Ramón Emeterio Betances, born on this day in 1827, was a Puerto Rican abolitionist, revolutionary, and medical doctor who helped instigate the "Grito de Lares". Betances is considered to be the father of the Puerto Rican independence movement.

Because of his abolitionist beliefs, Betances began organizing a series of secret anti-slavery organizations in 1856. Some of these societies sought the freedom and free passage of African descended peoples from Puerto Rico to countries without slavery, while other societies sought to liberate as many of the enslaved as possible by buying their freedom (this included freeing thousands of slaves as infants and baptizing them at the Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria).

While exiled from Puerto Rico, Betances and others formed the "Revolutionary Committee of Puerto Rico" and began agitating for armed insurrection to establish Puerto Rican independence. The most famous attempt of these was the "Grito de Lares", however it was forcibly put down by the local militia.

Betances was known for stating "Nadie puede dar lo que no tiene" (English: "No one can give others what they don't have for themselves") in reference to Spain's unwillingness to grant Puerto Rico or Cuba any reforms.

Days before his death, the U.S. annexed Puerto Rico in the aftermath of the Spanish-American War. Frustrated by the ostensible unwillingness of Puerto Ricans to demand their independence from the United States, he wrote "And what's wrong with Puerto Ricans that they haven't yet rebelled?"