Eugenio María de Hostos
Eugenio María de Hostos y Bonilla was a prominent Puerto Rican intellectual and activist born into a wealthy family in the early 19th century. He pursued his education in both Puerto Rico and Spain, where he became involved in political movements advocating for the independence of Spanish colonies in the Caribbean. Hostos is best known for his critical stance against Spanish colonialism, as exemplified in his 1863 novel, *La peregrinación de Bayoán*. After moving to New York, he dedicated himself to the independence of Cuba and broader efforts for self-determination across Spanish-held territories.
Throughout his life, Hostos traveled extensively across Central and South America, where he made significant contributions to education and social reform, advocating for women's access to higher education and improving the treatment of laborers. His influence extended to the development of educational curricula in multiple countries, including Chile and the Dominican Republic, where he ultimately settled and passed away in 1903. Hostos's legacy as a thinker and reformer endures, particularly in education, where his principles of critical thinking and curriculum development continue to impact Latin American educational practices today. His work is foundational to what is referred to as Hostian thought, reflecting his deep commitment to social justice and educational advancement.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Eugenio María de Hostos
Puerto Rican-born activist, educator, and writer
- Born: January 11, 1839
- Birthplace: Rio Cañas, Mayagüez, Puerto Rico
- Died: August 11, 1903
- Place of death: Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
A teacher, journalist, essayist, editor, and moral philosopher, Hostos spent most of his adult life traveling throughout the Western Hemisphere. In his inspirational lectures, writings, and activities, he campaigned for a variety of worthy causes and was an especially strong advocate for the independence of his homeland, Puerto Rico.
Early Life
Eugenio María de Hostos y Bonilla (yew-JEHN-ee-oh mah-REE-ah deh OH-stohs ee bo-NEE-yah) was the descendant of Castilians who migrated to Cuba in the early eighteenth century. He was the sixth of eight children born into a wealthy family, the son of plantation owner Eugenio María de Hostos y Rodriguez and María Hilaria de Bonilla y Cintron.
Hostos attended elementary school in San Juan, Puerto Rico, before being sent to Bilbao, Spain, at the age of thirteen to continue his education. After graduation from high school in 1856, he studied law at the Central University of Madrid, where he became involved in politics with fellow Puerto Rican students who agitated for the independence of Spanish possessions in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean. While at the university, he published a social-political novel, La peregrinación de Bayoán (Bayoán’s Pilgrimage, 1863), which was critical of Spanish colonialism.
When a new Spanish constitution, adopted in 1869, made no provision for Puerto Rico’s independence, Hostos left Spain for New York City. There he worked for Cuban independence, the first strategic step in what he hoped would be a movement for self-determination for all Spanish-controlled islands in the Caribbean. Toward that end, he edited and wrote for La revolución, a newspaper that supported Cuban autonomy, and corresponded with Cuban patriot José Martí. Hostos soon became frustrated with Cuban leaders in New York, who preferred for the United States to annex the island, and left the city to undertake an ambitious, solo campaign.
Life’s Work
For the next four years, Hostos traveled through Central and South America, raising awareness and drumming up support for the cause of independence and the abolition of slavery. He lived off the sales of the many essays, articles, and books he wrote, and from stipends earned as teacher, lecturer, or editor. In Peru, he publicly condemned the harsh treatment of Chinese laborers— gaining concessions for them in the process— and was influential in the development of the country’s educational system.
In Chile, as a university professor, he was instrumental in persuading the government to permit women to attend college. In Argentina, Hostos argued successfully for the benefits of a trans-Andean railway, and a grateful Argentine government named a locomotive for him.
Hostos returned to New York in 1874 and was involved in organizing several unsuccessful revolutionary schemes in Puerto Rico and Cuba. In 1875, he moved to the Dominican Republic, where he founded several newspapers. The following year, he went to Venezuela to help improve education. While there, he married Cuban native Belinda Otilia de Ayala Quintana; the couple had five children between 1879 and 1892. For ten years, Hostos remained in the Dominican Republic, teaching law at the Professional Institute, founding Santo Domingo’s first teachers’ college and a night school, and writing and lecturing extensively.
In 1889, following an appeal from the Chilean government, Hostos traveled to Valparaiso to help revamp the country’s educational system. For a decade, he worked tirelessly, writing textbooks on law and grammar, teaching law at the University of Chile, and creating curricula. In 1899, after the conclusion of the Spanish-American War, Hostos was selected as a delegate to meet with U.S. President William McKinley to plead for Puerto Rico’s independence. His appeal, however, was ignored, and the United States annexed the island as a territory.
Hostos afterward traveled to Puerto Rico for the first time in many years to found the Municipal Institute. In 1900, he returned to Santo Domingo, where he was appointed inspector general of public education. He remained in the Dominican Republic until his death in 1903 and was buried in the National Pantheon.
Significance
One of the great thinkers of his time, Hostos was both a man of letters and a man of action. Although he did not live to see his dream of Antillean autonomy fulfilled— Puerto Rico remains a U.S. territory to this day— his life and work have greatly affected the philosophy, sociology, and psychology of Latin America. His impact has been most notable in the field of education, in which he encouraged learning for women, forged solid curricula founded on sciences and liberal arts, and emphasized critical thinking rather than rote learning. Many of his writings are still used in Latin American classrooms. His writings (encompassing everything from children’s stories to Shakespearean critiques to learned treatises) form the basis for what is known as Hostian thought.
Bibliography
Burke, Janet, and Ted Humphrey, eds. and trans. Nineteenth-Century Nation Building and the Latin American Intellectual Tradition. Indianapolis, Ind.: Hackett, 2007. This is a collection of translated readings from the works of some of the greatest Latin American thinkers of the nineteenth century— including Hostos, Martí and others— regarding such issues as race, economics, education, and international relations.
Mendez Mendez, Serafin, and Gail Cueto. Notable Caribbeans and Caribbean Americans: A Biographical Dictionary. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2003. This reference work contains a brief but highly detailed biography of patriot, educator, and humanist Hostos, and provides an overview of his work, complete with bibliographical notes.
Ramos, Julio. Divergent Modernities: Culture and Politics in Nineteenth-Century Latin America. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press Books, 1999. Analyzes the links among history, literature, culture, and the development of national identity in the formation of modern Latin America.