Rafael MartÃÂnez Nadal (April 22, 1877 â July 6, 1941) was a Puerto Rican politician, senator, journalist, and businessman. He was the third president of the Senate of Puerto Rico, serving from 1933 to 1941.
Rafael MartÃÂnez Nadal was born on April 22, 1877, in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. He was an orphan from an early age, since his mother, EstebanÃÂa Nadal Freyre died hours after his birth, and his father, Rafael MartÃÂnez Santana, when he was only five years old. After that, he was raised in Maricao, Puerto Rico by his paternal aunts. He then studied in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
At the age of sixteen, his tutor sent him to Barcelona, Spain to study law. However, he interrupted his studies and went to live in Paris. He spent the next years between Paris, Madrid and Barcelona, where he was a businessman in fields as varied as bullfighting, meat distribution, theater production and coffee importation.
On August 13, 1904, MartÃÂnez Nadal returned to Mayagüez, where he dedicated to the business of coffee. He also became a journalist and joined the Puerto Rico Republican Party founded several years earlier by doctor José Celso Barbosa. In 1908 he founded the "El Combate" newspaper. In 1912, he moved to Ponce and began studying again, receiving his law degree. His practice became so prominent that, even decades later, many court observers quipped a popular rhyme in Spanish, "Temblaba la corte, temblaba el fiscal, temblaban los jueces, cuando llegaba MartÃÂnez Nadal" ("the court trembled, the DA trembled, the judge trembled, when MartÃÂnez Nadal arrived").
MartÃÂnez Nadal was elected in 1914 as a member of the Puerto Rico House of Delegates, the precursor of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives representing Ponce. As a member of the Republican Party of Puerto Rico, he was elected to the Senate of Puerto Rico in 1920.
When the Union Party joined the Republican Party in 1924 forming Alianza Puertorriqueña, MartÃÂnez Nadal left his party in disagreement. He then formed a party called the Partido Constitucional Histórico, aligning with the Socialist Party of Santiago Iglesias PantÃÂn. He was then reelected in 1924 and 1928.
After the Alianza disbanded, MartÃÂnez Nadal formed another party called the Republican Union, under his presidency. He was reelected in 1932 and was elected President of the Senate of Puerto Rico. He served as such until his death from cancer on July 6, 1941, in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. He was buried at Santa MarÃÂa Magdalena de Pazzis Cemetery in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
An expressway in Guaynabo is named after MartÃÂnez Nadal.