Manuel V. Domenech

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Engineer Manuel V. Domenech, born March 23, 1869 in Isabela, Puerto Rico, graduated in 1888 from Lehigh University in eastern Pennsylvania.[1]. Upon his return to Puerto Rico, he became active in politics and was a member of the first Puerto Rico House of Representatives created after the Spanish American War of 1898. Elected in 1900, he was reelected in 1902 and 1904.

During 1904, he served as Mayor of Ponce, Puerto Rico, at the time the island's second most populated city after the capital city of San Juan. In 1914, he was appointed to serve as Commissioner of the Interior, becoming one of the first Puerto Ricans to hold a presidentially-appointed Puerto Rico Cabinet position. He was subsequently appointed as Treasurer of Puerto Rico, a position he held from 1930 to 1935. On several occasions, he served as acting Governor of Puerto Rico.

A very active member of the Republican Party of Puerto Rico, he attended the 1928 Republican National Convention as an alternate delegate. Ironically, his great grand nephew, Francisco Domenech, is very active in contemporary politics, but in the Democratic Party. Another relative, Douglas Domenech, his grand nephew, is the Deputy Chief of Staff of the United States Department of the Interior and a Bush appointee to the White House Task Force on Puerto Rico's Political Status.

Manuel V. Domenech died in 1942 in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

After his death, a major avenue in Hato Rey, Puerto Rico was named after him.