puerto Ricans are entitled … to full participation and
equality of treatment in all federal welfare programs” and
then emphasized the Resident Commissioner’s unique
position in the House.18 Córdova-Díaz was known for
his personable legislative style, and Benítez was equally
popular for his “imagination, liberalism and intellectual
creativity” which, the writer of an editorial hoped, would
“help Puerto Rico to attain worldwide respect not merely
for its social and economic attainments but for its cultural
and human achievements as well.”19
With a huge voter turnout, Benítez won almost 51
percent of the ballots in the general election.20 Ever the
educator, Benítez promised to inform his new House
colleagues about the intricacies of Puerto Rico’s political
status. He also pledged to secure federal funding to help
alleviate the island’s “social problems.”21
Benítez was the first Resident Commissioner to
serve a full term under the new House Rules that were
implemented as a result of the Legislative Reorganization
Act of 1970, giving Resident Commissioners the right
to be elected to committees and to vote therein. During
the 93rd Congress (1973–1975), Benítez was assigned
to the Committee on Education and Labor given his
background at the Universidad de Puerto Rico. Benítez
was an animated speaker, reported the San Juan Star, with
a “distinctive oratorical style in that he often twisted his
body and arms into unusual shapes as he punctuated his
talks with quotes from Cervantes … Shakespeare, Ortega
y Gasset,” and other literary figures. “He was known for
his histrionic style,” the newspaper commented, “even
when reading from the dry Congressional Record in 1973
as resident commissioner.”22 In his opening remarks to the
House on January 30, 1973, Benítez began a rather lengthy talk on the U.S. military’s continued use of the sparsely
populated island of Culebra as a bombing range—an issue
that defined his first session in office—by addressing the
chamber in Spanish “to symbolize my deep feelings on
this occasion,” he explained.23 Puerto Rican Democrat
Herman Badillo of New York, who addressed the Resident
Commissioner as “Don Jaime” and who later became one
of his close advisors, said he was “delighted to have him
with us in the Congress.”24
Benítez immediately pushed for a solution to what he
called “the Culebran question.”25 With support from a
number of House Democrats, Benítez introduced H.R.
3224, seeking to hold the military accountable for promises
to end training missions on Culebra. Two years earlier
the navy had agreed to withdraw from the island, only to
reverse course a short time later.26 Benítez’s predecessor
had attempted to address this issue in 1972 but had run
out of time. Many Members supporting Benítez’s new
legislation openly sympathized with Culebra’s residents;
Bella Abzug of New York declared that the events in the
Caribbean demonstrated a “heartless attitude toward small
and powerless groups.”27 Benítez’s bill never made it out of
committee, but earlier in the month, Republican Senator
Howard Baker had introduced accompanying legislation (S.
156) charging the U.S. Navy with “a breach of faith with the
people of Puerto Rico.”28 With pressure from Benítez and
Baker, the outgoing Secretary of Defense stepped forward in
May 1973 and promised the navy would withdraw within
two years.29 The final decision to relocate the testing range,
Benítez said, “reinforces our faith in the basic integrity of
the American system with its profound commitment to the
fulfillment of understandings reached in good faith and in
the pursuit of human values.”30
Benítez kept a low profile for the rest of the 93rd
Congress, but in a rare floor address in late July 1973,
he spoke about the meaning and future of Puerto Rico’s
commonwealth. This became the foundation for his
singular legislative effort in the 94th Congress (1975–1977). Attempting to explain the intricacies of the island’s
status, Benítez asserted that the frequent confusion and
frustration experienced by both the United States and Puerto Rico was an important part of their association—an experiment in democratic self-governance, Benítez said,
that “continues to develop … from the needs, experiences,
vicissitudes, conflicts, achievements, adjustments,
contradictions, and aspirations inherent in 75 years of
close relationship.” Benítez asserted that the confederation
between the United States and Puerto Rico had been
allowed to develop without clear goals or boundaries,
and to rectify what he called a policy of “benign neglect,”
Benítez began working with the White House to improve
the federal-insular alliance.31
In the 94th Congress, Benítez continued to sit on
the Education and Labor Committee, but in light of his
recent effort to address Puerto Rico’s status, he was also
placed on the Interior and Insular Affairs Committee.
After introducing a handful of unsuccessful education and
revenue bills, Benítez submitted H.R. 11200, “a bill to
approve the Compact of Permanent Union Between Puerto
Rico and the United States,” on December 17, 1975.32 It
was the most direct attempt to influence the state of Puerto
Rican-U.S. relations since the constitutional convention
(in which Benítez also played a role) in 1951. Puerto Rico
would gain a greater measure of self-governance, including
the prerogative to enter into binding agreements with
other countries on a case-by-case basis pending presidential
approval. The bill would also allow Puerto Rico one voting
Member for both the U.S. House of Representatives and
the U.S. Senate and would impose mainland standards for
minimum wage at some point in the future. Finally, the
bill would create a six-member commission to study and
improve the federal-insular relationship.33
Benítez’s bill, though actively pursued in the House,
received a cold reception from executive branch officials.
It was referred to the Subcommittee on Territorial and
Insular Affairs, which held four days of hearings in both
Washington and San Juan, with testimony from more than
60 witnesses. The subcommittee approved H.R. 11200 on
August 23, 1976, but as the 94th Congress began to wind
down, the bill never made it out of the full committee.
Looking ahead, Benítez hoped his measure authorizing
the compact of a permanent union between the United States and Puerto Rico would “be one of the first pieces of
legislation to be approved by the 95th Congress.”34
After his disappointment in the House, Benítez
returned to Puerto Rico to campaign for re-election against
a surging Baltasar Corrada-del Río, the PNP candidate for
Resident Commissioner. Benítez had taken a calculated
gamble by introducing H.R. 11200, believing it had the
support of a majority of the islanders. But in his four years
in Washington, the PNP had again surged in popularity,
largely in reaction to the island’s poor economy. In a
huge Election Day turnout—more than 1.44 million
people voted for Resident Commissioner—Benítez lost
to Corrada-del Río by about 3 percent (42,002 votes).35
After the election, Benítez remained convinced that
federal-insular relations played a negligible part in the
outcome. “The fact is that the Commonwealth status has
become so much part and parcel of life that Puerto Ricans
don’t take it into account in their political decisions. As a
result,” Benítez concluded, “the election turned on the bad
condition of the Puerto Rican economy.”36
After his electoral loss, Benítez returned to the classroom,
teaching at the Inter-American University in Puerto Rico
from 1980 to 1986 and consulting with PPD leaders
when he was asked to. He retired to Condado Lagoon,
outside Old San Juan, and spent a large part of his time in
the city’s bookstores or in his personal study. He suffered
a stroke in 1994. On May 10, 2001, he died at Auxilio
Mutuo Hospital of respiratory complications. “He was an
extraordinary Puerto Rican,” the island’s governor said, “a
great educator and outstanding among our people, for his
personal and professional attributes.… The debt the Puerto
Rican people owe to Benítez has no limits, because there
are so many things we have to thank him for.”37
View Record in the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress
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