El Peyton Place

For months, the island had buzzed with the rumor. Last week it became official. Characteristically, the man who made it so was Puerto Rico's Governor Roberto Sanchez Vilella, the target of San Juan's busy tongues. A quiet, pipe-smoking grandfather known for his "illustrious conscience," Sanchez confessed to the people of his Roman Catholic country that he had left his wife of 30 years and would leave politics at the end of his four-year term in 1968--all for the woman he loves.

Sanchez, 54, said that he hoped to marry twice-divorced Jeannette Ramos Buonomo, 36, an attractive attorney who, until last month, had been his legislative assistant from the time he was elected Governor two years ago. However, Conchita Dapena de Sanchez Vilella insisted that she would not give the Governor a divorce. "It is true that a separation does exist," she told a news conference. "However, I have neither sought it nor provoked it, nor have I caused it to occur."

Problem of Conscience. Sanchez openly courted Jeannette, parked his official black Cadillac limousine in front of her home so often that the neighbors got in the habit of gathering outside to wave at him as he left. Jokesters even started calling the area "Peyton Place." Yet, unlike many Puerto Rican men, Sanchez could not bring himself to conduct a covert affair. It was, he explained, "a problem of conscience. People say, 'You ought to hide the car.' But if it's something worthwhile and honest, how can you go underground? I felt I owed it to myself and to her and to everyone."

It could not have been an easy situation for anyone concerned. While Sanchez worked in his second-floor office of La Fortaleza, the Governor's mansion, with Jeannette near by, his wife occupied a ground-floor office almost directly underneath, where she held court as the commonwealth's first lady. As the romance blossomed, so did Jeannette's governmental duties. Before she resigned, she not only acted as the Governor's assistant but also headed the Department of State, the protocol section, the Institute of Culture and press relations.

Demanding Respect. Though Sanchez made no secret about moving into an apartment of his own earlier this year, public outrage at his romance came only after false rumors began circulating that he planned to deprive the First Lady of her office and three secretaries. A San Juan women's club demanded that Sanchez resign and heatedly denounced his reported affront to the "dignity of Puerto Rican womanhood." Explained one clubwoman: "The closing of the office is, in fact, the excuse we are using. What we really must do is demand respect and consideration for Dona Conchita, for in her we are all represented." More than 1,000 women signed a petition calling for Sanchez's resignation, but he insisted that he would serve out his term. It was still too early to assess what effect, if any, the scandal will have in July, when the voters must decide whether they want their island to remain a commonwealth, become the 51st U.S. state or try independent nationhood. Most observers were still predicting that the commonwealth plan, backed by Sanchez, would win.

Sanchez was one of the founding members of the Popular Democratic Party in 1939 (along with powerful former Governor Luis Munoz Marin and Jeannette's father, the late Ernesto Ramos Antonini) and has spent most of his life in politics. After graduating from Ohio State University, he worked briefly as a civil engineer, then headed Puerto Rico's Transportation Authority, served as city manager of San Juan and later as Munoz's righthand man. Though lacking his predecessor's charisma, Sanchez nevertheless kept the island economy booming along at a 10% annual growth rate, created 10,000 new jobs a year and strove hard to involve the jibaros (peasants) in politics. Not satisfied simply to follow in Munoz's footsteps, he replaced many Popular Democratic Party hacks with bright young newcomers. One of them was Jeannette Ramos Buonomo.

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