| Casimiro Berenguer | |
|---|---|
| Born | 4 March 1909 Ponce, Puerto Rico |
| Died | 27 February 2000 Dominican Republic |
| Nationality | Puerto Rican |
| Organization | Puerto Rican Nationalist Party |
| Religion | Spiritist[1] |
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Casimiro Berenguer Padilla was a Puerto Rican nationalist who witnessed the Ponce Massacre. He was the military instructor of the Cadetes de la República who received permission from Ponce Mayor Tormos Diego to celebrate a parade on March 21, 1937, in commemoration of the abolition of slavery and to protest the jailing of its leaders, including Pedro Albizu Campos.[2] The parade resulted in the police riot known as the Ponce Massacre.
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Casimiro Berenguer Padilla was born in Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico. His parents were Alejandro Berenguer, a mason, and Eugenia Padilla, a housewife. At age 6, he emigrated to the Dominican Republic with his parents, where he spent his childhood and part of his youth. He also learned to trade as a cobbler there. In 1929, he returned to Puerto Rico and established a shoe repair shop in Ponce.[3]
In Ponce, Berenguer set up his shoe repair shop at Marina and Aurora streets, in at a building used by the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party to celebrate its meetings in that city. Police carried out the 1937 Ponce Massacre, under the instructions of US-installed governor Blanton Winship, outside this building.[4]
Berenguer was accused of murder by the government of the U.S.-installed governor Blanton Winship in relation to the Ponce Massacre. The other nationalists also accused of murder by the government of Blanton Winship in relation to the massacre were Luis Castro Quesada, Julio Pinto Gandía, Lorenzo Piñeiro, (Interim President and Interim Secretary General of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party), Plinio Graciani, Tomás López de Victoria, Martín González Ruíz, Elifaz Escobar, Luis Angel Correa, Santiago González, and Orlando Colón Leyro. A grand jury was convened, and the accused were tried, but all the nationalists, including Berenguer, were released.[5]
On September 28, 1938, Berenguer was convicted with other nacionalistas in connection with the attempted assassination of governor Blanton Winship during the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the U.S. military invasion of Puerto Rico. The other nationalists convicted were Tomás López de Victoria, Elifaz Escobar, Santiago González, Vicente Morciglio, Leocadio López, Juan Pietri, Guillermo Larrogaiti, and Prudencio Segarra.[6]
Berenguer's remains were brought from the Dominican Republic and enterred at the Panteon Nacional Roman Baldorioty de Castro in Ponce on the 70th anniversary of the Ponce Massacre, March 21, 2007.[7][8]