Word: governors
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...next year Rex Tugwell was appointed Governor and, teamed with Muñoz, began what became known as Puerto Rico's Little New Deal. Some of the laws behind it were already on the statute books; Tugwell and Muñoz breathed life into them. Among the important agencies that went into operation were the industrial-development and farm-development corporations, and the Puerto Rico Planning, Urbanizing and Zoning Board. The Land Authority tackled the job of enforcing a 40-year-old law limiting holdings of real estate by corporations to 500 acres...
...Real Issue. Muñoz never took his eye off the political ball. He won a smashing legislative victory in 1944, and by 1948 he was a shoo-in for Governor. In both campaigns he told his people that their old obsession about political status, i.e., whether they should demand U.S. statehood or national independence, was not a valid issue. The real issue, he insisted, was the social and economic welfare of the Puerto Rican people...
...early campaigning days, Muñoz often trekked around in a pajama coat or open-necked shirt. "Putting on a necktie," he says, "alters a man's whole character." He worked odd hours, thought nothing of sitting up all night in a good political discussion. As Governor, he has modified many of his old habits, and now usually turns up in public looking clean but rumpled in a seersucker suit with a sober four-in-hand tie. He puts in regular office hours, and during the legislative session, sometimes worked an 18-hour day. During inauguration week, when...
...does not feel at home in La Fortaleza, the government palace which the 16th Century Spaniards intended to be a fort. "La Fortaleza," he says, "is beautiful, but it's not really a place to live or work in. It's for an old Spanish governor, writing a letter to the king-with a quill pen." He prefers Jajome, the Governor's summer residence in the hills north of Ponce, or his own rented ($52 a month) cottage at Sabana liana, twelve miles outside San Juan...
...hearty appetites, Don Luis eats everything. If he has a favorite dish, it is the second helping. Fabulous tales are told of his capacity for alcohol (an old Washington acquaintance says he once saw Muñoz down 26 Scotch & sodas in an evening). But as Governor he has tapered off. Nowadays he takes only two or three straight shots of rum or brandy as an appetizer, and dilutes his wine with water. Muñoz, a busy chain-smoker (Lucky Strikes), has lately surprised his friends by breaking the endless succession of cigarettes with an occasional cigar...