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2 GREATER ANT/LLES ATLAA/7~/Co ^v,^ ' \<3.- PUERTO f \i%k c/> ct

3 J CAPITALISM a system of economic exploitation where a few greedy individuals and corporations own and control all of the industry, profits and the labor which is produced by the people. COLONIALISM the imposing of direct political, social and economic control by one nation over another. As the process of colonization moves forward the colonizer tries to destroy the colonized nation's sense of its own identity by wiping out the people's history, language and culture. IMPERIALISM a policy of conquest by one nation over another with the aim of stealing the conquered nation's treasures and exploiting its raw materials and population. GENOCIDE is the end result of capitalist-imperialism and colonialism the complete destruction of one nation by another, leaving behind no trace of its ever having existed.

4 SOCIALISM a system where ALL OF THE PEOPLE work together for the benefit of all. Where the labor and wealth is controlled by the people themselves and one person does not exploit another. Socialism is the way of the future for all of the oppressed people of the world who will finally put an end to the capitalist systems of imperialism, colonialism, and genocide.

5 INTRODUCTION This short history of Puerto Rico is dedicated to all of our brothers and sisters both in the United States and in Puerto Rico who have been kept in ignorance about our true rational history. This is not our complete history, but simply a basic outline providing highlights of some of the important incidents and individuals who have played a significant role in our development as a people. Most of us, especially those who have been brought up in the United States and have gone through its racist school system, are deliberately denied any knowledge about our history and status as a nation which does not agree with the lies which the U.S. capitalist imperialists present as the truth. We are kept in ignorance because the system which exploits and oppresses our people can only survive as long as we are kept devided and confused concerning our real history, language and culture. We are an enslaved nation, but once a slave begins to acquire some sense of identity and self-knowledge there begins a process of awakening which makes that slave more and more aware of the various methods by which the slaveowner keeps things under control. Once we begin to see ourselves and our oppressed condition in the clear light of our own truth, then the process of change, revolutionary change which leads to a revolutionary struggle, begins to take place. The purpose of this little book is to provide our people with a reference point from which we can move and expand our knowledge about ourselves and our role in history. The major portion of this book deals with the period beginning with the Spanish discovery and conquest of our island in 1493 and ending with the early and middle nineteen fifties which saw the beginning of the great migration of Puerto Ricans to the United States and the last desperate struggle of Albizu Campos and the Nationalist Party to smash the chains of the "Commonwealth"relationship with the United States. The more recent history of our people's struggle is very complicated and would require greater detail and analysis beyond the scope of this brief work. But we hope that armed with this knowledge you will be encouraged to continue studing and understanding as much of our total history as you can. The main point to keep in mind while reading this and other books dealing with Puerto Rico is that our people have continually struggled, fought and many times died to gain our national freedom. All of us must take this to heart as we follow in the path of all the brave and unselfish Puerto Rican revolutionaries, known and unknown, whose blood flows through our veins and whose example we must follow for the final liberation of our nation. This book is written and produced4o be distributed free of charge. You should pass it on to another person after you finish reading it so that this knowledge may be given to as many of our people as possible. VIVA PUERTO RICO LIBRE!!

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7 THE SPANISH CONQUEST Borinquen is the name which the native Indians gave to our island of Puerto Rico. It is a small island, 3,423 square miles (8,890 Kilometers), located in the Caribbean Sea. Puerto Rico is situated east of the island of La Espanola which contains the Republics of Haiti and Santo Domingo. Puerto Rico is 100 miles long east to west and 35 miles wide north to south. It is the smallest island in the chain known as the Greater Antilles which also includes Cuba, Jamaica and La Espanola. Originally the name Puerto Rico was given to what is known today as San Juan, the capital city. Puerto Rico has a population of close to three million people who actually live on the island and there are well over a million Puerto Ricans living in the United States, mostly in New York City. The Indians' basic diet was corn and yuca. Christopher Columbus was the first European to set foot on Borinquen, coming ashore on November 19, Juan Ponce de Leon, a conquistador was appointed the first Spanish governor of the island. His first task was to conquer the native inhabitants who had no idea that their island had been "discovered" and now belonged to the Spanish King and Queen. Ponce de Leon, after commiting brutal crimes against the native population, used the island as a jumping off point for later explorations and conquests in the "New World". He was later granted exclusive rights to all of the lands "discovered" by him for the glory of Spain. The natives of Puerto Rico were mainly the Taine and Arawak tribes who were part of the Aruaca nation. The Aruaca nation was originally from what is now Venezuela in South America and its different tribes were to be found on different islands throughout the Caribbean. The natives were basically an agricultural people, yuca and corn being their main crops. They were continually having to defend their island against attacks laun-

8 Christopher Columbus being greeted by the "peaceful" natives. ched against them by the inhabitants of some of the other islands, especially the fierce Carib's of the Lesser Antilles. Obviously the Indians were not a "docile" people as Christopher Columbus had described them since they were constantly busy defending their island, making weapons and engaging in warfare. After making friends with the Indians, the Spaniards betrayed the natives and attempted to enslave them. Those who were turned into slaves died very quickly, the rest were either massacred or driven off their land. Many of the Indians escaped into the mountains or the smaller surrounding islands, making alliances with the Carib's and Cubacanes and continuing to fight the Spanish invaders straight into the last half of the 18th century. One of their last recorded attacks was against the fortress of San German at the end of the 1700's, three hundred years after the Spaniards began their genocidal conquest. Juan tie Ce6n, Enslaved natives working in a sugar mill. Puerto Rico was of great value to the Spaniards and was prized by them because of its strategic location in the Caribbean. They used the island primarily as a fortress guarding the eastern approaches to their wealthy colonies on the mainlands of North, Central and South America. The Spaniards did very little to develop the economy of

9 The "peaceful" natives fought back. the island, they were content to use it mostly as a fortress of their empire and as a prison for political prisoners. Bu t as Spaniards continued to emigrate to the New World in search of gold and silver, the population began to grow. There was only a limited supply of easy riches to be found in the New World and most of that was already being exploited by the earlier Conquistadors. The Spaniards began to develop plantations which grew products that found an eager market in Europe. The cultivation of tobacco and sugar provided valuable returns from Europe and so Puerto Rico began to develop an agricultrual economy. The only source of cheap slave labor, the natives, had been wiped out through inhuman treatment and slaughter. Intermarriage between Spaniards and Indian women and the dispersal of those natives still resisting the invaders created a shortage of labor on the new tobacco, sugar cane and cocoa plantations which were springing up. The new source of slave labor was found in West Africa in what is now known as Nigeria. The colonizers began importing black slaves by the thousands. The majority of these enslaved people were of the Yoruba tribe. They suffered as the Indians before them had suffered. They had no political, social, cultural or economic rights and they fought back against their oppression and exploitation at the hands of the slave owners and colonizers. There were continuous slave revolts, throughout the 1700's and 1800's, and always small numbers of slaves who would escape to the interior of the island and join with the remnants of the Indian population safe in the mountains. Many poor Spaniards also drifted into the interior, seeking to make a living away from the harsh conditions on the plantations. The Indians, Blacks and Spaniards,intermarried, giving birth to the "Jibaro". That name was first used to describe this new mixture of mountain people but as Puerto Rico's population increased and spread throughout the island, the term Jibaro came to mean poor country people in general. The Jibaro was and still is oppressed and exploited. Just like the Jibaro's Indian, Black and Poor white ancestors, the exploiter has 3

10 Slaves being driven to the new world. made the Jibaros targets for contempt and jokes which picture them as being basically lazy and stupid. But we must realize that our native culture in its beauty and variety is best represented in the Jibaros, who have stubbornly resisted the colonialist's and imperialist's attempts to rob them of their heritage and identity as Puerto Ricans, and as we eat our food, dance, make music, or even talk, we can easily trace the different influences of our combined races in the making of a Puerto Rican nation. Jibaro

