of Resident Commissioner to the U.S. Congress after unanimous endorsement from the island legislature. Dr. Fernós Isern was re-elected on six consecutive occasions, serving a total of nineteen years. As Resident Commissioner, Fernós Isern played a very important role in convincing the Government of the United States to give Puerto Ricans the right to govern their island. In 1947, the Crawford Project, allowing Puerto Ricans to elect their governor, was approved by Congress and signed into law by President Harry S Truman. On June 8, 1950, the United States Senate approved Public Law 600, permitting Puerto Rico to establish its own constitutional local autonomous government. Fernós Isern served as president of the Constitutional Convention which drafted the Constitution of the Commonwealth (Estado Libre Asociado). Later years Dr. Fernós Isern did not seek re-election in 1964. He returned to Puerto Rico from Washington, D.C., and was elected to the Puerto Rican Senate, serving between 1965 and 1969. After he retired from politics, Dr. Fernós Isern returned to the University of Puerto Rico as Resident Scholar where he wrote a monumental political work in two parts, i.e., El Estado Libre Asociado (The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico) and Filosofía y Doctrina del Estadolibrismo (Philosophy and Doctrine of the Puerto Rican Commonwealth). Antonio Fernós Isern died in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on January 19, 1974, and was buried with full state honors in the Santa María Magdalena de Pazzis Cemetery located in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico. Legacy His memory is honored at the Capitol in San Juan with a bust facing the urn preserving the original Constitution of Puerto Rico. His collected papers are held in trust at the Fernós Isern room at the Inter American University Law School in Hato Rey, San Juan. See also List of Puerto Ricans Puerto Rican scientists and inventors List of Hispanic Americans in the United States Congress References External links Resident Commissioner Hispanic Americans in Congress: Antonio Fernós-Isern Fundación Educativa Dr. Antonio Fernós Isern 1895 births 1974 deaths 20th-century American politicians Burials at Santa María Magdalena de Pazzis Cemetery Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Puerto Rico Members of the Senate of Puerto Rico People from San Lorenzo, Puerto Rico Popular Democratic Party (Puerto Rico) politicians Puerto Rican cardiologists Puerto Rican people of Catalan descent Resident Commissioners of Puerto Rico University of Maryland, Baltimore alumni