José Coll y Cuchí

José Coll y Cuchí
Founder of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party
Born	January 12, 1877 Arecibo, Puerto Rico
Died	July 2, 1960 Santurce, Puerto Rico
Nationality	Puerto Rican
Political party	Puerto Rican Nationalist Party
Movement	Puerto Rican Independence
Spouse(s)	Josefina Moya
Children	Luis, Enrique, Adela, Josefina, Francisco, Alberto, Daniel, Maria and Adrian
Notes
1. His grandson Eduardo Morales Coll was President of the Puerto Rico Atheneum for 30 consecutive years and the President of The Institute of Puerto Rican Literature for 20 consecutive years.He is also an Academic of the Puerto Rico Academy of the Spanish Language.

José Coll y Cuchí (January 12, 1877 – July 2, 1960) was a lawyer, writer and the founder of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. He was a member of a Puerto Rican family of politicians, educators and writers.

Coll y Cuchí was born in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. His father was Cayetano Coll y Toste, a historian who in 1913 was named the "Official Historian of Puerto Rico" and his mother Adela, was the daughter of José Cuchí y Arnau former mayor of Arecibo. His family sent him to private schools for his primary and secondary education. In 1896, Coll y Cuchí's family sent him to Spain where he earned his degree in law from the University of Barcelona. During his stay in Spain, he became interested in politics and became involved with the Puerto Rico's independence movement.

When Coll y Cuchí returned to Puerto Rico, he found himself with a totally different political situation. The island, which once belonged to the Spanish Crown, was now a territory of the United States. This came about as part of the Treaty of Paris as a consequence of the outcome of the Spanish–American War.

In 1904, he joined the Puerto Rican Republican Party and was elected to the Puerto Rican Chamber of Delegates. Believing that Puerto Rico's identity as a nation was threaten by the Foraker Law, he decided to join the Puerto Rican Union Party headed by Antonio R. Barceló and was re-elected to the Chamber of Delegates in 1908. As member of the Chamber, he led the fight against the Foraker Law, also known as the Organic Act of 1900, which established a civilian government in the island. The new government had an American governor and executive council appointed by the President of the United States.

By 1919, Coll y Cuchí felt that the Union Party wasn't doing enough for the cause of Puerto Rico and together with some followers departed from the party and formed the Nationalist Association of Puerto Rico in San Juan. By the 1920s there were two other pro-independence organizations in the Island: the Nationalist Youth and the Independence Association. The Independence Association was founded by José S. Alegría, Eugenio Font Suárez and Dr. Leopoldo Figueroa in 1920. Under Coll y Cuchi's presidency, the party was able to convince the Puerto Rican Legislature Assembly to approve an act that would permit the transfer of the mortal remains of Puerto Rican patriot Ramón Emeterio Betances from Paris, France to Puerto Rico. Betances' remains arrived in San Juan, Puerto Rico on August 5, 1920 and a funeral caravan organized by the Nationalist Association transferred the remains from the capital to the town of Cabo Rojo where his ashes were interred by his monument.