Roberto Sánchez Vilella
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| Roberto Sánchez Vilella | |
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January 2, 1965 – January 2, 1969 |
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| Predecessor: | Luis Muñoz Marín |
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| Successor: | Luis A. Ferré |
| Born: | February 19, 1913 Humacao, Puerto Rico |
| Died: | March 24, 1997 San Juan, Puerto Rico |
| Political party: | Popular Democratic Party |
| Profession: | Engineer |
| Spouse: | Jeannette Ramos |
Roberto Sánchez Vilella (February 19, 1913-March 24, 1997) was the second Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Sánchez Vilella successfully ran for governor on the 1964 elections for the PPD (Partido Popular Democratico, or Popular Democratic Party), after Luis Muñoz Marín, the then party leader, decided to step down as Governor after four terms in office.
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[edit] Education
Sánchez attended high school in Santurce. After graduation, he attended Ohio State University where he graduated with a degree in engineering in 1934. He then was a professor for a short time at the University of Puerto Rico.
[edit] Governor
After a long and distinguished career as city manager of the city of San Juan, Secretary of Public Works and Secretary of State, Sanchez-Vilella was handpicked by Governor Luis Muñoz Marín to run as the PPD's candidate for Governor in 1964. Sánchez won the election by a comfortable margin becoming the second democratically elected Governor of the island.
During his tenure, Sánchez tried to change his party's membership, urging a younger generation to rise in the party's organization. It could be argued that Sánchez was influenced by the youth movement that the island was experiencing countrywide during the 1960s, a period where many social areas in Puerto Rico, including television, music and sports, were being introduced to fresh, younger personalities.
Sánchez had public marital problems during his term; he divorced his wife in 1967 and married one of his close assistants, Jeannette Ramos-Buonomo, the daughter of the then Speaker of the House, Ernesto Ramos Antonini. This marked the first time a Governor married while holding the office.
His goals of revitalization and change led to a public break with former governor, Luis Muñoz Marín, who was still party leader. Because of this, the PPD nominated Luis Negrón López for Governor in the elections of 1968. Sánchez Vilella left the PPD and founded his own party, the short-lived Partido del Pueblo (The People's Party). While his new Party lost in the 1968 elections, it caused a considerable percentage of PPD voters to vote for him, indirectly helping Luis A. Ferré and his New Progressive Party to an upset win that year. Sánchez was blamed for the first loss in the history of the PPD. His relationship with former governor Muñoz Marín was severely strained, but the two friends mended their differences in the late 1970s.
In 1972, Sanchez made his third and last run for elective office when he obtained over 100,000 votes in his bid to become a representative-at-large, but lost when the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico certified the election of Puerto Rican Independence Party candidate Luis Angel Torres, who polled fewer than 150 votes, based on its interpretation of the Puerto Rico Constitution's rules regarding the election of at-large legislative candidates.
[edit] Retirement, death and legacy
After leaving La Fortaleza and his unsuccessful House bid in 1972, Sánchez Vilella lived a relatively quiet life, serving as a professor at the University of Puerto Rico's School of Public Administration, which after his death in 1997, at the age of 84, was named after him. The renowned Puerto Rican sculptor Tomas Batista created a bust in his honor.
In 1997, Governor Pedro Rossello signed into law a bill introduced by then senator Kenneth McClintock converting a major highway built by Sanchez Vilella between Ponce and Mayaguez into the "Roberto Sanchez Vilella Expressway", honoring not only his service as Governor but as Secretary of Public Works.
Sánchez Vilella has been harshly judged by history. His term was overshadowed by the legacy of predecessor and the loss of the PPD in the 1968 elections is still blamed on him. The PPD almost never mentions him as one of its former leaders. However, his son Roberto Sánchez Ramos, was appointed by Governor Sila Calderón as Solicitor General and was narrowly confirmed by the opposition-led Puerto Rico Senate as Secretary of Justice of Puerto Rico in 2005, after being appointed by Governor Aníbal Acevedo Vilá.
[edit] Route 66
A new Puerto Rican highway named in honor of Roberto Sanchez Vilella was inaugured on March 31, 2006.
| Preceded by: Luis Muñoz Marín |
Governor of Puerto Rico 1965-1969 |
Succeeded by: Luis A. Ferré |
| Governors of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico |
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| Luis Muñoz Marín • Roberto Sánchez Vilella • Luis A. Ferré • Rafael Hernández Colón Carlos Romero Barceló • Pedro Rosselló González • Sila Calderón • Aníbal Acevedo Vilá |
| Popular Democratic Party Gubernatorial Nominees | |
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| Muñoz Marín | Sánchez Vilella | Negrón López | Hernández Colón | Muñoz Mendoza | Acevedo | Calderón | Hernández Mayoral | Acevedo Vilá |
