Francisco Vassallo (1789 - 20 December 1849) was Mayor of Ponce, Puerto Rico, in 1820 (ending 2 May 1820Ilia del Toro Robledo. Actas del Cabildo de Ponce: 1812-1823. Gobierno Municipal Autónomo de Ponce. Ponce, Puerto Rico. 1993. (Comisión Puertorriqueña para la Celebración del Quinto Centenario del Descubrimiento de America y Puerto Rico en Conmemoración del Encuentro de Dos Mundos.) pp.78-79.) and 1832.Municipio de Ponce: Alcaldes en su Historia. Puerto Rico Encyclopedia. Fundación Puertorriqueña para las Humanidades. 2018. Accessed 2 May 2018. Retrieved 9 July 2009.
Biography Vassallo y ForésBenefactores y hombres notables de Puerto Rico: Bocetos biográficos-críticos con un estudio sobre nuestros gobernadores generales -- Obra exornada profusamente con hermosos fotograbados. (Volume II) Eduardo Neuman Gandia. Ponce, Puerto Rico: Establecimiento Tipográfico "La Libertad". 1896-1899. Accessed 13 June 2019. had been a soldier in Spain's War of Independence, a conflict between French and Spanish forces that took place from 1807 to 1814. He had been taken prisoner of war in Nantes. He arrived in Puerto Rico in 1816. Once in Puerto Rico, he left the military and immersed himself into writing and politics. Soon after his arrival he married and had a son whom he named Francisco.Eduardo Neumann Gandia. Benefactores y hombres notables de Puerto-Rico : bocetos biográficos-críticos con un estudio sobre nuestros gobernadores generales: obra exornada profusamente con hermosos fotograbados. Calle Sol #3, Ponce, Puerto Rico: Establecimiento Tipográfico "La Libertad". 1896. Volume II, p. 68. In 1821 Vassallo was the military commander for Puerto Rico's southern region after Puerto Rico's governor, Brigadier General Gonzalo Arostegui y Herrera, divided the island into five commanding regions.Emilio J. Pasarell. Esculcando el Siglo XIX en Puerto Rico. Barcelona: M. Pareja. 1967. p.108.
First mayoral term (1820) Vassallo is remembered as the mayor who orchestrated the expulsion out of Puerto Rico of Ponce resident Lorenzo Matias Ras because, after consultation with the other residents of the town, he was considered an "undesirable" person to the community.Ivette Perez Vega. Las Sociedades Mercantiles de Ponce (1816-1830). Academia Puertorriqueña de la Historia. San Juan, PR: Ediciones Puerto. 2015. p. 82.
On 27 February 1820, a large fire that "almost destroyed the early Ponce settlement" took place, prompting Governor Miguel de la Torre to order that "every male from 16 to 60 years old must become a [volunteer] firefighter".Vida, Pasión y Muerte a Orillas del Río Baramaya. Luis Antonio Rodriguez Vázquez. Ediciones Arybet. Ponce, Puerto Rico. p. 19. Second Edition. 2010. . Accessed 19 May 2016. The fire destroyed 106 "of the best homes in town."Verdadera y Auténtica Historia de la Ciudad de Ponce. Eduardo Neumann. 1913. (In Spanish) Reprinted by the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña in 1987. Page 194.Puerto Rico. Cuerpo de Bomberos: Historia, Datos Históricos. Retrieved 30 November 2009. Also in 1820, the first known division of the Ponce territory into barrios took place.Eduardo Questell Rodriguez. Historia de la Comunidad Bélgica de Ponce, a partir de la Hacienda Muñiz y Otros datos. Ponce, Puerto Rico: Mariana Editores. 2018. p.13. Barrios de Ponce. Antepasados Esclavos.(From: Pedro Tomás de Córdoba. Memorias geográficas, históricas, económicas y estadísticas de la Isla de Puerto Rico.) Retrieved 19 June 2012. Vassallo ordered the firing of the cannon atop Cerro del Vigía to alert the town dwellers to the fire. The fire was so devastating that 12 days later Puerto Rico governor Salvador Meléndez Bruna ordered the streets in Ponce to be widened before any rebuilding was allowed to begin.Mariano Vidal Armstrong. Ponce: Notas para su Historia. San Juan, Puerto Rico: Oficina de Preservación Histórica de Puerto Rico. Segunda Edición. 1986. p. 23.
Second mayoral term (1832) He was mayor from 1 January 1832 until 31 December 1832. Little is known about the administration of the municipality during this second (and last) mayoral term, as there are no Acts in the Municipality of Ponce for that year.Mariano Vidal Armstrong. Ponce: Notas para su Historia. San Juan, Puerto Rico. Second Edition 1986. p. 79.
Death and legacy Vassallo Fores died in Ponce on 20 December 1849.Eduardo Neumann Gandia. Benefactores y hombres notables de Puerto-Rico : bocetos biográficos-críticos con un estudio sobre nuestros gobernadores generales: obra exornada profusamente con hermosos fotograbados. Calle Sol #3, Ponce, Puerto Rico: Establecimiento Tipográfico "La Libertad". 1896. Volume II, p. 68. There is a street in Urbanización Las Delicias of Barrio Magueyes in Ponce named after him.
See also
List of Puerto Ricans List of mayors of Ponce, Puerto Rico
Notes
References