Regarded as the last successful pirate of the Caribbean during the 19th century's suppression era, the life of Roberto Cofresí has been romanticized in his native Puerto Rico and neighboring nations. Already possessing a reputation as hard to capture in life, the freebooter became a symbol for an archipelago immersed in the political unrest caused by its status as a colony within the struggling Spanish Empire. Under these circumstances, Cofresí was soon characterized as a benign and generous thief. In a similar trend, he was also associated with the Puerto Rican independence movement of the era. During the late 19th and early 20th century, the abundant oral tradition led to a subgenre of folk hero literature which depicted Cofresí as a benevolent force and contradicted the other pirate-rel