Jewish Immigration To Puerto Rico - 19th Century

19th Century

By the 19th century, the Spanish Crown had lost most of its possessions in the Americas. Two of its remaining possessions were Puerto Rico and Cuba, both of which were demanding more autonomy and had pro-independence movements. The Spanish Crown issued the Royal Decree of Graces (Real Cédula de Gracias) which was originated August 10, 1815, with the intention of attracting European settlers who were not of Spanish origin to the islands.

The Spanish government, believing that the independence movements would lose their popularity, granted land and initially gave settlers "Letters of Domicile". However, those Europeans who were of the Jewish and Protestant faith were excluded from direct acquisition of state land since it was expected of the settlers to swear loyalty to the Spanish Crown and allegiance to the Roman Catholic Church. The opening of new lands to Catholics resulted in some sales of existing cultivated lands to others. This, however, did not keep people of Jewish descent from settling in Puerto Rico. Among the Puerto Rican Jews who lived in Puerto Rico in the 19th century was Mathias Brugman.

Mathias Brugman (1811–1868) was the son of Pierre Brugman from Curaçao of Dutch-Jewish ancestry and Isabel Duliebre from Puerto Rico. His parents met and married in New Orleans, Louisiana where Brugman was born, raised and educated. The Brugman family moved to Puerto Rico and settled in the City of Mayagüez where Brugman met and married Ana Maria Laborde. He opened a colmado (grocery store) and became rather successful, only to lose a good part of his fortune attempting to grow coffee. Like many other residents of Puerto Rico at the time, he resented the political injustices practiced by Spain on the island. This led him to become a believer in the cause of the Puerto Rican independence movement.

Brugman admired independence advocates Ramón Emeterio Betances and Segundo Ruiz Belvis. Together with his son, Hector, he joined them in a conspiracy to revolt against Spain and formed a revolutionary committee code named: "Capá Prieto" (a tree known as Spanish Elm, Ecuador Laurel, cypre or salmwood and used for its wood to build ships, among other things). On September 23, 1868, Brugman and his son participated in the short-lived revolt against Spanish rule known as El "Grito de Lares". Brugman and his son refused to surrender to the Spanish authorities and eventually were executed. After the failed revolution, the Spanish Courts passed the "Acta de Culto Condicionado" (Conditional Cult Act) in 1870.

The law was an attempt to attract more settlers who would be faithful to the Spanish Crown by granting the right of religious freedom to all who wished to worship a religion other than Catholicism. Even so, the first synagogue was not established until after Puerto Rico was ceded by Spain to the United States at the end of the Spanish–American War in 1898. In the late 1800s during the Spanish-American War many Jewish American servicemen gathered together with local Puerto Rican Jews at the Old Telegraph building in Ponce to hold religious services.Many of those Puerto Rican Jews were descendants of migrants from France, Netherlands, Saint-Barthélemy and Curaçao with surnames that include Bravo, Beauchamp, Duprey, Morenu, Ledeé, Leduc, and Levy.