Iglesias Family
Foundation

In "The Santiago Iglesias Case, 1901-1902: Origins of American Trade Union Involvement in Puerto Rico," published in The Americas, Vol. 24, No. 4 (Apr., 1968), William George Whittaker wrote that Iglesias, 'In the quiet of his jail cell, he composed a letter to the San Juan News, in which he declared:'

“My mission is most eminently American. For the organization of the working people, for their education, and for their liberty.”

— SANTIAGO IGLESIAS PANTÍN

Interesting Facts

He organized his first labor action when he was 12 years old.

When he was 14 years old, he stowed away on a ship, not knowing exactly where it was going. It ended up in Cuba.

He was arrested and imprisoned several times because of his union organizing because at that time it was illegal to “conspire to raise the price of labor.” 

He served in the Puerto Rican Senate for four consecutive terms from 1917 - 1932. He won his first election in a close race based upon a recount.

He was twice elected Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1932 and 1936. 

In 1915, he co-founded the first version of the Socialist Party in Puerto Rico. 

He founded and edited three labor journals: Porvenir Social (1898-1900), Union Obrera (1903-1906) and Justicia (1914-1925).

He survived at least two assassination attempts. In the last one he was wounded while giving a campaign speech but insisted on completing the speech before going to the hospital. From his hospital bed he said: “I am never armed. So, I am an ideal target for an assassin.”  

He named his eight daughters Victoria (Victory), Libertad (Liberty), América (America), Fraternidad (Fraternity), Igualdad (Equality), Justicia (Justice), Paz (Peace), Luz (Light) which was the subject of a “Ripley’s Believe It or Not” cartoon. 

The American Federation of Labor President Samuel Gompers was a close colleague and friend.

In 1943, a liberty ship was named after him, the S.S. Santiago Iglesias. 

There are numerous monuments and institutions named after him in Puerto Rico, including several schools, a housing development, a baseball field and a park in San Juan. 

Due to his enjoyment of horseracing, there was an annual horse race in Puerto Rico named after him, the Clásico Santiago Iglesias Pantin.

In 1940, the Puerto Rican government declared Labor Day, the first Monday of September, “Santiago Iglesias Pantin Day.”

He died on December 5, 1939, from malaria which he contracted while in Mexico as an envoy of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

In 1898, he was nearly killed by an American bomb while in a San Juan jail during the Spanish-American war.

He brought his mother from Spain to live in the family house in San Juan where she lived until her death in 1914.

He knew three U.S. Presidents: McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

From at least 1902, he was an early and strong promoter of women’s membership in unions.

He was a named defendant in a famous legal case (“The Santiago Iglesias case”) regarding the legality of labor organizing. While he was convicted at trial, he won on appeal.

He and his colleague Samuel Gompers helped expose an illegal arms operation in which boxes of arms were labeled as “sewing machines.”

Workers organized a massive demonstration of grief for him at his funeral in Puerto Rico. Some 200,000 people were said to have filed past the casket and 50,000 are said to have gridlocked the streets of Old San Juan during his funeral.

He had three nicknames: “Don Chago” (“Don” is a title of honor and “Chago” is short for Santiago), “El Gallego” (the one from Galicia, Spain) and “Mr. Liberty.”

SIP convinced the American Federation of Labor (AFL) to designate a coffee made in Puerto Rico as the “official coffee of the AFL.”

Never too busy to help a friend, on his way to a meeting, he stopped to help sell copies of his friend’s publication on the street.