Nemesio Canales (December 18, 1878 – September 14, 1923) was a Puerto Rican essayist, journalist, novelist, playwright, politician and activist who defended women's civil rights.

[1] Canales continued his higher educational studies in the Liceo of Mayagüez where he earned a bachelor's degree (now equivalent to High School).

He served in the House of Representatives of Puerto Rico as a member of the Unionist Party, which promoted economic progress of the working class.

Some of his other works include the novels Hacía Un Lejano Sol, Mi Volutad Se Ha Muerto and La Leyenda Benaventina.

On September 14, 1923, Nemesio Canales was on board the steamer San Lorenzo bound for New York City with the intention of going to Washington, D.C., as a legal assistant to a legislative Puerto Rican commission when he died.

A message written by Nemesio Canales during his lifetime is inscribed on his new tomb, which reads: Companions: take me, when I die, to the quiet mountains of my town and delve me a solitary pit there, where no echo of a funeral chant or of bell will reach.

His younger sister, Blanca Canales Torresola, was a leader of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party which was presided by Pedro Albizu Campos.