José M. Marxuach

José María Marxuach Echavarría, was born in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, in 1848, to Don Francisco Marxuach y Ferrer (son of Don Juan Marxuach i Cot and Doña Francisca Ferrer, merchants based in Mataró, Catalonia), and Doña Beatriz Amalia de Echavarría y Conti, originally from Santo Domingo and a descendant of the Venetian painter and poet Count D. Juan Bautista Conti. Following in the footsteps of his maternal uncle, Don José Rafael Echavarría Conti, José María traveled to Spain to study medicine at the University of Zaragoza, from which he graduated in 1871 with a licenciatura in medicine and surgery. After his return to Puerto Rico he worked as a general practioner in various towns on the island, including San Juan. In 1881 he was designated President of the Subdelegation of Medical and Surgical Sciences of Puerto Rico. In 1897 while holding the post of Primer Teniente de Alcalde or Deputy Mayor of San Juan he was selected for the post of Mayor ad interim, his mandate would begin 12 May and end 1 July 1897. During his administration the city's pedestrian and drainage infrastructure–and thus its general level of sanitation–was greatly improved. In the midst of the 1898 U.S. invasion, Dr. Marxuach assisted Dr. Coll y Toste (then serving as Vice-President of the Puerto Rican Red Cross), in treating the wounded during the fighting in San Juan. The following year General George W. Davis, the American Military Governor of Puerto Rico, allowed municipal elections to be held for the first time since the U.S. invasion. The Puerto Rican Republican Party enjoyed a sweeping victory in San Juan, as a result of which Manuel Egozcue Cintrón (a former leader of the Partido Incondicional turned pro-estatismo) become Alcalde; José María, who was a political associate of Egozcue, obtained a seat in the Municipal Council (Concejo Municipal). In 1900 José María was elected Mayor-President (Alcalde Presidente); this second mandate would begin 11 December and end 7 March 1901. The dual office, a result of Spanish reforms implemented in 1878, combined the executive duties of a municipal mayor with the parliamentary offices of a city council president. José María was succeeded in office by his predecessor, the veteran politician Egozcue Cintrón. Dr. Marxuach died in 1910.

One of his brothers, Dr. José Monserrate Marxuach Echavarría, was the father of Lieutenant Colonel Teófilo Marxuach (b. 1877) (remembered for being the first American soldier to fire against German forces during WWI) and Acisclo Marxuach y de Echavarría (b. 1895), honorary consul of Spain in Puerto Rico (1935), second Grand Master of the Order of Saint John the Baptist of Puerto Rico, and owner of one of the most important art and rare book collections on the island (including paintings by Ramón Atiles, José Campeche, Luis Paret y Alcázar, and Francisco Oller; as well as Spanish incunabula).