Rafael Arrillaga Torrens | |
Office: | Speaker of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives |
Term Start: | 1943 |
Term End: | 1944 |
Office2: | Member of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives from the Manatí District |
Term Start2: | 1940 |
Term End2: | 1944 |
Birth Date: | April 16, 1913 |
Birth Place: | Añasco, Puerto Rico |
Death Date: | 2006 |
Alma Mater: | College of William & Mary (BA) Yale School of Medicine (MD-PhD) |
Occupation: | Doctor, author and politician |
Profession: | cardiologist |
Rafael Arrillaga Torrens (April 16, 1913 – 2006) was a Puerto Rican politician and medical doctor.
He was born in Añasco, Puerto Rico on April 16, 1913. He attended primary and secondary school in his hometown and in Mayaguez. He earned a B.A. in mathematics and physics from the College of William & Mary, in Williamsburg, Virginia in 1932, and obtained his PhD degree in medicine from the Yale School of Medicine in 1936.[1]
Torrens returned to Puerto Rico and settled in San Juan to a start his private practice in cardiology and simultaneously started a political career. In 1940 Torrens elected to the House of Representatives of Puerto Rico in the Manatí district and in 1943 was elected Speaker of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives and served until 1944. He was affiliated with the Independence party of Puerto Rico.[2]
Torrens retired from politics and returned to medicine at the Professional Hospital in Santurce and worked as the director of the Center for Advanced Studies of Puerto Rico and the Caribbean. He passed away in 2006 at age 92.
Torrens authored a number of books, many on philosophical thought, which were published in Madrid, Argentina and Mexico:[3]