After training as a nephrologist, he entered private practice and joined the military with the Puerto Rico National Guard and the U.S. Army Reserve in Fort Meade Maryland.

In January, 1969 and after the NPP's electoral triumph and his own election as a state representative, in spite of being a freshman, he was selected as House Majority Leader for the 1969–1973 term.

In 1976, he won the NPP nomination for mayor of San Juan after a three-way competition with attorney Baltasar Corrada del Río and Senator Sila Nazario, and was elected to the post in November of that year, succeeding newly elected Governor Carlos Romero Barceló and Carlos S. Quirós who served a days-long stint as mayor following Romero's swearing-in as governor and the official beginning of the 1977–1981 term.

His term as mayor was marked by a major expansion of sports and community facilities and the first attempt to wrestle with San Juan's looming solid waste crisis.

Pro-statehood votes in 1984 were split between the PRP and the NPP, which renominated Romero, resulting in the Popular Democratic Party return to power, through the election to an unprecedented non-consecutive second term, of Rafael Hernández Colón as governor.