Roberto Cofresí

Roberto Cofresí y Ramírez de Arellano (June 17, 1791 – March 29, 1825), better known as El Pirata Cofresí, was a pirate from Puerto Rico. Despite his birth into a noble family, the political and economic difficulties faced by the island as a colony of the Spanish Empire during the late 18th and early 19th centuries meant that his household was poor. Cofresí worked at sea from an early age; although this familiarized him with the region's geography, it provided only a modest salary. He eventually decided to abandon a sailor's life, becoming a pirate. Despite previous links to land-based criminal activities, the reason for Cofresí's change of vocation is unknown; historians speculate that he may have worked as a privateer aboard the El Scipión, owned by one of his cousins.