11 RAMON EMETERIO BETANCES AND EL GRITO DE LARES Betances as a young man.

12 The slaves had no social, economic or political rights. Some of Puerto Rico's greatest patriots and fighters for independence were first involved in the movement to abolish slavery in the 1800's. The greatest of these leaders, both in the struggle against slavery and for the liberation of Puerto, was Ramon Hmeterio Betanees, who is known among our people as HI Padre de la Patria (Father of our Country). Betanees was born in the town of Cabo Rojo on April 8, As a young man, he began his studies in Puerto Rieo and then travelled to France where he attended the University of Paris and graduated from its school of medicine at the age of 26. He returned to the island in 1853, inspired by the ideals of the French revolution. Humanity, Fquality and Fraternity, and began to practice medicine in the town of Mayaguez. Betanees quickly developed a reputation around the island as a brilliant doctor and as a passionate enemy of slavery. In 1855, a terrible cholera epidemic struck Puerto Rico, causing over 30,000 deaths. Betanees worked hard organizing clinics, healing the sick and trying to bring the sickness under control. He gave so much to his people during this crisis that he was looked upon by many as a saint of mercy. The city of Mayaguez and even the governor offered him honors but he refused them. He was honored instead by the people who called him the "Father of the Poor". Betanees began to denounce slavery in stronger and stronger terms and also began calling for the independence of Puerto Rico. The Spanish colonialists, aware of Betanees' popularity with the people, began to worry. In 1856, Betanees started buying slave children in order to set them free. This action provoked the colonial authorities so much that he was persecuted and threatened and forced into exile. While in exile Betanees not only continued to agitate for the abolition of slavery and the liberation of Puerto Rico, he also began to conceive of liberating the entire West Indies and forming a Caribbean confederation, creating a powerful and independent nation which would command the respect of the world. Throughout his life as a revolutionary, Betanees remained an Internationalist dedicated to the liberation of all oppressed nations. When he returned from exile, he began to work with the "Secret Societies" which were

13 in Chile, a victim of assasination, but Betances was soon back in the mountains of Cabo Rojo organizing for the revolution. The governor had by this time placed a high reward for his capture dead or alive, but Betances managed to elude the bounty hunters and escaped to Santo Domingo where he learned of the death of his great revolutionary comrade Ruis Belvis. When he asked "who killed him?" The answer was "the enemies of the people's freedom". Revolutionary army marching on Lares. being organized throughout the island. These societies were underground organizations which were preparing an armed uprising to win Puerto Rico's independence from the Spanish tyranny. They were led by such men as Manuel Gonzalez who had come from Venezuela to help in the struggle, Mathias Bruckman, a North American. Manuel Rojas and other patriots committed to the freeing of Puerto Rico. Most of them gave their lives as proof of their convictions on the day the Outcry for Freedom (El Grito De Lares) was heard from the mountain town of Lares on Sept. 23, In HI Morro Castle in San Juan, some political prisoners had been murdered in In retaliation, three Sergeants and five Corporals of the Spanish army were killed, presumably by liberation forces. The governor then ordered Betances and Ruiz Belvis, another great patriot, into exile in Spain. Instead, Betances and Belvis travelled around the various Latin American countries and even to New York City, gathering support in money and arms from sympathizers with the cause of Puerto Rican independence. Belvis died while Betances travelled to the island of Saint Thomas which was then a Colony of Denmark in order to be closer to Puerto Rico. It was there that he issued the first proclamation of the Puerto Rican revolution, "The Ten Commandments of Freedom"- the first of which was the "abolition of slavery". While in Saint Thomas, he acquired 500 guns and 3 cannons and before leaving, he published the second proclamation of the revolution- -'Puerto Ricans, No More Spanish Domination"!! On the 2nd of January 1868, Betances was in Santo Domingo where he edited the "Provisional Constitution of the Puerto Rican Revolution". That same month he also learned about a proposal from the United States to purchase both Cuba and Puerto Rico from Spain. This alerted Betances and the other revolutionaries to the growing danger posed by the U.S. empire's interest in gaining new colonies in the Caribbean. Planning for the revolution was stepped up by the freedom fighters and they continued to stock up on weapons and other supplies in preparation for a landing by sea, 7

14 which was to take place on the 29th of September, The landing of arms and men, according to the plan, was to be done in secret and a general uprising was to break out in different towns around the island at the same time. Betances and the other leaders were confident that the masses of oppressed and exploited Puerto Ricans, both slave and "free", would join in the struggle and quickly overthrow the colonial government. Their plans were ruined by an unforeseen development. In the town of Camuy, the president of the secret society-lansador del Norte. Manuel Gonzalez, had allowed an informer to become a member just as Wherever he went, Betances continued the revolutionary struggle. The Spanish army puts down the uprising. the final plans were being made. I This agent related what he had I found out to the Spanish authorities, who alerted the army which had most of its forces stationed in San Juan. The element of surprise had been lost. Not only that but on Sept. 22, 1868, the governor ordered the army to arrest many of the society's leaders and discovered more names which led to mass, arrests throughout the island. When this information reached Mathias Bruckman, president of the Capa Prieta society, he assembled 500 men and marched towards Lares where he was met by other secret society leaders such as Joaquin Parilla, Manuel Rosado, Manuel Cebollero, Rodolfo Echeverria, Clemente Milan, etc. On that day, the revolutionary forces of Puer-' to Rico began the uprising: against oppression which is still being carried out today by all Puerto Ricans who yearn to be free and who are willing to sacrifice anything, including their lives to achieve for out'1

15 people that which has so long been denied, our liberty. The revolutionary forces surrounded the town of Lares and on the 23rd of September, they attacked the Spanish strongholds in the town. Some 700 people marched of all colors and «lasie, men and women,tslayeowners and slaves. They were armed with guns, machetes, sticks; anything which coold be used as a weapon. They took the town by surprise and after a short battle the flag of a free Puerto Rico was raised to the cheers of the people. The independence of Puerto Rico was declared, and the Republic Of Puerto Rico was proclaimed. There was real jubilation over the short period of freedom, short because the Spanish army was racing towards Lares to put down the "insurrection". Meanwhile, the workers burned thier "passbooks" in large fires. These were notebooks which evety worker was forced to carry at all times. The bosses or acendados would write on them comments about the worker's behavior, attitudes and general conduct. If a worker acted too proud in front of the boss or demanded some form of justice, he would be branded as a troublemaker. A bad mark on a worker's book might lead to his death because he would never again be able to find employment and he would also be subjected to harassment by the colonial authorities. ' ',-- '''. : ' ' '..S-- ' -.':i'"?-:- As the revolutionary army was being defeated the colonial government began to take its revenge. Thousands of innocent people along with thfi^ "guilty" freedom fighters were murdered, jailed and persecuted. The revolutionaries who died went to their deaths with great courage. Venancio Roman, as the story goes, cried as he lay dying during the battle "Long live the freedom of Puerto Rico, I came to Lares to fight and die, I did not come here to run", and he defied the Spanish soldier who stood over his dying body to fire; the soldier did. The soldier probably could not understand Venancio Roman's love for liberty. That is the ultimate commitment, your life. Every year, on the Anniversary of El Grito de Lares, thousands of people from all over the island gather in the town to commemorate the uprising. The second Republic of Puerto Rico will never be because the first Republic still lives in our hearts. Betances continued the struggle from exile for the rest of his life. He continued to agitate and organize for the liberation not only of Puerto Rico, but for the other islands of the Greater Antilles, Cuba, Santo Domingo, and Haiti, iphich wer^jllf involved in revolutionary struggles. Betances' influence and prestige are well illustrated by the fact that he was offered the Presidency of Santo Domingo when that country achieved a republicform of government. Betances died in France on September 16, 1898 with these dying words, "No quiero colonia, ni con Espana, ni con Estados Unidos, Que hacen los Puertoriquenos que no se rebelan"? ("I don't want a colony either with Spain or the United States, why don't the Puerto Ricans revolt?" )

16 THE SPANISH REFORM Luis Munoz Rivera (seated at left), Puerto Rico's first and only Prime Minister, with his cabinet. Although the Lares uprising failed to win our country's independence, it did force the Spaniards to take a closer look at the situation on the island and to begin the granting of certain reforms, one of which was the abolition of slavery in Because of continued pressure and agitation on the island, the Spanish government was forced to make a number of concessions and in November of 1897, the Spanish Crown issued three decrees liberalizing the 10 governments of Puerto Rico and Cuba. Puerto Rico was granted its own autonomous government within the Spanish Empire. This meant that the island would have the right to have its own banking, customs, and postal systems and would be able to trade on its own with the rest of the world. Puerto Rico was granted 16 representatives to the Spanish Cortes (Parliament), and no laws or treaties involving Puerto Rico could be passed without the consent of the Puerto Rican parliament. Spain continued to be responsible for the military defense of the island. But Puerto Ricans had their own citizenship and were not obligated to enter military service in the Spanish army. The first and only Prime Minister of Puerto Rico under the autonomous government which was formed in July of 1868 was Luis Munoz Rivera, whose son, Luis Munoz Marin, was later to become the first "elected" governor of Puerto Rico under North American, rule.

