The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07.
Hostos, Eugenio María de
(h´ny mär´ä d´sts) (KEY) , 1839–1903, Latin American philosopher, sociologist, writer, and political and educational reformer, b. Puerto Rico, educated in Spain. He advocated a federation of the Antilles, including Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic, and devoted his life to seeking the political independence of Cuba and Puerto Rico. In Santo Domingo (1879–88) he founded the first normal school and introduced advanced teaching methods. As professor in the Univ. of Chile, he was instrumental in having women admitted. He is widely known throughout Latin America as a publicist of civic reforms, as a rationalist in ethics who believed that “to be civilized and to be moral is the same thing,” and as a writer of sober, graceful, and didactic prose. He wrote approximately 50 volumes, among which are La peregrinación de Bayoán (1863), a political novel; Moral social (1888); Lecciones de derecho constitucional (1887); and a superb essay, Hamlet (1873).
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