Hernán Padilla

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Hernán Padilla
Puerto Rico House of Representatives
In office
January 2, 1968 – January 2, 1977
Personal details
Born
May 5, 1938 (1938-05-05) (age 85)

Mayagüez, Puerto Rico
Political party
Alma materUniversity of Maryland School of Medicine (MD)
Military service
AllegianceUnited States United States of America
Branch/service
Years of service
  • 1954–1987 ARNG
  • 1987–1993 USAR
Rank Coronel

Dr. Hernán Padilla Ramírez (born May 5, 1938) is a retired physician and former two-term Mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Biography

Graduated from the

Fort Meade Maryland. He was sent to active duty during the Gulf War and assigned to Walter Reed Army Medical Center. In 1967, he became politically active, participating in the pro-statehood campaign leading to the July 27 political status plebiscite, as a leader of Estadistas Unidos (Statehooders United), a non-partisan group founded by long-time Statehood Republican Party gubernatorial candidate Luis A. Ferré
. On August 20, 1967, at the assembly in Carolina, Puerto Rico at which the organization was dissolved, Padilla and other party leaders proposed the creation of a new political party that would eventually be known as the New Progressive Party (NPP) or Partido Nuevo Progresista (PNP) in Spanish.

In January, 1969 and after the NPP's electoral triumph and his own election as a state representative, in spite of being a freshman, he was selected as House Majority Leader for the 1969-1973 term. After the NPP's defeat in 1972 and his own reelection, he served as Minority Whip until 1977.

U.S. Conference of Mayors
, being the first Hispanic in that position. Hernan Padilla built the San Juan's Municipal Tower in Hato Rey, San Juan's Central Park, the Pedrin Zorilla Coliseum, Paseo de Diego, and others installations. He also created San Juan's Municipal police department.

Reelected as mayor

Popular Democratic Party return to power, through the election to an unprecedented non-consecutive second term, of Rafael Hernández Colón
as governor.

After 1984, he returned to medical practice as a nephrologist, serving with the National Capital Area for Kaiser Permanente. In 1991 he was the subject of one television advertisement by Kaiser that was regularly aired across the United States.

Padilla channelled his post-1984 political energies through national initiatives, serving as chairman for the US Council for Puerto Rico Statehood (USCPRS). He has rejoined the NPP and was the surprise keynote speaker at the party's August 2010 convention in Río Grande, Puerto Rico, at the invitation of party president, Gov. Luis Fortuño, who considers Padilla one of his mentors.

Padilla now lives in

Fraternidad Fi Sigma Alfa since 1956.[1]

In 2009, he was appointed to represent the

Puerto Rico Public-Private Partnerships Authority
that regulates public-private partnerships in Puerto Rico.

Dr. Padilla writes a weekly column in the largest circulation newspaper in Puerto Rico,

El Nuevo Dia, about current political, ideological, economic and administrative issues in Puerto Rico. He also writes a column for El Sentinel
, a Spanish weekly publication of the Sun Sentinel in South Florida.

References

  1. ^ Hernández, Rosario (July 20, 1993), R. de la C. 1310 (PDF) (in Spanish), House of Representatives of Puerto Rico, p. 2, archived from the original (PDF) on September 27, 2011, retrieved September 1, 2010
House of Representatives of Puerto Rico
Preceded by
Majority Leader of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives

1969–1973 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
Minority Whip of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives

1973–1977 		Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico
1977–1985 		Succeeded by
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