17 General Nelson A. Miles, commander of the Yankee invasion. YANQUt INVASION On July 25, 1898, the United States invaded our country with 16,000 troops under the command of General Nelson Miles and established a military occupation. This invasion came at the conclusion of the Spanish-American War which gave birth to American imperialism and colonialism in the Caribbean. That year the U.S. had sent the warship "Maine" into Havana Bay using as an excuse the story that American citizens were being "endangered". At this time the Cuban people were waging a great war against the Spaniards for the liberation of their island and were close to winning their freedom. The U.S. had been seeking for a long time to expand its Empire into the Caribbean. The Spanish colonial possessions were of particular interest because of the strategic military value of both Puerto Rico and Cuba and because the Spanish Empire was falling apart and militarily weak. A war with far away Spain right in the backyard of the expanding U.S. Empire would obviously end with Spain's defeat. When the battleship "Maine" was blown up in Havana Harbor, the U.S. found its needed excuse and declared war on Spain. Some historians of this period have suggested that the blowing up of the "Maine" was done by the United States itself in order to provoke a war. In the U.S. history books, this war is presented as a crusade against the vicious tyranrfy of Spain. The U.S. intervention in Cuba is pictured as a heroic action in support of the Cuban people's struggle for their national liberation. THIS IS A LIE! Against their wishes, the people of Cuba and Puerto Rico in the Caribbean, and the people of the Philippines and Guam in the Pacific became part of the new American Empire. With the signing of the treaty of Paris in 1898, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines became North American colonies. American Soldiers begin the occupation of Puerto Rico. 11

18 do U Ub^rtad, 4e U JwtloU: jrjto U Hnmanldsa, «m faciau mlhtaw* ban renfdoi In bla da Puerto-lJoo. V\eoen ollw 'imtwtwxjo id «Und«ct«<lo U Llbcrtad. liuplrada* en el ttpwo * : lp» eoemljco* do noertro pauyturpartro, jr do dwtrnlr* captnrtr* ' O«traec Sis* d apquftnnwlfrde ttna iuiekso <!o pneblo llbre, 6H. «n jtwtieiu x bmaaauaa pan, ^d«aqpeoo* qua riven b«]o»n lamedlftto de vnettrm an da lot Baudot ttnldo*. SI pridoipalfkofkstrto de )M facrm ^a;^i(a^ t»et< atoltr la antoridad lw al jmebfojj* Mta kenwm, I^S^^ *B*ft*>5V,b«t*le«wmpaUblek con ert* ocn *" 'tr v->"'-"t'cl^^fe^^l:^tt;:.-. qne fci ettado darante alguuon gj.f' vocotro* lino tnmbl^a A vno«- * ' Proclamation signed General Miles. The fi two lines read: "As a consequence the war which we i forced to fight agaii Spain, the people of t Un ited States, in j cause of Liberty, Jusli and Humanity, have M our armed forces to t cupy the island of Pus to Rico." Cuba was militarily occupied for two years, after which it was granted a false independence which allowed the U.S. to control the economic and political1 life of the country and to intervene in its internal affairs whenever United States interests were thought to be endangered. As we know, the Cuban people put an end to this situation on January 1st, 1959 when led by Fidel Castro, they overthrew the 12 Batista dictatorship and its North American supporters and finally took control of their own country is the year the U.S. became a true colonial power. From that time to the present, the U.S. has continued to intervene in the internal affairs of nations all over the world in order to maintain its Empire. Many nations of Latin America have been the victims of Ameri can military occupations. Haiti Santo Domingo, Nicaragua Panama, Cu ba, Puerto Rico Mexico and other countries hav( been invaded and plundered bj the United States. After mow than 70 years of American occui pation, the people of Puerto! Rico have less control of their national lives than they did during the autonomous govern! ment under Spain.

19 The U.S. would like for us and the rest of the world to believe that they came to Puerto Rico as liberators. But one of the first actions of the North American occupation was to dissolve the autonomous parliament and to set up a military government which set our progress back several hundred years to the time of the early Spanish conquest. By forcing our people to immediately exchange our currency from Spanish pesos to American dollars, the U.S. cheated the people out of more than two hundred million dollars. This was a deliberate robbery of a poor nation because the U.S. knew that the Spanish currency contained far more gold and silver than the American. The people greatly resented and opposed the U.S. military occupation. The U.S. responded by imposing the Foraker law in This law was supposed to establish a'civil government"for Puerto Rico. According to this law, the governor, the members OUR "LIBERATORS" IN ACTION of his colonial cabinet and the heads of government agencies were all appointed by the President of the U.S. The people had no voice in running their own country and most of the offi-. cials appointed to the colonial government were North Americans who knew nothing of our language, traditions or culture. This law also provided for colonial elections every four years to elect the members of a "Chamber of Puerto Rican Delegates". This chamber had no powers at all and could only advise and recommend legislation to the colonial governor who could accept or reject them according to the desires of the North Americans. At this same time, the U.S. was attempting to Americanize our country by requiring that the schools teach only in English. The students were made to take an oath every day in front of the U.S. flag and to swear their loyalty to the United States of America. Our people were now supposed to look towards the U.S. for a good future as an American colony. Although a minority of our population bought the American Dream, the truth is that the majority of our people resisted the attempts to destroy their national culture and continued to think and feel themselves Pu erto Rican and not North American. In 1904, six years after the U.S. invasion, the American labor leader Samuel Gompers visited our island to investigate conditions in Puerto Rico under the U.S. occupation. Here is part of what he reported; "I have seen men working in the sugar mills of Puerto Rico fifteen and sixteen hours for forty cents a day. I have seen men toiling in the sugar fields virtually dragging themselves through fifteen hours a day for forty or forty-five cents. Some of the millers of sugar have installed a system of stores as obligatory supply centers for these working men, working The first "Civil Government" under the U.S. occupation. 13

20 Our people lived in huts while the invaders got rich. men working fifteen to sixteen hours tor forty to Forty-five cents a day, paid in stamps representing cash redeemable only in these company stores. The people in these villages have no other funds than these stamps... So the workers are compelled to live bonded to the earth like the ancient serfs under the rule of their masters and at the disposition of any of those rulers who might want to expel them and destroy their huts... In my trip through Puerto Rico, I saw more idle men and more without work, not idle by choice, but because there was no work, than I have ever seen in my life among people of equal numbers... I have never seen so many Human Beings showing so clearly the signs of malnutrition nor so many women and child- 14 ren with the marks of hunger in their faces. No, never have I seen such an accumulation of misery in one people, and understand that I know something of this mother earth, the conditions existent in Puerto Rico today reflect no honor or credit upon our country." Not content just to exploit our people and natural resources, the U.S. found other ways in which we could be used." In 1917 the U.S. fored American citizenship upon the Puerto Rican people. This was not an act of unselfish generosity on the part of the U.S. America had entered the first world war in Europe and needed our bodies to fight in a war which did not involve our country. As a product of our new "citizenship" more than 20,000 Puerto Ricans were obligated to join the U.S. army and fight in Europe. Since that time Puerto Ricans have been forced to serve in the U'S' armed forces. If we refuse we run the risk of being sent to prison for five or ten years and a ten thousand dollar fine. More than 200,000 Puerto Ricans were obliged to fight in World War II and 100,000 of us fought in Korea losing 4,000 killed. This was the highest per capita casualty rate of any U.S. state or territory. Now many of our people are dying in Viet Nam where the people are fighting for the same, right to lead their own lives for which the Puerto Rican people continue to struggle. v

