Jayuya Uprising
| 1950 Jayuya Uprising | |
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 U.S. military occupying the town of Jayuya |
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| Location | Jayuya, Puerto Rico |
| Date | October 30, 1950 |
| Target | Supporters of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party |
| Attack type | murder, massacre |
| Weapon(s) | U.S. bomber planes and land-based heavy artillery |
| Deaths | 2 Nationalist dead |
| Injured | 6 police officers |
| Part of a series on the |
| Puerto Rican Nationalist Party |
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Flag of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party
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Events and Revolts
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Nationalist Leaders
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The Jayuya Uprising, also known as the Jayuya Revolt or El Grito de Jayuya, was a Nationalist revolt in the town of Jayuya, Puerto Rico which occurred on October 30, 1950. This revolt, led by Blanca Canales, was one of the multiple revolts which occurred that day, against the United States government.
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[edit] Events leading to the revolt
On September 17, 1922, the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party was formed. Jose Coll y Cuchi, a former member of the Union Party, was elected its first president. He wanted radical changes within the economy and social welfare programs of Puerto Rico. In 1924, Pedro Albizu Campos, a lawyer, joined the party and was named its vice president.
Albizu Campos was the first Puerto Rican graduate of Harvard Law School. He had served as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army during World War I, and believed that Puerto Rico should be an independent nation - even if that required an armed confrontation. By 1930, Coll y Cuchi departed from the party because of his disagreements with Albizu Campos as to how the party should be run. On May 11, 1930, Albizu Campos was elected president of the Nationalist Party.
In the 1930s, the United States-appointed governor of Puerto Rico, Blanton Winship, and police colonel Riggs applied harsh repressive measures against the Nationalist Party.[1] In 1936, Albizu Campos and the leaders of the party were arrested and jailed at the La Princesa prison in San Juan, and later sent to the Federal Prison at Atlanta, Georgia. On March 21, 1937, the Nationalists held a parade in Ponce and the police opened fire on the crowd, in what was to become known as the Ponce Massacre. Albizu Campos returned to Puerto Rico on December 15, 1947 after spending ten years in prison.
On May 21, 1948, a bill was introduced before the Puerto Rican Senate which would restrain the rights of the independence and Nationalist movements in the island. The Senate, which at the time was controlled by the PPD and presided by Luis Muñoz Marín, approved the bill.[2] This bill, also known as the Ley de la Mordaza (Gag Law) and Law 53, received the approval of the legislature on May 21, 1948. The bill, which resembled the anti-communist Smith Law passed in the United States, was signed into law on June 10, 1948, by the U.S.-appointed governor of Puerto Rico, Jesús T. Piñero and became known as Ley 53 (Law 53).[3]
Under this new law it would be a crime to print, publish, sell, or exhibit any material intended to paralyze or destroy the insular government; or to organize any society, group or assembly of people with a similar destructive intent. Anyone accused and found guilty of disobeying the law could be sentenced to ten years imprisonment, a fine of $10,000 dollars (U.S.), or both.
According to Dr. Leopoldo Figueroa, member of the Partido Estadista Puertorriqueño (Puerto Rican Statehood Party) and the only member of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives who did not belong to the PPD,[4] the law was repressive and in violation of the First Amendment of the US Constitution which guarantees Freedom of Speech. As such, this was an assault on the civil rights of every Puerto Rican.[5]
On June 21, 1948, Albizu Campos gave a speech in the town of Manati, which explained how this Gag Law violated the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Nationalists from all over the island had gathered - to hear Campos's speech, and to prevent the police from arresting him.
[edit] Uprising
From 1949 to 1950, the Nationalists in the island began to plan and prepare an armed revolution. The revolution was to take place in 1952, on the date the United States Congress was to approve the creation of the political status Free Associated State (Estado Libre Associado) for Puerto Rico.
Albizu Campos called for an armed revolution because he considered the "new political status" a colonial farce. Campos picked the town of Jayuya as the headquarters of the revolution because of its location, and weapons were stored in the home of Blanca Canales.
On October 26, 1950, Albizu Campos was holding a meeting in Fajardo when he received word that his house in San Juan was surrounded by police waiting to arrest him. He was also told that the police had already arrested other Nationalist leaders. He escaped from Fajardo and ordered the revolution to start. On October 27, the police in the town of Peñuelas, intercepted and fired upon a caravan of Nationalists, killing four.[6] On October 30, the Nationalists staged uprisings in the towns of Ponce, Mayagüez, Naranjito, Arecibo, Utuado (Utuado Uprising), San Juan (San Juan Nationalist revolt), and Jayuya.
The first incident of the Nationalist uprisings occurred in the pre-dawn hours of October 29. The Insular Police of that town surrounded the house of the mother of Melitón Muñiz Santos, the president of the Peñuelas Nationalist Party in the barrio Macaná, under the pretext that he was storing weapons for the Nationalist Revolt. Without warning, the police fired on the house and a gunfight factions ensued. Two Nationalists were killed and six police officers were wounded.[7] Nationalists Meliton Muñoz Santos, Roberto Jaume Rodriguez, Estanislao Lugo Santiago, Marcelino Turell, William Gutirrez and Marcelino Berrios were arrested and accused of participating in an ambush against the local Insular Police.[8][9]
In Jayuya, Canales and the Torresolas led the armed Nationalists into the town and attacked the police station. Shots were fired, one officer was killed, three were wounded, the others dropped their weapons and surrendered. The Nationalists cut the telephone lines and burned the post office. Canales then led the group into the town square, where the light blue version of the Puerto Rican Flag was raised (it was against U.S.-imposed law to carry a Puerto Rican Flag from 1948 to 1957).[10][11] In the town square, Canales gave a speech and declared Puerto Rico a free Republic.
