Andrés Grillasca Salas was a Puerto Rican

Puerto Rican people

A Puerto Rican is a person who was born in Puerto Rico.Puerto Ricans born and raised in the continental United States are also sometimes referred to as Puerto Ricans, although they were not born in Puerto Rico...

 politician and Mayor

Mayor

In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....

 of Ponce, Puerto Rico

Ponce, Puerto Rico

Ponce is both a city and a municipality in the southern part of Puerto Rico. The city is the seat of the municipal government.The city of Ponce, the fourth most populated in Puerto Rico, and the most populated outside of the San Juan metropolitan area, is named for Juan Ponce de León y Loayza, the...

 from 1941 to 1956. He was born in the neighboring town of Adjuntas in 1888. Until the recent administration of Rafael Cordero Santiago

Rafael Cordero Santiago

Rafael Cordero Santiago – better known as Churumba – was the Mayor of Ponce, Puerto Rico from 1989 to 2004. Many considered him as a synonym of Ponce, being baptized as the Greatest Lion in reference to the city's nickname of The Lion City of Ponce...

, Grillasca Salas had the distinction for being the longest serving mayor of the city (16 years).

Political life

Grillasca defeated future governor of Puerto Rico Luis A. Ferre

Luis A. Ferré

Don Luis Alberto Ferré Aguayo was a Puerto Rican engineer, industrialist, politician, philanthropist, and a patron of the arts. He was the third Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico from 1969 to 1973, and the founding father of the New Progressive Party which advocates for Puerto Rico...

 in the bid for mayor of Ponce in 1940.

Juan Morel Campos Music Institute

In 1947 Grillasca established the Ponce Free School of Music. The school is now known as the Juan Morel Campos

Juan Morel Campos

Juan Morel Campos , sometimes erroneously spelled Juan Morell Campos, was a Puerto Rican composer, considered by many to be responsible for taking the genre of danza to its highest level.-Early years:...

 Music Institute.

Paquito Montaner Stadium and Juan Pachins Vicens Auditorium

Grillasca Salas also had an interest in sports, and in 1949 he inaugurated the Francisco Montaner Stadium

Francisco Montaner Stadium

The Estadio Francisco Montaner is a multi-use stadium in Ponce, Puerto Rico. It is home to the Leones de Ponce team of the Puerto Rico Baseball League and FC Leones of the Puerto Rico Soccer League . The stadium has a capacity of 16,000 seats...

 in Ponce. He also established a fund for the creation of a second new sports venue in Ponce. To accomplish it, he established a special contribution for every sports activity held in the city. Still short of funds, the project was not developed for many years. However, during the administration of mayor Eduardo Ruberté Bisó

Eduardo Ruberté Bisó

Eduardo Ruberté Bisó was a Puerto Rican politician and Mayor of Ponce, Puerto Rico from 1964 to 1968.Ruberté Bisó is best remembered for the inauguration of the new city cemetery in the El Yeso sector of the city, near the community of Jaime L. Drew...

 (1964–1968), new interest on the project developed and construction started on what was then called the Ponce Coliseum. It was later renamed the Juan "Pachín" Vicens Auditorium

Juan Pachín Vicéns Auditorium

The Auditorio Juan Pachín Vicéns , formerly, Coliseo Juan Pachín Vicéns, is a sports venue in the city of Ponce, Puerto Rico...

, in honor of the greatest figure in Ponce basketball.

Abolition Park

Grillasca Salas is also remembered for building, in 1956, what is to this day the only monument

Monument

A monument is a type of structure either explicitly created to commemorate a person or important event or which has become important to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, or simply as an example of historic architecture...

 in the Antilles

Antilles

The Antilles islands form the greater part of the West Indies in the Caribbean Sea. The Antilles are divided into two major groups: the "Greater Antilles" to the north and west, including the larger islands of Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola , and Puerto Rico; and the smaller "Lesser Antilles" on the...

 dedicated to the abolition of slavery. The monument is now surrounded by a park

Park

A park is a protected area, in its natural or semi-natural state, or planted, and set aside for human recreation and enjoyment, or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. It may consist of rocks, soil, water, flora and fauna and grass areas. Many parks are legally protected by...

 with graceful gardens and is located next to an outdoors acoustic

Musical acoustics

Musical acoustics or music acoustics is the branch of acoustics concerned with researching and describing the physics of music – how sounds employed as music work...

 amphitheater, and is called Abolition Park

Abolition Park

Parque de la Abolicion is a city park in Ponce, Puerto Rico. The park is the only park in the Caribbean dedicated to commemorating the abolition of slavery.-Location and features:...

.

See also

• Ponce, Puerto Rico
  Ponce, Puerto Rico
  Ponce is both a city and a municipality in the southern part of Puerto Rico. The city is the seat of the municipal government.The city of Ponce, the fourth most populated in Puerto Rico, and the most populated outside of the San Juan metropolitan area, is named for Juan Ponce de León y Loayza, the...
  
  
• List of famous Puerto Ricans
• List of mayors of Ponce, Puerto Rico

Additional reading

• El Cacique, by Riggin Dapena Vidal. 212 pages. Published by Milagros G. Mayoral, 1996. (LCCN: 97121968) Coamo, P. R. : Imprenta Costa.