New Tides in Puerto Rican Politics: The Future of the World's Oldest Colony
The Latinx Law Student Association and Seattle University School of Law invite you to a distinguished lecture by Juan Dalmau RamÃrez, the respected Puerto Rican lawyer and politician, titled "New Tides in Puerto Rican Politics: The Future of the World's Oldest Colony," with a reception and light refreshments to follow.
Event time
Tuesday, April 9
Distinguished Lecture: 4:30-5:30 p.m.
Reception: 5:30-6 p.m.
Event location
Room 110, Sullivan Hall, Seattle University
901 12th Avenue
Seattle, WA 98122
206-398-4000
About Juan Dalmau Ramírez
Ramírez is currently one of the most renowned and respected leaders of the Puerto Rican independence movement.
In 1995 he obtained his BA in Political Science from the Río Piedras campus of the University of Puerto Rico. During that time he was president of the Political Science student organization at the UPR. In 1998 he got his Juris Doctor degree. He was also editor of the University of Puerto Rico law review and he represented the university internationally to establish academic ties between the UPR Law Review and other law schools.
In 1999 he clerked for the Honorable José Andreu García, Chief Justice of the Puerto Rico Supreme Court. That same year he taught the Introduction to Constitutional Law course at the University of Puerto Rico.
The year 2000 was seminal in Juan Dalmau’s life and put him on the path that he still walks today. That year he got his Master of Laws degree at Harvard University. When he returned to Puerto Rico, he joined the staff of pro-independence senator Manuel Rodríguez Orellana as a legislative assistant. He then joined the fight to expel the U.S. Navy from Vieques, and on July 2nd he was arrested for civil disobedience on the island alongside more than 100 other members of the Puerto Rican Independence Party. He served 33 days in prison and, just like the rest of the Party’s civil disobedients, he never acknowledged the jurisdiction of the U.S. Federal Court in Puerto Rico.
After that intense year, in 2001 he became part of the Puerto Rican Independence Party’s Political Committee, and in 2002 he became Secretary General of the Party. In 2003 he was named the Party’s commissioner in the Puerto Rico Commission on Elections, becoming the youngest person ever in that role.
In 2011, at the Puerto Rican Independence Party’s general assembly on October 23, he was selected as the Party’s candidate for governor in the 2012 elections.
In 2015 he was recruited by the Interamerican University Law School as Professor of Administrative Law. That same year, at the December 13 general assembly, he was selected as the Puerto Rican Independence Party’s at-large Senate candidate in the 2016 elections. He was elected with the third-highest vote total of any candidate for Senate.
During his term as senator and as his party’s legislative leader, he wrote dozens of bills to support vulnerable populations; against the Fiscal Control Board; in favor of self-determination and independence; and to address Puerto Rico’s fiscal, political, and social crises.
In 2020 he was once again the Puerto Rican Independence Party’s candidate for Governor. Under the slogan of “Patria Nueva,” or “A New Homeland,” he attracted voters from every political ideology in Puerto Rico, increasing the Party’s share of votes for Governor from 2% in the previous election to 14%. He became the first candidate to achieve that level of growth in vote share.
Juan Dalmau is currently Secretary General of the Puerto Rican Independence Party and a professor at the Interamerican University Law School. Politically, just as he did throughout his previous campaign, he continues to visit every corner of Puerto Rico to see and hear first-hand the needs of the people.