The U.S. begged to differ. They declared martial law and attacked the town with U.S. bomber planes, land-based artillery, mortar fire, grenades, U.S. infantry troops, and the National Guard.[11] The planes machine-gunned nearly every rooftop in the town. The Nationalists managed to hold the town for three days, then mass arrests followed.
Even though an extensive part of Jayuya was destroyed, news of this military action was prevented from spreading outside of Puerto Rico. It was reported as an "incident between Puerto Ricans" by the American media.[11][12]
In response to this mass slaughter, Nationalists Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola decided to assassinate U.S. President Harry S. Truman. On November 1, 1950, they attacked the Blair House, where Truman was staying in Washington, D.C. The attempt failed. Torresola and White House police officer Leslie Coffelt lost their lives.
[edit] Aftermath
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Newsreel scenes in Spanish of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party Revolts of the 1950s here |
The top leaders of the Nationalist party were arrested, including Albizu Campos and Blanca Canales, and sent to jail to serve long prison terms. Oscar Collazo was arrested and sentenced to death. His sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment by U.S. President Truman, and he eventually received a presidential pardon. The City of Jayuya converted the Blanca Canales home into a historical museum.
The last major attempt by the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party to draw world attention to Puerto Rico's colonial situation occurred on March 1, 1954, when nationlist leader Lolita Lebrón together with fellow nationalists Rafael Cancel Miranda, Irving Flores and Andrés Figueroa Cordero attacked the United States House of Representatives. Lebrón and her comrades were charged with attempted murder and other crimes.[13]
[edit] Incarcerated Nationalists
The following is an FBI list of the Jayuya Nationalists who were incarcerated in 1950 and who were still in prison as of 1954[14] :
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[edit] Mundo Abierto (Open world)
Mundo Abierto (Open world) is a poem written in 1956 by Hugo Margenat where he makes reference to the bombardment of the town of Jayuya by the American military during the Jayuya Uprising.[15]
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translation |
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Hombre, rechaza el uniforme que denigra. |
Man, reject the uniform that defames. |
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que como una avalancha de blanco estiércol |
that as an avalanche of white manure |
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nuestros tejados en un día de octubre. |
our roofs in a day of October. |
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y a su calor la patria suspiró transformándose |
and to its heat the country sighed being transformed |
[edit] Gallery
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The House of Nemesio and Blanca Canales -
Monument to the Jayuya Uprising Participants in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico -
Plaque honoring the combatants of the 1950 Jayuya Uprising -
Plaque honoring the female participants of the 1950 Jayuya Uprising
[edit] See also
- Puerto Rican Nationalist Party
- Ducoudray Holstein Expedition
- Grito de Lares
- Intentona de Yauco
- Río Piedras massacre
- Ponce Massacre
- Puerto Rican Nationalist Party Revolts of the 1950s
- Utuado Uprising
- San Juan Nationalist revolt
- Puerto Rican Independence Party
- List of famous Puerto Ricans
- Truman assassination attempt
- Antonio Cruz Colon"La mismas rutas, el mismo sueño: Antonio Cruz mantiene vivos los valores que aprendió de joven con Pedro Albizu Campos." Laura N. Pérez Sánchez. El Nuevo Dia. In section titled, "Un Solo Puerto Rico." 3 October 2011. Retrieved 3 October 2011.
[edit] References
- ^ "Puerto Rico" By Kurt Pitzer, Tara Stevens, page 224, Published by Hunter Publishing, Inc, 2001, ISBN 1588431169, 9781588431165
- ^ "La obra jurídica del Profesor David M. Helfeld (1948-2008)'; by: Dr. Carmelo Delgado Cintrón
- ^ "Puerto Rican History". Topuertorico.org. January 13, 1941. http://www.topuertorico.org/history5.shtml. Retrieved November 20, 2011.
- ^ Ley Núm. 282 del año 2006
- ^ La Gobernación de Jesús T. Piñero y la Guerra Fría
- ^ Puerto Rico history
- ^ El ataque Nacionalista a La Fortaleza. by Pedro Aponte Vázquez. Page 7. Publicaciones RENÉ. ISBN 978-1-931702-01-0
- ^ Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico-FBI files
- ^ El ataque Nacionalista a La Fortaleza; by Pedro Aponte Vázquez; Page 7; Publisher: Publicaciones RENÉ; ISBN 978-1-931702-01-0
- ^ New Yorlk Latino Journal
- ^ a b c Puerto Rico Uprising - 1950
- ^ NY Latino Journal
- ^ Ribes Tovar et al., p.132
- ^ "Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico"; FBI Files; (NPPR); SJ 100-3; Vol. 26; Pages 44-63
- ^ isla negra.
[edit] External links
- Photos of the Jayuya Uprising
- Puerto Rico Marks 60th Anniversary of Jayuya Uprising - video report by Democracy Now!
