Pedro Albizu Campos

Pedro Albizu Campos
Pedro Albizu Campos in 1936.
Born	(1891-09-12)September 12, 1891 Ponce, Puerto Rico
Died	21 April 1965 (1965-04-22) (aged 73) San Juan, Puerto Rico
Nationality	Puerto Rican
Alma mater	University of Vermont, Harvard University
Organization	Puerto Rican Nationalist Party
Religion	Roman Catholic
Spouse(s)	Laura Meneses

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 Cadets of the Republic Puerto Rico's Gag Law (Ley de la Mordaza) Puerto Rican Nationalist Party Revolts of the 1950s Jayuya Uprising San Juan Nationalist revolt 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 Julia de Burgos Raimundo Díaz Pacheco Lolita Lebrón Tomás López de Victoria Hugo Margenat Francisco Matos Paoli Ruth Mary Reynolds Isolina Rondón Vidal Santiago Díaz Clemente Soto Vélez Griselio Torresola Antonio Vélez Alvarado Carlos Vélez Rieckehoff Olga Viscal Garriga
Notable Nationalists Margot Arce de Vázquez Nemesio Canales Carmelo Delgado Delgado Isabel Freire de Matos Isabel Rosado José Ferrer Canales René Marqués Pedro "Davilita" Ortiz Davila Germán Rieckehoff Helen Rodriguez-Trias Daniel Santos Teófilo Villavicencio Marxuach Félix Benítez Rexach

Pedro Albizu Campos (September 12, 1891 – April 21, 1965) was a Puerto Rican attorney, politician, and the leading figure in the Puerto Rican independence movement. Gifted in languages, he spoke six and was the first Puerto Rican to graduate from Harvard Law School.

Albizu Campos was the president and spokesperson of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party from 1930 until his death in 1965. Because of his oratorical skill, he was hailed as El Maestro (The Teacher). He was imprisoned 26 years for attempting to overthrow the U.S. government in Puerto Rico.

In 1950 he planned and called for armed uprisings in several cities in Puerto Rico on behalf of independence. Afterward he was convicted and imprisoned again. He died in 1965 shortly after his pardon and release from federal prison, some time after suffering a stroke. There is controversy over his medical treatment in prison.

Early life and education

Albizu Campos was born in the Tenerías sector of Barrio Machuelo Abajo in Ponce, Puerto Rico to Alejandro Albizu Romero, known as "El Vizcaíno,” was a Basque merchant, and Juana Campos, a woman of Spanish, African and Taino ancestry, on 12 September 1891. From an educated family, Albizu was the nephew of the danza composer Juan Morel Campos, and cousin of Puerto Rican educator Dr. Carlos Albizu Miranda.

Albizu graduated from Ponce High School. In 1912, Albizu was awarded a scholarship to study Engineering, specializing in Chemistry at the University of Vermont. In 1913 he transferred to continue his studies at Harvard University.

At the outbreak of World War I, he volunteered in the United States Infantry. Albizu was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Army Reserves and sent to the City of Ponce, where he organized the town's Home Guard. He was called to serve in the regular Army and sent to Camp Las Casas for further training. Upon completing the training, he was assigned to the 375th Infantry Regiment. The United States Army, then segregated, assigned Puerto Ricans of recognizably African descent as soldiers to the all-black units, such as the 375th Regiment. Officers were men classified as white, as was Albizu Campos.

Lieutenant Pedro Albizu Campos (U.S. Army)

Albizu was honorably discharged from the Army in 1919, with the rank of First Lieutenant. During his military service, he was exposed to the racism of the day. This deepened his perspective on U.S.- Puerto Rican relations, and he became the leading advocate for Puerto Rican independence.

In 1919, Albizu returned to his studies at Harvard University, where he was elected president of the Harvard Cosmopolitan Club. He met with foreign students and world leaders, such as Subhas Chandra Bose, the Indian Nationalist leader, and the Hindu poet Rabindranath Tagore. He became interested in the cause of Indian independence, and also helped to establish several centers in Boston for Irish independence. Through this work, Albizu met the Irish leader, Éamon de Valera, and later became a consultant in the drafting of the constitution of the Irish Free State.

Albizu Campos graduated from Harvard Law School while simultaneously studying Literature, Philosophy, Chemical Engineering and Military Science at Harvard College. He was fluent in six modern and two classical languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Latin and Greek.

Upon graduation from law school, Albizu was recruited for prestigious positions, including a law clerkship to the U.S. Supreme Court, a diplomatic post with the U.S. State Department, the regional vice-presidency (Caribbean region) of a U.S. agricultural syndicate, and a tenured faculty appointment to the University of Puerto Rico.

