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Show KNOWYOUR Njj' NEIGHBOR CPA. a EUCENIO MARIA DE HOSTOS, WEST INDIAN It h;i.s been said of Eugenlo de I ronton that he reflected as few other men the essence of his background back-ground and of his times and he wan - in the words he himself applied ap-plied to Hamlet "a moment of the human spirit," a moment of resolution and courage which not even the hazard of birth in an impoverished im-poverished sea-girt Caribbean colony col-ony could extinguish." Hostos is, indeed, an outstanding representative represen-tative of the best that the 19th century and the West Indies could produce and his Influence made itself it-self felt far beyond the boundaries bounda-ries of this continent. Eugenio Maria do Hostos was born of I'uertorican parents on Jan. 11, 18.'(9 in the small town of Maya- to the United States where a rev- olution to free Cuba was being prepared. "Although this meant the breaking of all ties with Spain, with many of his friends, and the downfall of all his hopes and ambitions, am-bitions, Hostos never wavered." He believed that the freedom of Cuba would pave the way for independence in-dependence in the other Spanish Antilles and for the establishment of a Federated Antillian Republic, including Cuba, Haiti, Santo Domingo Do-mingo and Puerto Rico. To this effect he undertook, after the failure fail-ure of a revolutionary expedition to Cuba, a series of travels through Lain America "seeking to awaken sympathy for the cause" and in the same time asserting himself as a distinguished thinker and remarkable re-markable man. "He spent four years (1870-74) in this crusade for liberty, and wherever he went used his influence influ-ence for the good of that country. A philosopher, a sociologist, an eminent critic, also writing an occasional oc-casional novel, he was primarily an educator and it has been said of him that he taught all South America." In spite of the fact guciz, Puerto Rico. In his veins also flowed, through maternal and paternal grandparents, Cuban and Dominican blood and the three countries were united In his heart their Independence from Spanish yoke becoming later the chief concern con-cern of his life. After receiving his first schooling in his native island, is-land, ho was sent to Bilbao, Spain to complete hjs secondary education. educa-tion. In 1857, at the age of 18, he entered the law school of the University Uni-versity of Madrid, from where he never graduated. At that time already al-ready he was referred to as "an Antillean named Hostos, a brilliant bril-liant and forceful young man of very radical opinions," and, at that time too, he was rapidly becoming aware of the political and social problems of Puerto Rico and the other Spanish-speaking West Indies. In-dies. These were years in which Spain's possessions in the Carrib-bean Carrib-bean were being governed unfairly unfair-ly and arbitrarily by military power pow-er and all manner of abuses committed. com-mitted. With other distinguished and progressive men, Hostos tried to obtain a betterment of the Spanish regime and an improvement improve-ment in Spain's treatment of her colonies, but when he saw frustrated frus-trated his hope of having the West Indian islands given greater autonomy, au-tonomy, he left Spain and came that Hostos always gave the utmost ut-most of his effort to patriotic work organizing committees, writing editorials, lecturing, he never ceased to serve the countries coun-tries which he visited. In Peru he found a newspaper through whose columns he waged campaigns in favor of ill-treated and badly paid workers and laborers. While in Chile he defended women's rights to enter universities besides founding found-ing several newspapers and educa-in educa-in 1873, he published his famous tional societies. It was there that, essay on Hamlet, considered the best on the subject in Spanish. "In Santo Domingo he founded and directed the first Normal School, wrote textbooks and drew up school legislation. In Argentina, Hostos defended energetically in the press the Transandine railway project which he had been the first to propose. And when the railway did come into existence, the first locomotive that crossed the Andes bore the name of Eugenio Maria de Hostos. In Venezuela, in his native na-tive Puerto Rico, he contributed to raising the standards and developing develop-ing the systems of public education." educa-tion." All these countries, as well as Brazil and Colombia, knew him as a brilliant journalist and an outstanding political personality. During the last 25 years of his life, Hostos was above all an educator edu-cator and a teacher while continuing continu-ing his wanderings as a political refugee. He finally made his home i in Santo Domingo where he spent ! his last days and died at the age s of 64 on Aug. 11, 1903. "By the i services he rendered the new re-1 re-1 publics of the South and by his j continental spirit, Hostos pushed i back the borders of his country to ! become a Citizen of the Ameri-, Ameri-, cas," as much as of the West In-I In-I dies. |