Alejandro Tapia y Rivera[note 1] (November 12, 1826 – July 19, 1882) was a Puerto Rican poet, playwright, essayist and writer.

[3] They had a daughter, Catalina (Katie) Tapia Diaz, who married Albert Edward Lee, from Ponce but residing in San Juan, on 7 December 1874.

A Spanish Army artillery officer challenged him to a duel when Tapia refused to yield the sidewalk to him, a challenge which he accepted; as a result, Tapia suffered a non-lethal injury in the arm and subsequently exiled to Spain, where he remained with his father for a period of time.

[citation needed] Among his cultural positions was his membership in the Puerto Rican Intellectual Protective Society.

Alejandro Tapia y Rivera died in the city of San Juan, Puerto Rico, on July 19, 1882, while giving a conference at the Ateneo Puertorriqueño.

In July 2008, Roberto Ramos Perea, general director of the Archivo Nacional de Teatro y Cine del Ateneo Puertorriqueño, an archive dedicated to conserve documents and memorabilia from the theatre industry in Puerto Rico, announced that a documentary covering Tapia y Rivera's life is planned.