On June 23, 1921, after graduating from Harvard Law School, Albizu returned to Puerto Rico - but without his law diploma. He had been the victim of racial discrimination by one of his professors, who delayed his third-year final exams for courses in Evidence and Corporations. According to Marisa Rosado's 1991 biography of him published in Puerto Rico, Albizu was about to graduate with the highest grade-point average in his entire law school class. As such, he was scheduled to give the valedictory speech during the graduation ceremonies. His professor delayed his exams so that he could not complete his work, and avoided the "embarrassment" of a Puerto Rican law valedictorian.

Albizu left the U.S., took and passed the two exams in Puerto Rico, and in June 1922 received his law degree by mail. He passed the bar exam and was admitted to the bar in Puerto Rico on February 11, 1924.

Marriage and family

In 1922, Albizu married Dr. Laura Meneses, a Peruvian biochemist whom he had met at Harvard University. They had four children named Pedro, Laura, Emilia, and Hector.

Historical context

After four hundred years of colonial domination under the Spanish Empire, Puerto Rico finally received its colonial autonomy in 1898 through a Carta de Autonomía (Charter of Autonomy). This Charter of Autonomy was signed by Spanish Prime Minister Práxedes Mateo Sagasta and ratified by the Spanish Cortes.

Despite this, just a few months later, the United States claimed ownership of the island as part of the Treaty of Paris which concluded the Spanish-American War. Persons opposed to the takeover over the years joined together in what became the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. Their position was that, as a matter of international law, the Treaty of Paris could not empower the Spanish to "give" to the United States, what was no longer theirs.

The Nationalist movement was intensified by the Ponce Massacre and the Rio Piedras Massacre, which showed the violence which the United States was prepared to use, in order to maintain its colonial regime in Puerto Rico. The profits generated by this one-sided arrangement were enormous.

In 1901, the first civilian U.S. governor of Puerto Rico, Charles Herbert Allen, installed himself as president of the largest suger-refining company in the world, the American Sugar Refining Company. This company was later renamed as the Domino Sugar company.

In effect, Charles Allen leveraged his governorship of Puerto Rico into a controlling interest over the entire Puerto Rican economy.

In the mid-1930s, amid the problems of the Great Depression, the Nationalist movement drew energy from the outrages of the Rio Piedras and the Ponce massacres. They believed that it showed the extent of violence which the government, supported by the United States, was prepared to use in order to maintain the colonial regime in Puerto Rico. The motive for the violence, especially during the Great Depression, was quite simple: the profits generated by this colonial arrangement were enormous.

United States "Manifest Destiny"

Pres. Roosevelt wielding a big stick in the Caribbean

President Theodore Roosevelt fought in the Spanish-American War, and viewed Puerto Rico as an outright property of the U.S., as part of the spoils of victory. Consistent with this view, in 1901, the very first civilian U.S. governor of Puerto Rico, Charles Herbert Allen, installed himself as president of the largest suger-refining company in the world, the American Sugar Refining Company. This company was later renamed as the Domino Sugar company.

In effect, Charles Allen leveraged his governorship of Puerto Rico into a controlling interest over the entire Puerto Rican economy. By 1930, over 40 percent of all the arable land in Puerto Rico had been converted into sugar plantations, which were entirely owned by Charles Allen and U.S. banking interests. These bank syndicates also owned the entire coastal railroad, and the San Juan international seaport.

During this same period, U.S. companies acquired huge amounts of private land throughout northern South America and Central America, which included much agricultural land, together with the banana companies and export facilities.

Puerto Rican Nationalist Party leadership

Pedro Albizu Campos during his years at Harvard University, 1913-1919

The Puerto Rican Nationalist Party was founded by people who wanted independence from foreign banks, absentee plantation owners, and United States colonial rule. In 1924, Albizu Campos joined the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party and was elected vice president.

In 1927, Albizu traveled to Santo Domingo, Haiti, Cuba, Mexico, Panama, Peru, and Venezuela, seeking solidarity among other Latin Americans for the Puerto Rican Independence movement.

In 1930, Albizu and José Coll y Cuchí, president of the Party, disagreed on how the party should be run. As a result, Coll y Cuchí abandoned the party and some of his followers returned to the Union Party. On May 11, 1930, Albizu Campos was elected president of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. He formed the first Women's Nationalist Committee, in the island municipality of Vieques, Puerto Rico.

After being elected party president, Albizu declared: "I never believed in numbers. Independence will instead be achieved by the intensity of those that devote themselves totally to the Nationalist ideal." Under the slogan, "la patria es valor y sacrificio," (the motherland is valor and sacrifice) a new campaign of national affirmation was carried out. Albizu believed in such self-sacrifice together with his Catholic faith.