21 Puerto Rican soldiers marching to war for the U.S.A. OPPOSITION TO U.S. CITIZENSHIP When American citizenship was imposed on our people, the U.S. congress did not care about our people's opinion or the opposition expressed by the Chamber of Deputies which had been created by the North Americans themselves. The popular opposition was so intense that the North Americans could not even pretend to follow "democratic methods". Instead of giving the people any choice, the Americans used a system of intimidation by which only those Puerto Ricans who would publicly fill out a form in front of a judge could refuse U.S. citizenship. If a person publicly rejected American citizenship, he or she became the victim of repression and persecution which could mean at least the loss of a job or other forms of intimidation by the colonial authorities and police. There were very few judges on the island at that time and the U.S. deliberately avoided explaining the new law to our people. Puerto Ricans were for the most part kept in ignorance concerning what American citizenship actually meant. Also, many of our popular "leaders" worked hand in hand with their new colonial masters and failed to organize or educate the people to fight for their national rights as Puerto Ricans. Despite this repression and intimidation, hundreds of Puerto Ricans went before the few judges in the country and swore out the affidavit refusing U.S. citizenship. Many of these people had to travel great distances and endured great hardships in order to defy the North American government and its collaborators. They have provided all of us with an example to remember. 15

22 '*":".

23 PEDRO ALBIZU CAMPOS AND THE NATIONALIST PARTY Pedro Albizu Campos was born in the city of Ponce on Sept. 21, His life is the story of much of our modern history of struggle for independence because right up until his death in 1965 he was the main fighter, symbol and inspiration of our people's revolutionary spirit. He was a great speaker and leader of the Puerto Rican people and throughout his life he never compromised his beliefs for the sake of safety or comfort. Albizu Campos had been a law student at Harvard University when the First World War began. He enlisted in the U.S. Army and because he was dark skinned, he was assigned to a segregated Black regiment where he suffered the same brutal discrimination and humiliation which people of color have always suffered in the racist United States. There were many Puerto Ricans like Albizu Campos who fought for the U.S. in the first world war and through this bitter experience became aware of the contradictions between American ideals and the reality of its treatment of people who were called "inferior" because of their skin color or the language which they spoke. Many of our people died in the First World War as they have continued to die in U.S. wars up till this moment. Dying in wars not of our making for a freedom which is not ours, not in combat or even in death. Many of the Puerto Rican soldiers who fought in the First World War returned from Europe with a burning conviction that Puerto Rico must be freed. Their experiences in the American army had exposed in their minds the true nature of the racist, inhuman "american way of life". Albizu Campos returned from the war with the rank of Lieutenant, but for him and many others the real war, for the liberation of our island, had just begun. At this point in the Island's history, the Union Party was the main political organization advocating independence for Puerto Rico. Most of the supporters of independence belonged to or related to this party, but in 1922 the Union Party removed immediate independence as part of its program and sold out to U.S. imperialism. Most of the dedicated independence fighters left the Union Party and formed the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico. The young lawyer Albizu Campos was one of the party's founders. Although he was one of the original founders of the Nationalist Party, Albizu spent the next few years traveling in Latin America, educating the people throughout the continent as to the conditions which existed in Puerto Rico. At the same time he made contacts with other Latin American revolutionaries and was able to acquire a broad knowledge of the oppressive conditions which American domination had brought upon all of the exploited nations of Latin America. When he returned to Puerto Rico he was ready to begin a total struggle for independence which was to take up the rest of his life. Albizu Campos was elected president of the Nationalist Party in 1930 and began to travel around the island explaining the nature of American colonial domination to the people and exhorting them to defend their nation by any means necessary. It was clear in his mind that the only way the chains of exploitation could be broken and our Puerto Rico liberated, would be through revolutionary armed struggle. The people would have to rise up in arms and force the American invaders out, just as Betances and other patriots throughout our history had 17

24 18 ALBIZU CAMPOS IN HIS YOUTH

25 fought the Spanish oppression. He understood something which we must always bear in mind, neighter words nor phony ' elections" will ever free our people and break the chains of the oppressor, we must be prepared to fight and die if necessary for our dignity and self-determination as a people. The economy of Puerto Rico, weakened by U.S. exploitation, had gone from bad to worse. Unemployment and hunger combined with the continuing political repression created a revolutionary mood among large numbers of the people. The revolutionary movement was gaining strength from day to day. In 1935 in the university city of Rio Piedras, the colonial police murdered Ramon Pagan, a leader of the Nationalist Party along with three young students of the University of Puerto Rico. These murders were the direct result of the growing success of the Nationalist's campaign for independence among the people led by Albizu Campos. Violence was once again being used by the U.S. in order to frighten the Nationalists, who were gaining more popular support every day. The revolutionaries were not frightened and the North Americans were beginning to fear that their colonial domination might be overthrown. On February 23, two young patriots, Elias Beauchamp and Hiram Rosado, killed the head of the colonial police, U.S. colonel Francis Riggs. Riggs had been sent to Puerto Rico to train the colonial police in counter-insurgency techniques just as the U.S. is now doing in South Vietnam, Korea, Bolivia, Panama, and many other countries throughout the world where the people are fighting for their national freedom. In revenge for this action, the two young patriots were murdered in a colonial police station. The North American government then began a violent wave of repression and Albizu Campos, along with other leaders of the Nationalist Party, was arrested on charges of having conspired to "overthrow the government of the United States established in Puerto Ri co" In response to the continuing agitation for independence, congressman Tydings introduced a bill before the U.S. congress providing for self-determination for the Puerto Rican people. This bill was intended to frighten certain local "leaders" and other Puerto Ricans fearful of the great economic difficulties which immediate independence would have brought to the island. The Tydings bill was an attempt to blackmail our people into agreeing to their slavery in return for which our U.S. "benefactors" would not cast us out into the cold, alone and without U.S. aid. This is a tactic which U.S. has traditionally used in order to confuse and frighten both our people and certain political "leaders" who are always looking for an excuse to justify our colonial status. This attempt at blackmail didn't work. More than 40 of the 77 municipalities in Puerto Rico lowered the United States flag and replaced it with the flag of Puerto Rico. Public meetings were held all over the island demanding recognition of our independence. Despite the fact that most of the people of Puerto Rico had clearly demonstrated their desire for independence, the Tydings bill was rejected by the U.S. congress. Once again the U.S. had shown that it was determined to use whatever means it considered necessary to defend its economic, political and military interests in Puerto Rico. It was clear that if the people of Puerto Rico desired national liberation, we would have to take it from the United States through a long and bitter struggle. This is as true today as it was then. 19

