Juan Luis Boscio Desprez (21 June 1896Death Certificate. No. 819. (Area 152. Year 1980. Register 252.). Departamento de Salud de Puerto Rico. Division del Registro Demográfico. Accessed 3 February 2019. – 3 September 1980Death Certificate. No. 819. (Area 152. Year 1980. Register 252.). Departamento de Salud de Puerto Rico. Division del Registro Demográfico. Accessed 3 February 2019.) was a Puerto Rican merchant and Mayor of Ponce, Puerto Rico from 1961 to 1964. During his tenure as mayor, in 1962, a major shopping mall opened in the city called Centro del Sur which, at the moment of its opening was "the most modern in the Caribbean".Carmelo Rosario Natal. Ponce En Su Historia Moderna: 1945-2002. Published by Secretaría de Cultura y Turismo of the Government of the Autonomous Municipality of Ponce. Ponce, Puerto Rico. 2003. p. 58.
Early years Boscio Desprez was the son of Juan Bautista Boscio-Cofresí and Eugenia Desprez Boudon. He was born on 21 June 1896 in Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico. He married Herminia Monllor on 23 December 1922Certificate of Marriage. Certificate issued on: 2 January 1923. Ponce, Puerto Rico. Accessed 3 February 2019. and they had 3 children: Roberto (b. abt. 1925), Jose Luis (b. abt 1926), and Gladys (b. abt. 1928).Juan Luis Bossio (sic) in the Puerto Rico, Social and Population Schedules, 1935-1936. Ponce, Puerto Rico, Barrio Segundo. Household number 294. Line Number: 75. Accessed 3 February 2019.See also "1930 United States Federal Census."
Politics In 1944, he was selected to conclude the term of Senator Ramón Barreto Pérez. He was a member of the Puerto Rico Senate in 1944 and chaired two Senate commissions, the Labor Commission; and the Police and Civil Service Commission. In the 1960 elections, he was elected Mayor of the city of Ponce, a position he held from 1961 to 1964.https://senado.pr.gov/past-presidents/juan-luis-bo
Philanthropist Juan Luis Boscio was one of the founders of the Albergue de Niños de Ponce (Ponce Children's Shelter), a non-profit organization dedicated to the providing shelter for homeless children. The shelter building opened in 1947 on the north side of Calle Villa in Barrio Canas, between Calle Cementerio Civil and Calle Central.Ciudad de Ponce y Playa. (Map) Antonio Calcionado, Jr., Archivo Digital Nacional de Puerto Rico. (Archivo General de Puerto Rico Mapoteca. Colección José Enamorado Cuesta.) March 1940. Accessed 15 October 2018. Boscio also donated $10,000 from his own capital to help pay for the project.Luis Fortuño Janeiro. Album Histórico de Ponce (1692-1963). Page 172. Ponce, Puerto Rico: Imprenta Fortuño. 1963. Albergue de Niños later moved to the south side of Calle Villa, past Jaime L. Drew School, east of PR-500.
Death Boscio Deprez died on 3 September 1980 from an "aortic insufficiency and heart failure."Death Certificate. No. 819. (Area 152. Year 1980. Register 252.). Departamento de Salud de Puerto Rico. Division del Registro Demográfico. Accessed 3 February 2019. He was buried at Cementerio Católico San Vicente de Paul in Ponce.Death Certificate. No. 819. (Area 152. Year 1980. Register 252.). Departamento de Salud de Puerto Rico. Division del Registro Demográfico. Accessed 3 February 2019.
Indictment of son In the early 1980s, Juan Luis Boscio Monllor, son of Juan Luis Boscio Desprez, (aka, Juan Luis Boscio, Jr.) was president of the board of directors of the Ponce Municipal Development Authority (PMDA) during the tenure of mayor José G. Tormos Vega. His son, Boscio Monllor, was indicted on 31 October 1985, by a federal grand jury for extortion, together with mayor Tormos Vega. He was tried on 27 May 1988.959 F.2d 1103. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Jose TORMOS-VEGA, Defendant, Appellant. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Juan Luis BOSCIO, Defendant, Appellant. (Nos. 88-2235, 89-1253 and 89-2022. United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit. 21 Jan. 1992.) Retrieved 2 December 2009.
See also Ponce, Puerto Rico List of Puerto Ricans
References
Further reading Fay Fowlie de Flores. Ponce, Perla del Sur: Una Bibliográfica Anotada. Second Edition. 1997. Ponce, Puerto Rico: Universidad de Puerto Rico en Ponce. p. 12. Item 59. Juan Diez de Andino. "Estampa Ponceña." Andanzas y perfiles. San Juan, Puerto Rico. s.n. 1969. pp. 144–147. (CUC/CUTPO/PUCPR/RUM) Fay Fowlie de Flores. Ponce, Perla del Sur: Una Bibliográfica Anotada. Second Edition. 1997. Ponce, Puerto Rico: Universidad de Puerto Rico en Ponce. p. 173. Item 880. Carnaval de Ponce: programa. Ponce, Puerto Rico. 196x? - . Includes photos. (Archivo Histórico Municipal de Ponce, AHMP; Colegio Universitario Tecnológico de Ponce, CUTPO) Fay Fowlie de Flores. Ponce, Perla del Sur: Una Bibliográfica Anotada. Second Edition. 1997. Ponce, Puerto Rico: Universidad de Puerto Rico en Ponce. p. 332. Item 1657. Ponce. Informe anual de actividades administrativas y fiscales sometido a la Honorable Asamblea Municipal de Ponce por el Honorable Alcalde de Ponce, año fiscal 1963-64. Ponce, Puerto Rico. 1964? - . Includes photos. (Archivo Histórico Municipal de Ponce, AHMP; Colegio Universitario Tecnológico de Ponce, CUTPO)