Puerto Rico’s Resident Commissioner Pablo José Hernández criticized Juan Dalmau, president of the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP), for mentioning his grandparents to launch a political attack during the party’s assembly in Ponce. "There should be no room for that low blow in politics... Do not mention anyone’s grandparents or family members in politics. That is not done," Hernández Rivera said in an interview on El Nuevo Día’s Lo de Hoy program.
At the assembly, Dalmau noted he had "two grandfathers and two grandmothers," not just one, in reference to Rafael Hernández Colón, Hernández Rivera’s paternal grandfather and a former governor of Puerto Rico. Hernández Rivera, also president of the Popular Democratic Party (PPD), highlighted his grandparents’ work: his maternal grandmother became a successful hotel manager in Puerto Rico’s tourism industry after entering the workforce at 70 and appeared at the Ponce assembly with 7,000 people, not 1,500; his paternal grandmother Lila Mayoral did social work helping victims of the Mameyes disaster, Hurricane Hugo and Loíza; and his maternal grandfather Fupi Rivera, from Morovis, was a mental health professional.
He also mentioned step-grandparents, including Jim Teale, a World War II veteran who moved to Puerto Rico. Hernández Rivera predicted attacks on politicians’ relatives will continue, but said he will not make them himself.