Ramón Elices Montes

Ramón Elices Montes (1844 – ca. 1915) was Mayor of Ponce, Puerto Rico, from 16 July 1886Socorro Girón. Ponce, el teatro La Perla y La Campana de la Almudaina. Gobierno Municipal de Ponce. 1992. pp. 210, 231. to May 1887.Ponce. Encyclopedia Puerto Rico. Retrieved 30 December 2011.

Mayoral term On 10 July 1886, Elices MontesAccording to Fay Fowlie de Flores (Ponce, Perla del Sur: Una Bibliográfica Anotada. Second Edition. 1997. Ponce, Puerto Rico: Universidad de Puerto Rico en Ponce. p. 327. Item 1636. ), "Elices" was Ramon Elices Montes's second name, not his surname. However, another authority, Ileana M. Rodriguez Silva (Silencing Race: Disentangling blackness, colonialism, and national identities in Puerto Rico. Palgrave Macmillan. 2012. p. 96. ) refers to "Elices" as the mayor's first surname. was appointed mayor of Ponce by the Central Government of the Province of Puerto Rico,Socorro Girón. Ponce, el teatro La Perla y La Campana de la Almudaina. Gobierno Municipal de Ponce. 1992. Page 210. and his appointment became effective on 16 July of that year.Socorro Girón. Ponce, el teatro La Perla y La Campana de la Almudaina. Gobierno Municipal de Ponce. 1992. p. 231. He is best remembered for having published a 14-page municipal status report where he laid out the state of municipality in eight areas: Municipal personnel, Municipal records, Treasury, Source of the municipal debt, Plan to liquidate the municipal debt, Education, Health, and Public works.Socorro Girón. Ponce, el teatro La Perla y La Campana de la Almudaina. Gobierno Municipal de Ponce. 1992. Pages 210–224.

Acting as mayor during the General Assembly of the Partido Autonomista Puertorriqueño that took place at Teatro La Perla in 1887, he wrote a voluminous "Memoirs" of the event, which he submitted to the Governor.Félix Pubill. La Administración Municipal de Ponce: Memoria de las gestiones practicadas en la Administración Municipal de Ponce, por los Alcaldes y Ayuntamientos que ha tenido desde el año 1882 al 1900. Ponce, Puerto Rico: Tipografía José Picó Matos. 1900. p. 23.

In the 1880s, the city of Ponce faced a significant influx of black and brown migrants looking for work. Montes sought to suppress their movements, as he considered them "vagrants" and a threat to public order. He authorized the municipal police to perform almost constant surveillance of taverns, brothels, and gambling houses, keeping an eye out "for this sort of elements". This policy led to several uprisings, some notorious: "Unable to recognized that state suppression fueled popular uprisings, Elices depicted the autonomists as dangerous radicals."Ileana M. Rodriguez Silva. Silencing Race: Disentangling blackness, colonialism, and national identities in Puerto Rico. Palgrave Macmillan. 2012. p. 96. Elices Montes was a member of the Unconditional Spanish Party, and he blamed the opposition, the Liberal Reformists.

He is remembered for his interest in improving public education, having order numerous textbooks for the students in Ponce public schools. He was also able to repay old debts the municipal government was carrying over from previous administrations. His focus, though, was public education, to the point that maintenance of municipal streets and the development of public works suffered significantly. As a result, he was severely criticized by the press. He reacted by requesting a 4-month sick leave which was approved and he traveled to Spain for treatment. Teniente de alcalde (a sort of deputy mayor) Ermelindo Salazar, per the legal protocol in place at the time, filled in while Elices Montes was gone. Some time afterwards Elices Montes presented his resignation to the post of mayor from overseas. Salazar was a businessman and had other significant commitments which did not allow him the attend to the mayoral administration the way he wanted to, but addressed as many urgent matters as his time allowed him to until the next Alcalde appointed by the Governor, Fernando Diez de Ulzurrún y Somellera, took over.Félix Pubill. La Administración Municipal de Ponce: Memoria de las gestiones practicadas en la Administración Municipal de Ponce, por los Alcaldes y Ayuntamientos que ha tenido desde el año 1882 al 1900. Ponce, Puerto Rico: Tipografía José Picó Matos. 1900. p. 25.

Ramón Elices Montes

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