26 ;i :t < ^^ aril^ ^i* ~s# PONCE MASSACRE, OCTOBER 1937

27 THE MURDERERS OF THE PUERTO RICAN PEOPLE By the end of 1936, most of the national and local leaders of the Nationalist Party were being held in colonial prisons. There was a large movement among the people demanding the release of; Dr. Campos and the other patriots being held in jail. Finally the trial of Albizu Campos took place and the first attempt to convict him ended in failure. The jury, made up of North Americans and Puerto Ricans could not come to a verdict. THE PUERTO RICAN MEMBERS OF THE JURY VOTED NOT GUILTY AND THE NORTH AMERICANS VOTED FOR CONVICTION' After this, a new trial with a new jury was ordered. This new jury was chosen in the palace of the colonial governor in the presence of U.S. government officials and was made up of 10 NORTH AMERICANS AND TWO PUERTO RICANS WHO FAVORED CONTINUED U.S. RULE. Albizu Campos was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment and placed in the federal jail a* Atlanta, Georgia. On March 21, 1937, Palm Sunday, a large public demonstration took place in Ponce, the second largest city in the country. The people were peacefully demanding the liberation of the jailed Nationalist and the independence of Puerto Rico. The ' mayor of the city had even granted permission for the demonstration to take place, but unknown to the people, the colonial governor, Gen. Blanton Winship, had intervened and overruled the mayor. Winship had been made governor when Puerto Rican workers had been organizing labor strikes throughout the island. His mission had been to break the strikes and restore "law and order". As the people gathered for the start of the march, a large number of police appeared and surrounded the peaceful demonstration on all sides. The chief of police told the leaders that the mayor of the town had withdrawn the permission which he had given and the march had to be cancelled. The people refused to give in and continued to prepare for their demonstration. They began moving forward singing our national anthem "La Borinquena". At this same time the police opened fire on the demonstrators killing 20 people and wounding 200 others. Women, old people, young students and children were brutally murdered by the colonial police for the crime of organizing a peaceful demonstration for the liberation of the political prisoners and the national independence of our country. This renewed campaign of repression could not prevent more than 25,000 people from attending the funerals of those who had been slaughtered, but the organization of the Nationalisl Party had been almost completely destroyed and more than one thousand patriots had been thrown in jail. The federal and colonial governments had unleashed a campaign of terror against the people but it was obvious that brute force was not enough, various "reforms" were being introduced including the setting up of a Puerto Rican Reconstruction Administration which was supposed to deal with the economic and social misery on the island which had been caused by the brutal exploitation of the North American invaders. A North American "liberal," Rexford Tugwell, was appointed as the new colonial governor, promising a "New Deal" for Puerto Ricans. But the New PRRA programs failed because of corruption and a failure to understand the real causes of our problems. Puerto Rico remained what it had always been, a colony. This was clearly understood by the people so the U.S. had to find a new mask to cover up this fact in the eyes of the people and of the world so that all might be fooled into believing that we actually had a voice in determining the destiny of our country. What the U.S. needed was a Puerto Rican voice to be its chief spokesman in justifying our colonial status. 21

28 LUIS MUNOZ MARIN AND THE "COMMONWEALTH" Luis Munoz Marin, Traitor. Lui/. Munoz Marin was the perfect puppet needed to tighten the grip of imperialism a- rouncl our island while at the same time trying to fool the people into believing that they were gaining greater freedom. Here was a colonial politician who had not as yet lost his prestige among the masses of the people. At the beginning of his political career, he had been a passionate advocate of independence. Famous as a poet and journalist he was also the son of Luis Munoz Rivera, who had been the first and only Prime Minister of Puerto Rico under the Autonomous Government under Spain. Like his father, Munoz Marin ended up by compromising himself and our people by serving the North American imperialism which they had at first opposed. The "Commonwealth" of Puerto Rico or "Associated Free State" is the product of Munoz Marin's betrayal of our nation to U.S. interests. It is a cover up designed to fool world public opinion and to cover up Puerto Rico's status as 22 an enslaved nation. The "free elections" which made Munoz Murin governor of Puerto Rico and supported his concept of the "Commonwelath" stand as a good example to us of the fact that no forms of "Democratic free choice" can exist inside of a colonial system. When Munoz Marin began his political campaign for the governorship in he travelled throughout the island staging his "election campaign" under the slogan, "For Bread. Land and Liberty". IN HIS SPEECHES' MUNOZ DECLARED THAT IF THE PEOPLH VOTED FOR HIM IN- DEPENDENCE WOULD BE JUST AROUND THE COR- NER. The U.S. placed a great deal of its power behind Munoz Marin's campaign. The colonial. Munoz Marin campaigning to betray our country. american controlled newspapers and radio stations began to devote a large amount of space and time to his campaign. Here was the Puerto Rican Franklin Roosevelt, all things to all of the people. Friend of the U.S. and an advocate of continued cooperation with imperialism, who also promised bread, land and LIBERTY to the Puerto Rican nation. Munoz Marin and his supporters were never bothered by the FBI or the colonial police as were those who advocated independence and tried to expose the hoax of these "Free Elections". Since most of the local and national leaders of the independence movement were in prison in the United States or Puerto Rico, their voice was silenced and they were unable to communicate with the people and expose the fact that Munoz

29 Marin and the U.S. were wor- Tierra y Liberdad" ("Bread, elections that our national libeking hand in hand in the interests Land and Liberty") served to ration will only be won through of continued North Ameri- confuse our people and put Mu- a revolutionary armed struggle can domination. In the "election" noz Marin in office, but we have involving the masses of our people. of 1948, the slogan "Pan, learned after more than 70 years of U.S Colonialism and colonial JAYUYA AND ALBIZU CAMPOS' FINAL BATTLE In 1947 Albizu Campos was released from the Federal penitentiary in Atlanta. Although he was weak and sick from the many tortures he had suffered in prison, he immediately began to reorganize the Nationalist party for a continuation of the independence struggle. In 1948, the student's council of the University of Puerto Rico invited Albizu to give a lecture at the University. The Rector, Jaime Benitez, refused to allow the lecture to take place. The students protested and organized a University strike which lasted for 4 months. They lowered the United States flag and raised the flag of Puerto Rico. The colonial police attacked and occupied the University campus. Hundreds of students were mistreated, wounded and imprisoned and several professors who had spoken out in defense of the students were expelled from the University, removed from their offices and even thrown in jail. It soon became apparent that the colonial government headed by the puppet Munoz Marin, considered the Nationalist Party and its leader to be serious obstacles towards their policies in support of U.S. colonialism. In order to fulfill the "Commonwealth" betrayal, Munoz Marin determined once and for all to crush the Nationalist Party and all sentiments opposed to colonial rule. Even though the Nationalists had been planning for an uprising to take place in 1952, they were not yet prepared for a revolutionary war. But the repressive policies of the colonial government forced them to throw themselves into battle rather than wait and be murdered in jails or shot in the back. On October 30, 1950, an armed insurrection broke out in the mountain town of Jayuya. The colonial forces in the town were driven out and once again, a Republic of Puerto Rico was proclaimed. There were also armed uprisings in the towns of Arecibo, Ponce, Mayaguez, Utuado and San Juan, Aibonito, Cayey, Penuelas and others. The United States Army and its reserve forces were ordered into the streets to stamp out the uprising. Attacks were made on the towns of Jayuya, Utuado and others. The revolutionary forces fought back courageously against the colonial police and U.S. army but they were overwhelmed by superior numbers after the colonial government declared martial law and proclaimed a state of siege. Don Pedro was captured after a furious battle at the Nationalists Headquarters in San Juan, overcome by tear gas, but still holding a gun in his hands. He was once again thrown into jail along with many other Nationalists and the U.S. launched another wave of violent repressionagainst the Nationalist movement. Hundreds of Puerto Ricans were being persecuted and imprisoned, many were being assassinated. As a form of reprisal, two Nationalist patriots, Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torres, left New York for Washington with the intention of killing Harry Truman, then President of the United States. In doing this they wanted to draw the world's attention to the crimes being committed in Puerto Rico by the North American colonialists. They had planned to break through the White House and shoot Truman, but he was not staying there at the time. They shot it out with White House guards, one of whom was killed. Griselio Torres was shot to death and Oscar Collazo was wounded and captured. Although they had failed to kill 23

30 The colonial authorities were driven out and the new Republic of Puerto Rico was proclaimed. The U.S. and its colonial puppets began a violent campaign of terror against the Nationalist Party and all revolutionaries. f, 24,,'

31 Hundreds of Puerto Rican patriots were persecuted, imprisoned and assasinated ft

32 Truman, the world was informed that the Puerto Rican people were not silently accepting the U.S. colonial terror. When word got back to the island about the death of Griselio Torres, schoolchildren and people from all walks of life spontaneously began to collect money lor the dead patriot's widow and family. In 1954, Lolita Lebron and three other Nationalist patriots travelled to Washington, this time to shoot U.S. congressmen. They wanted to draw attention to the fact that Albizu Campos was slowly being murdered in La Oscar Collazo lying wounded after the attempt on Truman's life Princesa prison in San Juan. Although Don Pedro was seriously ill and suffering from a cerebral hemorrhage, he was being refused adequate medical treatment. Instead he was being given Cobalt ray treatments which could not cure his illness but only kill him day by day. The revolutionaries succeeded in wounding several congressmen in the House of Representatives chamber before being captured. In 1965, knowing that Don Pedro was near death, and not wanting him to die in prison, the colonial government released him. He died three months later. 26 Lolita Lebron. under arrest after shooting up the U.S. House of Representatives. The courageous actions of the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico caused a vicious repression which forced it to go underground and almost destroyed it. The history of Albizu Campos and the Nationalist Party is one of great courage and self-sacrifice which will inspire all future generations of Puerto Rican revolutionaries.

