(S. B. 2274) (No. 146) (Approved June 26, 2003) AN ACT To grant a life pension of twenty-four thousand (24,000) dollars per year to Puerto Rican writer Enrique A. Laguerre in acknowledgement of his transcendental contribution to our people; to order the Secretary of the Treasury to disburse said pension; and to apportion the necessary funds for the payment of same. STATEMENT OF MOTIVES One of the most influential persons in the study and acknowledgement of our life as a people with his writing is Enrique Laguerre. Born May 3, 1906, in Aceitunas Ward, Moca, this illustrious Puerto Rican has captured the essence of the commonplace in our society and reconstructed, chapter by chapter, our collective history with his pen. Novelist, dramatist, storyteller, and teacher, in Enrique A. Laguerre we find a human being that is concerned about understanding his fellow men. My philosophy, as he states, is not that I exist, but rather that I coexist. I cannot live by myself without my neighbor; as a consequence, my greatest concern is my neighbor, how I can relate to him. Therefore, character descriptions garner importance in his narrative, especially descriptions of their moods and emotional traits, as well as their motivations. His novel La Llamarada, which deals with the setting of sugar cane towns in the Island, is considered the most important novel of the Thirty s Generation. According to many critics, Enrique A. Laguerre sets the
standards for contemporary Puerto Rican narratives with the publication of this novel, which won first prize in the Puerto Rico Institute of Literature literary contest. His second novel, Solar Montoya, is about the agricultural setting, and the socioeconomic problems in that region. This novel won the Puerto Rico Institute of Literature s second prize. In the novel El 30 de febrero, the author transfers the setting to the urban zone: the San Juan ghetto, the college dormitories in Río Piedras, and an orphanage. With the publication of La Resaca, the author begins a new novelistic cycle, characterized by the historic, political, and social development of Puerto Rico at the beginning of the XIX th Century. It was followed by Los dedos de la mano, La ceiba en el tiesto, Cauce sin río, El fuego y su aire, and Los amos benévolos. In these the author used new narrative techniques, such as the internal monologue, retrospection, and cinematographic language. His career as a novelist, storyteller, essayist and dramatist, as well as of professor of Hispanic-American literature in the University of Puerto Rico, and founding member of both the Puerto Rico Academy of the Spanish Language and the Board of Directors of the Puerto Rico Institute of Culture, serve as evidence of a life completely dedicated to the service of the national culture. In 1975, the Puerto Rico Institute of Culture granted Laguerre the National Culture Award, and in 1985, the Puerto Rican Humanities Foundation declared him Humanist of the Year. In 1999, he was nominated for the Nobel Literature Prize. Mr. Laguerre s narratives recreate a world of historic, psychological, and sociological hues that sharply describe Puerto Rican reality, and the
historic evolution of a deeply Latin American and Caribbean people. In acknowledgement of his works, of the deep and transcendental contribution of his intellectual creations to the development and introspection of future generations of Puerto Ricans, the Legislative Assembly, which as always been committed to the disclosure and strengthening of our Puerto Rican cultural essence, grants a life pension to our national pride, Mr. Enrique A. Laguerre. BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF PUERTO RICO: Section 1.- A life pension of twenty-four thousand (24,000) dollars is hereby granted to Puerto Rican writer, Enrique A. Laguerre, in acknowledgement of his transcendental contribution to our people. Section 2.- In compliance with the purposes of this Act, the Secretary of the Treasury of Puerto Rico is hereby authorized and ordered to annually apportion and preferentially satisfy, from any unencumbered funds from the General Treasury Fund, the necessary funds to satisfy the life pension referenced in Section 1, upon approval of this Act. Section 3.- Effectiveness This Act shall take effect immediately after its approval.
CERTIFICATION I hereby certify to the Secretary of State that the following Act No. 146 (S.B. 2274) of the 5 th Session of the 14 th Legislature of Puerto Rico: AN ACT to grant a life pension of twenty-four thousand (24,000) dollars per year to Puerto Rican writer Enrique A. Laguerre in acknowledgement of his transcendental contribution to our people; to order the Secretary of the Treasury to disburse said pension; and to apportion the necessary funds for the payment of same, has been translated from Spanish to English and that the English version is correct. In San Juan, Puerto Rico, today 15 th of March of 2004. Elba Rosa Rodríguez-Fuentes Director