Gregorio del Rosario

Gregorio del Rosario (1898-1970) was a Puerto Rican labor leader and trade unionist who organized sugar workers and tobacco workers during the most exploitative period of American corporate domination. He served as president of the Federación Libre de Trabajadores (Free Federation of Workers) and worked alongside Santiago Iglesias Pantín to affiliate Puerto Rican labor with the American Federation of Labor.

Del Rosario organized strikes among sugar workers who earned as little as 30-50 cents per day and had no protections against workplace injury. He was repeatedly arrested for labor organizing activities and was subjected to surveillance under the carpetas program.

His work represented the labor dimension of resistance to colonial exploitation — challenging not only the political structures of colonialism but the economic structures that extracted wealth from Puerto Rican workers.