33 Puerto Rican revolutionaries under arrest, from left to right, Irving Flores, Rafael Miranda, Lolita Lebron, Andres Cordero. Albizu never compromised until the day he died. 27

34 With Albizu Campos out of the way, the Nationalist Party shattered and a reign of terror directed against those people who supported independence, the U.S. imposed Public Law 600 in This created the "Commonwealth" or "Associated Free State of Puerto Rico". This law made it legal for the Puerto Rican flag to be flown alongside the American flag from all public buildings, allowed our national anthem to be played on public occasions and in the schools only as long as the U.S. anthem was also played, and provided for some other superficial changes. -Puerto Ricans were then allowed to write a constitution which could be revised or changed by the U.S. THE "COMMONWEALTH" OF PUERTO RICO 28

35 li. congress. All North American laws remained in full force in Puerto Rico. The colonial government organized a large campaign in favor of this law. Munoz Marin travelled throughout the country declaring that anyone who opposed the Commonwealth and the phony referendum in which the people were to vote for or against it, would be opposing our country's anthem and flag and would be for colonialism and an enemy of the people. More than 50% qf the eligible voters refused to even vote but Munoz Marin spoke at great length about the "self-deermination" and the "desire for permanent union with the U.S." which had been expressed by the people of Puerto Rico. The U.S. then asked that the United Nations remove Puerto Rico from its list of colonies and that Puerto Rico be declared an autonomous free country. The U.N. at that time completely dominated by the United States, agreed, refusing to even consider the arguments of the Puerto Rican people themselves. Under the "Commonwealth", Puerto Rico could not enter into commercial relations with any other country other than the U.S. We could not have our own citizenship and we were still forced to enter military service in the U.S. army. We had no control over our customs, postal, monetary or judicial systems, all final decisions in these areas still resting with U.S. institutions. Before the imposition of the "Commonwealth" the U.S. controlled the issuing of passports, radio and t.v., newspapers, and our trade, shipping and migration laws. U.S. military bases occupied 13% of our best land. The most important aspects of our national life were still controlled by North American interests. None of this has changed. THE WEALTH 29

36 OPERATION BOOTSTRAP AND THE GREAT MIGRATION Operation Bootstrap was Munoz Mann's plan to supposedly improve the standard of living on the island by completely opening up Puerto Rico to U.S. investors. It is used by supporters of North American colonialism as an example of the benefits of association with the United States and the value of capitalist "free enterprise". What is never mentioned by these people is the fact that the "economic miracle" which transformed our "poor and backward island" into a "Showcase of democracy" was nothing more than the complete sellout of our nation's human and natural resources for the profit of U.S. businessmen and a few Puerto Ricans ready to sell out their country for American dollars. Operation Bootstrap did increase the standard of living for a minority of people but the price we paid was the surrender of our national right to control our resources and develop an economy which would benefit ALL of our people. The great "economic miracle" meant that the beaches of Puerto Rico, among the most beautiful in the world, were given to American businessmen who built luxury tourist hotels which then employed our people as maids, busboys, dishwashers and janitors. These hotels return huge profits to these investors while our own people are not allowed to even swim on their own beaches, the best of which are owned by these hotels and which are used almost exclusively by rich North American tourists. Operation Bootstrap meant that U.S. corporations 30 were invited to build factories on land which was given to them free of charge. These companies did not even have to pay taxes on their profits for a period of seventeen years, after which they could continue to evade paying by simply changing the company's name. Operation Bootstrap meant that Puerto Rico's workers would be paid Our people were driven off their land. slave wages in comparison to what American workers would earn in the U.S. for the same work. It meant that our people were encouraged to become migratory farm workers, imported into the U.S. by the thousands to harvest the agricultural products which would be eaten by North Americans at the cost of our people being herded around from farm to farm like animals, performing backbreaking labor in the fields, and working for wages and under inhuman conditions which the American workers would never stand for. Many of these farm workers had once farmed their own land which they had been cheated and robbed of by businessmen and corporations which began to acquire any way they could what was left of our best and most fertile earth. Our people were driven off their land by the same invaders who had murdered and stolen the land of the North American Indians. Our island was transformed into an American plantation and while some of our people had more food in their stomachs, the price we paid was the loss of our land and the enslavement of our

37 population in U.S. owned factories and industries. Puerto Rico became a "paradise" for the rich North American looking for pleasure and profit. Many of our young women were turned into prostitutes, our young men into pimps and drug addicts, all of which served the interests of the United States colonialism which must waeken and destroy our people in every way imaginable in order to maintain its control Still there were too many hungry and discontented people in Puerto Rico who might rise up and cause "trouble". They were encouraged to migrate to the U.S. in search of the beautiful future offered by the "Amer- 31

38 lean Dream". We were told that everyone was rieh in the U.S.. that no one went hungry and there were plenty of good jobs, money to he made and the good life. Our people left the colonial "paradise" by the hundreds of thousands, not because of any great love for North Americans or their "way of life" but because they were^ offered some hope for a decent life in the "land of opportunity". What did we find? We found ourselves living in foul, overcrowded slums where many of us slept seven or eight in one room in a 32 society which threw us into garment center sweatshops and humiliated those who could not even get that kind of "work" by providing us with so-called "welfare" to keep us quiet. A society which tried to erase from our children's minds our language and culture in the public schools, a society which attempted to commit genocide against us while telling us how proud we should be that we were "Americans". One of our people who grew up during this period of our history recalls the pain and misery which we suffered; "By 1949 the U.S. knew that it was going to war in Korea. Where else could the U.S. get cheap labor in the hundreds of thousands but in Puerto Rico to fill the low paying unskilled jobs in the sweatshops while the U.S. put its war machinery into high gear to support the Korean War? They took our young men to Korea and our women and beautiful children to New York City, Chicago, Connecticut, Jersey City and Hoboken to oil that war machinery with our flesh and blood and to cater to the needs of the Establishment for dishwashers, bootshiners, prostitutes, yes prostitutes, because this society completely broke up our family structure, this society tried to crush our inherent Puerto Rican pride, this society transformed a pleasant healthy human being into a street fighter, a hustler, it transformed the Puerto Ricans into packs of roaming wandering tribes that were forced to ally on' the streets of New York as "gangs" as a means of keeping their identity and protecting their little communities against the viciousness of their North American "hosts" who thought of Puerto Ricans as cultureless, wild, uncivilized, dirty and immoral animals. The abuse only ended when the Puerto Ricans in New York started to fight back against the North Americans who were continually degrading and humiliating us. When we began to fight back was when the oppressors began to understand that the Puerto Rican was not going to be pushed around any longer." "The children of the 50's are out in the streets now. We are going to free Puerto Rico and all Puerto Ricans whether in the U.S. or on the island. We are

39 committed to this struggle for freedom. The North American white in New York, Chicago, Bridgeport, Newark, knows that not one Puerto Rican will take an insult without hitting back. The U.S. government has taken our most prized possession, our Nationhood, we want it back. We will get it back. The time for crying about past atrocities committed against us is over. This decade of the seventies will see Puerto Rico Free. The alternative is that the children of the 50's and the 60's will be dead. That's like it is. FREEDOM AT ANY PRICE. North American colonialist capitalism will pay eye for eye both for ourselves and for all oppressed people". Munoz Marin and other Puerto Rican bootlickers have proven themselves to be traitors to present and future generations of Puerto Ricans who have seen our nation sold out, our people betrayed and made to feel like strangers in their own country. The phony "Commonwealth" relationship has provided a legal mask for the continuation of U.S.' political, military and economic control of our Nation. Operation Bootstrap provided a legal mask for the wholesale takeover of all of our natural and human resources. The fact that we are still here, Puerto Rican and Proud, teaches us a great deal about the strength and will to survive of the Puerto Rican Nation. 33

40 A BRIEF SUMMARY ABOUT THE PRESENT SITUATION ALL POWER TO T PEOPLI The death of Albizu Campos and the suppression of the Nationalist Party has not ended the liberation struggle. On the contrary, Puerto Rico has given birth to a number of organizations and groups wliich are dedicated to overthrowing the stranglehold of U.S. colonialism on our nation. Organizations like MPKPRO INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENT), the Young Lords Party, El Comite, Resistencia Puertoriquena, Puerto Rican Students Union, FUPI and others have intensified their efforts to unite the revolutionary struggle on the island with the struggle which our people are waging in the U.S. We are creating a Puerto Rican revolutionary consciousness which will unite all of our people, no matter where they live and create a mass revolutionary struggle involving all of our oppressed people. Groups like CAL- (Commandos of Armed Libera- 34 Puerto Ricans are fed up in the streets of New York.

