Martínez Ramírez, gov’t adviser and devoted champion of the arts, dies at 72
By PEGGY ANN BLISS
Special to The Star
José Roberto Martínez Ramírez, an adviser to governors on historical and political matters and a tireless promoter of the arts in a developing commonwealth, was widely regarded as a Renaissance man in a flourishing industrial society.
Martínez served in multiple public roles, including director of the Puerto Rico Office in Washington, D.C., director of the island’s European Office in Madrid, and executive director of the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration (1989-1992). He was also a close adviser to former Gov. Rafael Hernández Colón, whose memoir “Vientos de Cambio” (“Winds of Change”) he helped shape as a key editor.
Martínez died last Wednesday at 72. A memorial service will be held Friday at 6 p.m. at Perpetuo Socorro Catholic Church, 704 Martí St. in Miramar. According to a statement issued by several organizations he once led, Martínez will “spend eternity surrounded by newspapers, intellectual roundtables and accomplices.”
He leaves behind his wife and three children, all of whom inherited his passion for history and culture.
Martínez was hailed as a lifelong intellectual with a privileged mind for both government and the arts by the Luis Muñoz Marín Foundation and the Felisa Rincón de Gautier Foundation, on whose board he also served. Admirers across the island remembered him as someone who believed deeply in balancing cultural development with governmental progress.
In retirement, as in his many years of service to the Popular Democratic Party, Martínez rarely missed a concert. He was often accompanied by his wife, Setare Milantchi, a professor of languages and a native of Iran, who also completed graduate studies at Yale. Throughout his career representing Puerto Rico in Europe and Washington, he worked to promote the island’s industrial and social growth under Luis Muñoz Marín, Puerto Rico’s first elected governor and architect of Operation Bootstrap and Operation Serenity.
Martínez later served nearly two decades as director of the Luis Muñoz Marín Foundation in Trujillo Alto. In that trailblazing role, he digitized historical documents, opened the late governor’s home to the community, and organized free Sunday afternoon concerts that helped spread Puerto Rican music and arts. The foundation continues to grow under his influence as a botanical garden and promoter of human values inspired by Muñoz Marín and his wife, Inés María Mendoza.
A hometown boy
Born in the Miramar neighborhood of San Juan, Martínez grew up immersed in music and attended nearby Perpetuo Socorro Academy, known for its fierce dedication to the arts. It was there he earned the nickname “Billi,” which still brings a smile to his former classmate Karen Schneck Tió, the longtime executive administrator of Pro Arte Musical. Now in its 95th year, Pro Arte remains the island’s oldest and most prestigious musical society, where Martínez served as treasurer and board member until recently.
“He was very much loved and a real defender of all kinds of music, including our own, which we are especially honoring this year as a tribute to Casals’ 150th birthday,” Schneck told The Star.
An almost full house at Pro Arte’s Sunday concert dedicated its first performance of the season to their fallen member with a prayer and rousing applause.
Martínez’s love of music and sense of service also endeared him to his widowed neighbor Jean Cornelius, founder and president of the British Commonwealth Society and longtime supporter of the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra and Union Church of San Juan.
“He was always alert to my being alone, constantly encouraging me to attend concerts when I began to lose enthusiasm for music, which is my life,” Cornelius said.
Educator Margarita Benítez, who has held top advisory roles in the federal government, remembered Martínez as “a genius of reading who read like a historian and a detective -- and who knew that truth rarely fits on a single page.” She praised his “immense intellectual curiosity, nobility and deep humility despite his privileged education.”
Education and family legacy
Martínez attended Yale University, where he majored in government and history and later earned his law degree, all while nurturing his love for music. This passion eventually led him to meet his wife, who earned her bachelor’s degrees in Russian and economics at Oberlin College and teaches German and French at the Conservatory of Music. The couple were staunch supporters of rising musicians.
Their three children -- María Mercedes, José Darío and José Milo -- followed their parents to Yale and became authors and translators in several languages, including Persian. Martínez is also survived by siblings and grandchildren Sebastián Ali and Leila Cecilia.
Comments