Content area
Full Text
ABSTRACT
A scientific commission was formed in 2001 by the Puerto Rican government to identify the remains of Ramón Power y Giralt, the country's first diplomat and member of the 1812 Spanish Court of Cádiz. In 1813, after signing the Spanish Constitution claiming independence from Napoleon Bonaparte, Power died and was buried in Spain. Nearly 200 years later, the commission sought to repatriate Power to Puerto Rico. Multiple lines of evidence were employed to identify his skeleton, including osteological profiles matched with available historical information, stable isotope analyses, and mtDNA compared with samples from the Power family vault in Puerto Rico. [Key words: Ramón Power, forensic anthropology, mtDNA, Court of Cádiz, stable isotopes, repatriation]
Positive identification of skeletonized remains is a challenge faced by forensic anthropologists in contemporary medico-legal investigations. Sometimes, these specialists are asked to examine historic remains with the intention of identifying specific individuals (Owsley et al. 2006; Teixeira 1985; Ubelaker 1996). Applying modern forensic investigative techniques to remains from the past can be challenging due to the frequent absence of detailed personal information useful for comparison with the skeletal record. Under the best of conditions, variable bone preservation or historic events can make the task even more difficult, requiring considerable effort to reconstruct even a partial skeleton.
Such was the task requested of a commission of historians and scientists formed by the Puerto Rican government. The commission was asked to identify the remains of Ramón Power y Giralt, Puerto Rico's delegate to the 1812 Spanish Court of Cádiz and an important dignitary in that political body. Almost two hundred years after his death the government intended to commemorate Power's contributions to Puerto Rican history through the possible repatriation of his remains.
Ramón Power y Giralt
Ramón Power y Giralt was born on October 27, 1775. His mother, Maria Josefa Giralt Santaella, of Spanish decent and born in Spain, married young to a man 23 years her senior. Power's father, Don Joaquín Ramón Power y Morgan, was Spanish-born of Irish, French, and Spanish decent (Blanco 1932). Their children, three sons and two daughters, were born in Puerto Rico (Libro Copiador 26: 248; Torrejon Chavez 2011).
Ramón Power was formally educated, and in 1787 he accompanied his brother to Spain to study under...