41 ...and Puerto Rico tion) and MIRA (Armed Revolutionary Independence Movement), have taken the road of underground armed struggle, bombing and attacking U.S. controlled places of business and other symbols of North American Colonialism. These growing armed attacks have forced many U.S. enterprises to go out of business and has reduced the number of tourists coming to the island. There have been numerous battles between colonial police and students at the University over issues relating to the U.S. domination of our country and numerous students and puppet police have been killed and wounded in these battles. The people are taking matters into their own hands as witness the struggle of the people of Culebra, (one of our offshore islands) to kick the U.S. navy, which has been using the island for artillery practice, off their land. Large numbers of young Puerto Ricans have refused induction into the U.S. army, defying the U.S. government and making it clear that the fight is at home, for the liberation of our island. The people are becoming increasingly militant in their opposition to the United States and its puppets attempt to wipe out any trace of a Puerto Rican consciousness. The most recent colonial governor, Luis Ferre, a rich businessman, has taken to making his speeches in English and he is openly campaigning for Puerto Rico to be made into an American state. This would complete the absolute takeover of our Nation by the United States and it would be only a matter of time before our people would die out as a Nation, just as the Indians died out after the Spanish conquest. Puerto Rico would be made into another Hawaii where the native people have become a small minority in their own country. This is called genocide, but we will not allow it to happen. Pu erto Rico will be free because we understand what is happening to us and we are prepared to fight for the rest of our lives to free our nation. The fear of independence which has been promoted by the U.S. and its Puerto Rican puppets is disappearing We know that standing on our own feet after centuries 35

42 The vicious colonial terror continues.

43 The people retaliate. Luis Ferre, Arch Traitor ENEMY OF THE PUERTO RICAN PEOPLE of colonial domination will not be easy, nothing that is good and worth fighting for ever is. But we know that we are not alone in our struggle, millions of people throughout the world are waging the same war for national liberation and socialism. The future is with us and people like ourselves who constitute the majority of all mankind, Cubans. Chinese, Vietnamese, Algerians, all of us fighting the same enemy and building a new world where the few will not profit off the work of the many and all of the people will share the wealth and resources which until now have been controlled by a small part of Humanity. PUERTO RICO AND ALL OPPRESSED AND COLONIZED PEOPLE WILL BE FREE!!! 37

44 oc AS OUR

45 SOME FACTS CONCERNING THE REAL PUERTO RICO 39

46 THE MILITARY POLICE-STATE In order to maintain its colonial domination over our country, the U.S. maintains a very large political and military force. The colonial police force is 15,000 strong and growing every year. The combined forces of the FBI, CIA, the Agency for Internal security and the Criminal Investigations Corps amount to more than 1,500 men. The U.S. National Guard and the Air National Guard have a force of more than 15,000 men in Puerto Rico. The U.S. also maintains units of the Reserve Corps of the U.S. army in our country totaling more than 20,000 soldiers. There are also more than 50,000 soldiers, marines and 40 C" *' other military personnel stationed in bases throughout our country. All combined this adds up to over 100,000 government police agents and soldiers on a small island with a population of 2,800,000. Puerto Rico is not only economically and politically exploited, the island -has also been transformed into a giant U.S. military base with \3% of our best land being used as military bases. Puerto Rico has become a part of the U.S. atomic arsenal without the consent of our people. Puerto Rico has also been used as a convenient staging area against liberation struggles throughout the Caribbean and Latin America. Our country is used as an anti-cuba, where troops from many oppressed nations are trained to suppress other popular uprisings against U.S. colonialism and imperialism. In the event of the U.S. becoming involved in an atomic war, Puerto Rico would be an important strategic target for retaliation, paying the price for wars and actions which are made in the U.S.A. Not only are our people and our island exploited in every way, we are also being used as a tool against other people fighting, as we are fighting, for their national liberation.

47 One of the U.S. industrial plants which exploit our workers. ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION The U.S. does not exploit Puerto Rico only for its stratetic military value. The economic control of our Island's resources by american corporations 'produces great profits for U.S. business while at the same time exhausting Puerto Rico's natural and human resources. Under the so-called "Economic Encouragement Plan" the U.S. companies in our country do not pay taxes on their new industries for a period of 10 to 17 years. The North American companies usually close their factories when the end of the legal tax exemption approaches and then simply reopen them under another name. In this manner, they can indefinitely avoid paying taxes. The colonial government not only allows these companies to avoid taxation but even grants them loans, trains workers and builds factories for them according to the specifications of the investors. These factories are then leased to the investors for a small fee and the government recruits the workers for them. In short, the "Commonwealth" government openly welcomes and helps the North American investors who are only interested in exploiting our country for their own profit. As a result of their tax exemption and the low wages paid to the Puerto Rican workers, the U.S. corporations and investors gain a yearly tax-free profit of 28% on the money they invest. This means that for every $1,000 invested, the company is guaranteed a profit of $280.00! Puerto Ricans pay more and get less. The average profit for these companies in Puerto Rico is well over double the amount that can be obtained in the U.S. itself. The average pay of a Puerto Rican industrial worker is one half to one third of what a worker in the U.S. makes. With that kind of low pay the Puerto Rican industrial worker is faced with a cost of living in Puerto 41

48 Rico which is 25% higher than in the U.S. One indication of this is the fact that U.S. government employees in Puerto Rico receive higher wages to make up for the island's higher cost.of living. The low wages paid to our workers is a deliberate policy of our "Commonwealth" government and the U.S. Our cheap labor allows the U.S. investors to make large profits while at the same time contrplling the phony trade unions which serve the corporation's and not the worker's interests. Most of these unions are run by people who have turned their back on the workers and sold themselves out to North American interests. The U.S. exercises a profitable control over our contry's economy. Puerto Rico is the fifth largest market for U.S. products in the world. In 1966 for example, U.S. exports to Puerto Rico amounted to almost a billion and a half dollars. Restrictions imposed by the "Commonwealth" government and the U.S. prevent us from trading with other nations of the world on a basis of equality. Puerto Rico is capable of producing many of the products which it has to import from the U.S. and other countries, but the policy of the "Commonwealth" government and U.S. exploiters is to maintain the island as a profitable market, source of cheap exploitable labor, military base, tourist attraction for wealth Americans, and a rich source of natural resources for U.S. industry. Puerto 6co is thus prevented from developing it's own merchant shipping, agriculture, fishing industry, etc., anything which might damage the U.S. monopoly of our economic resources. PHONY INDUSTRIALIZATION Is Puerto Rico an industrialized country as the U.S. claims? The majority of industries in Puerto Rico produce raw materials or semi-finished products which are mainly for export. There are practically no industries which produce raw materials or finished products for the Island's consumption. The General Electric Co., General Motors, Sunbeam Enterprises, etc. have factories in Puerto Rico which process raw materials and turn out products which are used by other industries as raw materials. This type of industry accounts for the majority of industrial enterprises in Puerto Rico but it does not make Puerto Rico economically independent. It does just the opposite since most of the basic materials used in manufacturing are imported and the products themselves are then 42 exported to foreign markets. If foreign trade decreases then these companies close their factories. If not they continue to operate in Puerto Rico. On the other hand, industrial enterprises which would help to make the Puerto Rican economy more independent of American control are not developed. (As a matter of fact, Puerto Rico finds itself importing products which used to be plentiful and produced on the island such as coffee, platinos, pineapples, lettuce. Even sugar, which was once a basic Puerto Rican industry, is in shorter supply and increasingly expensive!)the "industrialization" of Puerto Rico is a myth. A country is industrialized with the goal of achieving greater economic independence by its cheaply manufacturing products which can also be exported. Those industries are developed whichfit in with the country's climate and natural resources so that the country can meet its own needs and export the surplus. In this way the country earns foreign currency which enables it to buy machinery and other industrial products which it cannot yet manufacture. Can a country which produces tobacco but does not manufacture cigarettes, produces coffee but has to import ground coffee, produces sugar cane but has to import refined sugar, be considered industrialized? Puerto Rico, which has large salt mines, has to import salt. Puerto Rico with great amounts of fish off its coastal waters has to import most of its seafood. Only a poorly informed

