Diego de Torres Vargas
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Father Diego de Torres Vargas was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico during the late 17th or early 18th century and is considered to be the first Puerto Rican to write a book about the history of Puerto Rico.
Torres Vargas studied and graduated from the University of Salamanca in Spain. He returned to Puerto Rico where he was ordinated a preist. He held many important positions in the Cathederal and in Bishop's house in San Juan.
In 1647 he wrote a "Description of the Island and City of Puerto Rico". His book countained a detailed geographic decription of the island including a survey of all fruits, commerce, mines, churches, and hospitals, notices on the State and Capital and an extensive and erudite bibliography. This is considered to be the first attempt at writing an organized history of Puerto Rico.
On March 8, 1948 the Municipal Assembly of San Jaun officially adopted as the city's first flag an orange field, in the center of which is the Coat of Arms of the City [1] (http://flagspot.net/images/p/pr-sjuan.gif). The orange color was based and taken from Father Diego de Torres Vargas' text, "Description of the Island and City of Puerto Rico": "...which is an orange damask, with which the city was won". It appears that this orange was changed to white at some point.
![[1]](http://flagspot.net/images/p/pr-sjuan.gif){kind=link}
See also
- List of famous Puerto Ricans
- A discussion of the flag (http://flagspot.net/flags/pr-sj.html)