Jos? Celso Barbosa, a doctor and a politician, was born in Bayam?n, Puerto Rico in 1857. He received his medical degree from the University of Michigan. He was a member of the Autonomous Party led by Baldorioty de Castro. In 1899, he founded the Republican Party of Puerto Rico that advocated statehood for the island. He was a member of the Executive Cabinet from 1900 to 1917 and a member of the Senate from 1917 to 1921. He died in San Juan in December of 1921.