49 person would say that a country :can be industrially developed by '.destroying and discouraging the 'industries which our country.would naturally be able to develjop. Yet this is what is happening 'because as a colony of the Uni-' ted States, Puerto Rico's inte- * rests are secondary to the profits j.of North American corporations. f\3&,.-^»» Tabacco farm and siioar plantation. l^pph mm m 'M^\ i 85% of the money invested in our country comes from foreign interests. 85% of the industries belong to American companies. 50% of the shops are owned by foreign capitalists. 40% of our agriculture is controlled by North American companies. An independent country can protect its economy, develop it and prevent its control by foreign interests. Puerto Rico as a colonized nation, does not have this power.

50 Tourist Paradise. HUNGER...MISERY...AND SELF-DESTRUCTION The "Commonwealth" and U.S. governments are attempting to create the impression both in and outside of Puerto Rico that our island is a paradise where the people enjoy "liberty", "a high standard of living" and "happiness'. But let us examine this paradise. Thirty-five percent of the people of Puerto Rico must receive charity or welfare so that they can stay alive. Unemployment affects 14'7 of the work force of this is a total of l)8.000 people unemployed. There are more than people under-employed. These include agricultural workers who work on the sugar cane and other harvests and are unemployed more than six months of the year. Altogether. 28rr of the working force is out of work for six months and \4'< are unemployed for the whole year. 44 f- Forty percent of the existing housing in Puerto Rico is considered by the Colonial Health Department as "Unsuitable for habitation". The government is not too disturbed about the fact that our people have to live under these conditions. But the "Commonwealth" government does pay much attention to and offers great encouragement to the building of huge luxury hotels for wealthy American tourists and housing for the middle and upper classes. But our people living in the slums and the countryside are ignored. The colonial politicans only visit the slums and countryside once every four years when it's election time, time to fool the peopie. In a recent research project (January 1969). the Puerto Rican Department of Education discovered that there were more than 80,000 young people between the ages of 14 and 21 years of age who were out of school and had been unable to finish high school. The public debt of government and its agencies is over 600 million dollars. This is more than $250 for every person in our country. Private debt is more than SI, 100 million dollars, an average of S420 dollars per person. The total of Pu erto Rico's public and private debt is over S1.700 million dollars. This total represents an average debt of S for each Puerto Rican. To pay off these debts the colonial government collects some of the world's highest taxes while at the same time. North American investors enjoy tax-free facilities.

51 This is the real Paradise for many,' our people.

52 ...and self-destruction. All of the evils of a rotting society, theft, prostitution, drugs, etc., flourish in Puerto Rico. In our country, one person out of 50 is a drug addict according to information published some time ago by the New York Times. It is mostly our young people between the ages of 18 and 25 who are affected. The thousands and thousands of school dropouts or the "kicked out" of the educational system, the young people who could potentially become the dynamite that will destroy the system, instead destroy themselves. Prostitution flourishes where the U.S. military bases and tourist centers are located. This violence which we inflict upon ourselves is the direct product of being a colonized people. 46

53 THE COLONIAL SYSTEM OF MISEDUCATIOIM The educational system in Puerto Rico is designed to confuse and mis-educate our young people into believing the American version of our history, culture and colonial situation. The aim is to create generations of Puerto Ricans who are dependent on the UJ^^nd ^ungware of their true n itional identity. The main purpoi,e of the so-called Puerto Rican educational system is to create a feeling of powerlessness and "nferiority in our nation. From the beginning our children 816 ta ught by the colonial governm ent that»puerto Rico is very s mall and unimportant and that * he "U.S. is very rich and Power, ful» Puerto Rico is a weak dot in the ocean, the U.S. k a ' arge and strong country, In this manner, the oppressor attempts to cripple our minds and produce a sense of inferiority and dependence upon the. U.S. which becomes part of our national mentality. In the schools, the colonialist teachers emphasize the superior culture, history and power of the U.S. while ignoring our own history, culture and position in the world. This situation in the public schools is even worse in the private church schools. In the church schools, instruction is in english. This is not surprising because these schools were created to serve the needs of the colonial bureaucrats who did not want their children to mix with the "colored" or poor white children who attend the public schools. In other words the educational system practices racial and social discrimination against all poor Puerto Ricans. Up until the 1940's, english was the only language used in the schools. Because of the persistent struggle of our people in the defense of our national language, the colonial authorities and the North Americans were forced to re-establish education in Spanish in all the public schools in the colony. This of course lid not apply to the private s;hools. English s a compulsory subject in all tht schools and universities in Puero Rico. Although the other sujjects are taught in Spanish, th majority of the textbooks ued are printed in Enguiisb.Ib'Puerto Rican student is forced to study mathematics, algebra, biology, medicine, etc. from textbooks published in English when they could be using perfectly adequate Spanish texts. But English, being the language of a superior culture and world power, is preferred to our native Spanish which is obviously inferior and the language of a "weak and small nation". Th e use of English textbooks is the cause of great mental torture for our young people and prevents them from truly becoming as well educated in their field of study as they would be if they did not have to constantly struggle with this foreign language. The result is that our students almost never acquire a thorough knowledge of English, Spanish, Physics, mathematics, history, etc. As a way of testing this system, you might ask one hundred students chosen at random, who liberated the African Slaves in Puerto Rico. A large number would answer Abraham Lincoln. And they would give this answer in spite of the fact that they know that Lincoln was President of the U.S. in the 1860's when Puerto Rico was still a Spanish colony. They answer Lincoln because they have no idea liberated the slaves in Puerto Rico and they are fooled into believing that Puerto Rico has always been a U.S. "protectorate". Our students grow up knowing that George Washington was the first President of the U.S. and that he "never told a lie". But they are denied the facts concerning Puerto Rico's own great men and women patriots. This is the way a colonial "educational" system is supposed to function. It creates a colonized mentality which makes it easier to exploit us and is meant to finally eliminate us as a nation, as a people. This is called genocide, but the U.S. and its bootlickers call it "Commonwealth" and "progress". Yanquis si, Puerto Rico no this is the motto of the Puerto Rican system of miseducation. But Puerto Rico continues to be a Spanish speaking Latin American country with its own history, culture and traditions. They will not succeed in erasing us from the rest of the world, WE WILL BE FREE!! 47

54

55 _ I "Para quitarnos la Patria...primero tienen que quitarnos la vida." "Donde la tirania es ley-afirmo-la revolucion es orden." "To take our country, first they have to take our lives." "Where tyranny is the law, revolution is the order of the day." DON PEDRO ALBIZU CAMPOS

56 'j quiero colonia ni con Espania ni C(Estados Unidos. Quiero mi Patria H\, independiente y soberana. Que h?i los Puertorriquenos que no se rein?" 'I don't want a colony, not with Spain or the United States. I want my country Free, Independent and Sovereign. "Why don't th; Puerto Ricans revolt?" RAMON EMETERIO BETANCES PADRE DE LA PATRIA