Lionel Fernández Méndez
| Lionel Fernández Méndez | |
|---|---|
| Member of the Puerto Rico Senate from the Guayama district |
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In office 1949–1972 |
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| Governor | Luis Muñoz Marín |
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In office Member of the Constitutional Assembly of Puerto Rico for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico – 1952 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born | January 24, 1915 Cayey, Puerto Rico |
| Died | February 17, 1998 (aged 83) San Juan, Puerto Rico |
| Political party | Popular Democratic Party (PPD) |
| Spouse(s) | Ana Usera |
| Children | Ana Milagros (Lindy) and Lionel Julio |
| Alma mater | Georgetown University Law School |
| Occupation | Politician, Senator, Attorney |
Lionel Fernández Méndez (January 24, 1915 – February 17, 1998) was an attorney and Puerto Rican politician. He was a member of the Constitutional Assembly that created the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (1951–1952). He was a senator for the Popular Democratic Party from 1949 to 1972. He was a member of Phi Sigma Alpha.
He was born in Cayey, Puerto Rico. His father was Benigno Fernandez Garcia, and his mother Maria Luisa Mendez Vazquez. He grew up in Cayey and in San Juan, when his father became U.S Attorney General, and his family lived in the official residence designated within La Fortaleza, the Governor's Mansion in Old San Juan.
His father, Attorney Benigno Fernandez Garcia, whose statue honoring him presently stands at the Cayey town Plaza, was his major inspiration, and led his path into politics, law and public service. Fernandez Garcia was one of the major players and important political figures of the 20th century in Puerto Rico. He graduated from Georgetown University Law School in Washington, D.C, and practiced as Attorney in San Juan, Cayey and Ponce. He was elected Representative from Cayey to the House of Representatives of the Puerto Rico Legislature in 1917 and in 1928 for several terms, while Jose De Diego was Speaker of the House, and he was then the House Vice-Speaker. His father, Benigno, also founded the Colegio de Abogados de Puerto Rico (Puerto Rico Bar Association) in 1933, and was also at one time Mayor of Cayey from 1924 to 1928, and in 1941 the Secretary of Labor of Puerto Rico, under Governor Rexford Tugwell.
Benigno Fernandez Garcia, was appointed as the first Puerto Rican U.S. District Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico in 1934, by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. As U.S District Attorney, he litigated the famous "500 Acre Cases", all the way to the United States Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., in order to regain control of the vast landholding of many major U.S. corporations mostly sugar companies, which monopolized large acres of land in Puerto Rico. These corporations were in violation of the land holding limitations statutes of the Foraker Law, the law that had been enacted by the U.S. Congress to govern Puerto Rico after the Spanish–American War's triumph by the United States, and whereby Puerto Rico was surrendered by Spain as war booty by the Treaty of Versailles. These major corporations blatantly exceeded the allowable holding of 500 acres of land, and repatriated out of Puerto Rico their vast profits, exploiting the poor laborers and the land for decades, and with time they became known as "the absent capital", which Fernandez Garcia legally successfully confronted in the "500 Acre Insular Cases".
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