Fuster Berlingeri, Jaime B. (Jaime Benito), 1941-2007

FUSTER, Jaime B., a Resident Commissioner from Puerto Rico; born January 12, 1941, in Guayama, Puerto Rico; attended parochial schools; B.A., Notre Dame University, 1962; J.D., University of Puerto Rico Law School, 1965; LL.M., Columbia University Law School, 1966; Law and Humanities Fellow, Harvard University, 1973-1974; professor of law, 1966-1979, and dean of law, 1974-1978, University of Puerto Rico; United States Deputy Assistant Attorney General, 1980-1981; president, Catholic University of Puerto Rico, 1981-1984; elected as a Popular Democrat to the Ninety-Ninth Congress for a four-year term and reelected to the succeeding term until his resignation on March 4, 1992 (January 3, 1985-March 4, 1992); caucused with the Democratic Party; associate justice, Supreme Court of Puerto Rico; died on December 3, 2007, in Guaynabo, P.R.

<p>Described as “a serious tennis player and a voracious reader,” Jaime Fuster brought a scholarly demeanor to Capitol Hill during his House tenure of a little less than two terms. With his academic background, Fuster focused his legislative energies on educational opportunities in Puerto Rico and the mainland. But he spent most of his time in the House vigorously defending the Estado Libre Asociado (Free Associated State, or ELA)—the commonwealth relationship between the United States and Puerto Rico—against advocates for statehood, whom he accused of indulging in “rhetorical flourishes and pie-in-the-sky prophecies.” As the first Puerto Rican chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), Fuster appreciated the growing caucus’s diversity. “We Hispanics are peoples of all colors and all hues,” he boasted. “We Mexican-Americans, Cuban- Americans, Puerto Ricans and others—we are all, first and foremost, Hispanic brothers and sisters with a common heritage, with common problems and with common challenges. Far more binds us together than separates us.”</p>

<p>Jaime B. Fuster was born on January 12, 1941, in Guayama, on the southeast coast of Puerto Rico. Fuster attended Saint Anthony High School in Guayama, graduating as valedictorian in 1958. He earned a B.A., magna cum laude, from Notre Dame University in South Bend, Indiana, in 1962. He earned a J.D. from the Universidad de Puerto Rico in 1965 and a specialized postlaw degree from Columbia University a year later. Fuster began working as a law professor at the Universidad de Puerto Rico in 1966. He received a fellowship in law and the humanities from Harvard from 1973 to 1974. When he returned to Puerto Rico, he served as dean of his law school through 1978. Throughout his tenure, Fuster took a particular interest in interamerican policy throughout Latin America, traveling extensively throughout the region. In 1980 he left the university to serve as a U.S. deputy assistant attorney general. The next year he started a fouryear tenure as president of Pontificia Universidad Católica de Puerto Rico. Fuster married Mary Jo Zalduondo, and the couple raised two children, María Luisa and Jaime José.</p>

<p>In the wake of the 1980 election—in which the U.S. Supreme Court decided the makeup of the Puerto Rican house of representatives after two years of electoral dispute—the 1984 election appeared to be another close referendum on the island’s status in relation to the United States. Three parties—the Partido Popular Democrático (Popular Democratic Party, or PPD), the Partido Nuevo Progresista (New Progressive Party, or PNP), and the Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño (Independence Party, or PIP)—represented three respective options for Puerto Rican status: commonwealth status, statehood, and independence. Fuster accepted the PPD nomination for Resident Commissioner after PNP Resident Commissioner Baltasar Corrada del-Río declared his candidacy for mayor of San Juan. Running unopposed in the PPD primary in June, Fuster sought the post of Resident Commissioner as a political ally of gubernatorial candidate Rafael Hernández Colón’s. He vowed to “improve the over-all tenor of Puerto Rican relations in Washington,” which he believed had been “bruised” by incumbent PNP Governor Carlos Romero-Barceló’s accusations that Puerto Rico remained a “colony.” Fuster’s primary objectives were to defend the ELA and to maintain the flow of federal dollars to the island.</p>

<p>Jaime Benito Fuster Berlingeri (January 12, 1941 – December 3, 2007) was a politician who served as an Associate Justice to the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico. Justice Fuster, along with Justice Liana Fiol Matta, was considered the leading liberal voice in the Puerto Rico Supreme Court.</p>

<p>He obtained his Bachelor's Degree from the University of Notre Dame in 1962 and his Law Degree form the University of Puerto Rico in 1965. He later obtained a Master's Degree in Law from Columbia Law School in 1966. He then received a fellowship in law and humanities at Harvard University. In 1985, he received a Doctorate, Honoris Causa, from Temple University.</p>

<p>In 1979, Fuster was named Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the United States. He held that position until 1981. In 1984, he was elected Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico to the United States Congress. During his tenure (1985–1992), he served a term as Chair of Congressional Hispanic Caucus. In both terms, he served on the Committee on Banking, Finance, and Urban Affairs, and on the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs. In Congress, he was a strong advocate for educational and youth programs. He supported numerous laws and bills to give state and local governments assistance for youth service projects and programs aimed at preventing substance use. He also supported the establishment of a Children, Youth, and Families Administration, as well as the establishment of a federal child care program. He sponsored legislation to increase social security funds for families with blind, aged, and disabled dependents.</p>