Oscar Collazo

Oscar Collazo
Oscar and Rosa Collazo
Born	January 20, 1914 Florida, Puerto Rico
Died	February 21, 1994 San Juan, Puerto Rico
Nationality	Puerto Rican
Influenced by	Pedro Albizu Campos
Political movement	Puerto Rican Nationalist Party
Spouse	Rosa Collazo

Part of a series on the
Puerto Rican Nationalist Party
Flag of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party
Events and Revolts Ponce massacre Río Piedras massacre Puerto Rico's Gag Law (Ley de la Mordaza) Puerto Rican Nationalist Party Revolts of the 1950s Jayuya Uprising Nationalist attack of San Juan Utuado Uprising Truman assassination attempt U.S. Capitol shooting incident (1954)
Nationalist Leaders Pedro Albizu Campos José S. Alegría Casimiro Berenguer Blanca Canales Rafael Cancel Miranda José Coll y Cuchí Oscar Collazo Juan Antonio Corretjer Lolita Lebrón Hugo Margenat Francisco Matos Paoli Isolina Rondón Clemente Soto Vélez Griselio Torresola Antonio Vélez Alvarado Carlos Vélez Rieckehoff Olga Viscal Garriga
Notable Nationalists Margot Arce de Vázquez Julia de Burgos Nemesio Canales Carmelo Delgado Delgado Isabel Freire de Matos Isabel Rosado José Ferrer Canales René Marqués Germán Rieckehoff Helen Rodriguez-Trias Daniel Santos Vidal Santiago Díaz Teófilo Villavicencio Marxuach

External audio
	Newsreel scenes in English of the assassination attempt on U.S. President Harry S Truman

Oscar Collazo (January 20, 1914 – February 21, 1994), was one of two Puerto Ricans who attempted to assassinate U.S. President Harry S. Truman.

Early life

Collazo was born in what is now Florida, Puerto Rico. In 1920, Collazo's father died and his mother sent him to live with his brother in Jayuya. His brother was a member of the Liberal Party which had independence beliefs. When Collazo was 14 years old, he participated in a student demonstration, which was considered illegal, commemorating the birth of José de Diego. In 1932, when Collazo was 18 years old, he again participated in another demonstration commemorating José de Diego. This time however, the main speaker was Pedro Albizu Campos, the president of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. That day he was so impressed by Albizu Campos' leadership that he joined the Nationalist Party.

In 1941, Collazo moved to New York City where he met and married Rosa, a divorcee. Rosa had two daughters and Collazo had one, both from a previous marriage. Collazo worked in a metal polishing factory and led a normal life. He met and became friends with Albizu Campos when the latter was hospitalized at the Columbus Hospital. Collazo became the secretary and later president of the New York branch of the Nationalist Party. Collazo met Griselio Torresola in New York and they soon became friends.

Plot to assassinate President Truman

Main article: Truman assassination attempt

On October 28, 1950, they received the news that the Jayuya Uprising led by the nationalist leader Blanca Canales in Puerto Rico, had failed. Torresola's sister had been wounded and his brother Elio was arrested. Collazo and Torresola then decided to assassinate President Harry S. Truman with the intention of bringing world attention to the independence cause of Puerto Rico.

On October 31, 1950, Collazo and Torresola arrived at Union Station in Washington, D.C. and registered in the Harris Hotel. On November 1, 1950, Collazo and Torresola, with guns in hand, attempted to enter the Blair House with the intention of assassinating the President, who was residing there while the White House was being renovated. During the attack one White House police officer, Private Leslie Coffelt, was killed and multiple others wounded. Torresola was killed by the mortally wounded Coffelt, and Collazo was shot in the chest and arrested.

In prison, Collazo was asked why he had targeted Truman, who was in favor of self-determination for Puerto Rico and who had appointed the first native-born Puerto Rican governor. Collazo replied that he had nothing against Truman, saying that he was "a symbol of the system. You don't attack the man, you attack the system."

In 1952, Collazo was sentenced to death, but President Truman commuted his sentence to life imprisonment. He was sent to the federal prison at Leavenworth, Kansas. Collazo's sentence was commuted to time served by President Jimmy Carter on September 6, 1979, after spending 29 years in jail. President Carter also commuted the sentences of Collazo's fellow nationalists Irving Flores, Rafael Cancel Miranda, and Lolita Lebrón. Collazo had been eligible for parole since April 1966, and Lebron since July 1969. Both Messrs. Cancel Miranda and Flores became eligible for parole in July 1979. However, none had applied for parole because of their political beliefs. Upon their return to Puerto Rico, they were received as heroes by the different independence groups.

Collazo's wife, Rosa, was also arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on suspicion of having conspired with her husband, and spent eight months in federal prison.

Upon her release from prison, Rosa continued to work with the Nationalist Party. She helped gather 100,000 signatures in an effort to save her husband from the electric chair.

Later years

In 1979, Collazo and the other nationalists were decorated by Cuba's President Fidel Castro. In the Puerto Rican Cultural Center of Chicago, Illinois, there is a mural painted honoring Puerto Rico's independence leaders which include the images of Collazo and Torresola.

Oscar and Rosa Collazo eventually were divorced. She continued to actively participate in Puerto Rico's independence movement and in 1984 a commemoration for her fifty years of patriotic work was held in the Bar Association Building. She was also given a recognition for her efforts towards the commutation of her former husband's death sentence. Rosa Collazo, who died in May 1988, lived the last years of her life by the side of her daughter Lydia Collazo Cortez.

Oscar Collazo continued to participate in activities related to the independence movement. On February 21, 1994, Oscar Collazo died of a stroke, having passed his 80th birthday by just over a month. The guns used by Collazo and Torresola in the assassination attempt are on display at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum in Independence, Missouri.

Bibliography

• Antonio Gil de Lamadrid Navarro, Los Indomitos
• Oscar Collazo, Oscar Collazo
• Jonah Raskin, Oscar Collazo: Portrait of a Puerto Rican Patriot (New York: New York Committee to Free the Puerto Rican Nationalist Prisoners, 1978).
• Stephen Hunter and John Bainbridge, Jr., American Gunfight: The Plot To Kill Harry Truman - And The Shoot-Out That Stopped It (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005). ISBN 0743260686

See also

• Puerto Rican Nationalist Party Revolts of the 1950s
• List of famous Puerto Ricans
• Private Leslie Coffelt

External links

• Voices of Independence