Question of research by Cornelius P. Rhoads

Main article: Cornelius P. Rhoads

In 1932, Albizu published an article accusing Dr. Cornelius P. Rhoads, an American pathologist, of killing Puerto Rican patients in San Juan's Presbyterian Hospital, as part of his medical research for the Rockefeller Institute. Albizu quoted a private letter which Dr. Rhoads had written to a friend; Albizu had received it from a third party. Rhoads disparaged Puerto Ricans and claimed to have "transplanted cancer" into some patients:

"I can get a damn fine job here and am tempted to take it. It would be ideal except for the Porto Ricans. They are beyond doubt the dirtiest, laziest, most degenerate and thievish race of men ever inhabiting this sphere. It makes you sick to inhabit the same island with them. They are even lower than Italians. What the island needs is not public health work but a tidal wave or something to totally exterminate the population. It might then be livable. I have done my best to further the process of extermination by killing off 8 and transplanting cancer into several more. The latter has not resulted in any fatalities so far... The matter of consideration for the patients' welfare plays no role here - in fact all physicians take delight in the abuse and torture of the unfortunate subjects."

Albizu sent copies of the letter to the League of Nations, the Pan American Union, the American Civil Liberties Union, newspapers, embassies, and the Vatican. Albizu also distributed the letter to the media, along with a letter of his own which was published in in the Porto Rico Progress. Albizu accused Rhoads of moral hazard - specifically, of wantonly killing Puerto Rican patients, in order to further his cancer experiments and his own medical career. At the time, Rhoads admitted to writing the letter, but said it was intended "as a joke."

Early Nationalist efforts

The Ponce Massacre, 1936. Carlos Torres Morales, a photo journalist for the newspaper El Imparcial, took this when the shooting began.

The Nationalist Party obtained poor electoral results in the 1932 election, but continued its campaign to unite the island behind an independent Puerto Rico platform. In 1933, Albizu led a strike against the Puerto Rico Railway and Light and Power Company for its alleged monopoly on the island. The following year, he represented sugar cane workers as a lawyer in a suit against the U.S. sugar industry.

The Nationalist movement was intensified by the some of its members being killed by police during unrest at the University of Puerto Rico in 1935, in what was called the Rio Piedras Massacre. The police were commanded by Colonel E. Francis Riggs, a former US Army officer. Other police killed marchers and bystanders at a parade, in the Ponce Massacre (1936). The Nationalists believed these showed the violence which the United States was prepared to use, in order to maintain its colonial regime in Puerto Rico. . The motive for the violence, especially during the Great Depression, was quite simple: the profits generated by this colonial arrangement were enormous.

The following year in 1936, Hiram Rosado and Elias Beauchamp, two members of the Cadets of the Republic, the Nationalist youth organization, assassinated Colonel Riggs. After their arrest, they were killed without a trial at police headquarters in San Juan.

After these events, on April 3, 1936, a federal Grand Jury submitted an indictment against Albizu Campos, Juan Antonio Corretjer, Luis F. Velázquez, Clemente Soto Vélez and the following members of the cadets: Erasmo Velázquez, Julio H. Velázquez, Rafael Ortiz Pacheco, Juan Gallardo Santiago, and Pablo Rosado Ortiz. They were charged with sedition and other violations of Title 18 of the United States Code.

Clemente Soto Velez, Juan Antonio Corretjer and Pedro Albizu Campos (L to R) detained in 1936.

The prosecution based some of their charges on the Nationalists' creation and organization of the Cadets, which the government referred to as the "Liberating Army of Puerto Rico". The prosecutors said that the military tactics which the cadets were taught were for the purpose of overthrowing the Government of the U.S. A jury of seven Puerto Ricans and five Americans acquitted the individuals on a vote of 7-to-5. Judge Robert A. Cooper called for a new jury, which was composed of ten Americans and two Puerto Ricans. They concluded the defendants were guilty.

In 1937 a group of lawyers, including a young Gilberto Concepción de Gracia, appealed the case, but the Boston Court of Appeals, which held appellate jurisdiction, upheld the verdict. Albizu Campos and the other Nationalist leaders were sentenced to the Federal penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia.

In 1939 the U.S. Congressman Vito Marcantonio strongly criticized the proceedings, calling the trial a "frame-up," and "one of the blackest pages in the history of American jurisprudence." In his speech Five Years of Tyranny, Congressman Marcantonio said that Albizu Campos' jury had been profoundly prejudiced, since it had been hand-picked by the prosecuting attorney, Cecil Snyder. According to Marcantonio, the jury consisted of people "who had expressed publicly bias and hatred for the defendants." He said Snyder had been told that "the Department of Justice would back him until he did get a conviction."

Marcantonio argued for Puerto Rican rights, saying:

"As long as Puerto Rico remains part of the United States, Puerto Rico must have the same freedom, the same civil liberties, and the same justice which our forefathers laid down for us. Only a complete and immediate unconditional pardon will, in a very small measure, right this historical wrong."

In 1943, Albizu became seriously ill and had to be interned at the Columbus Hospital of New York. He stayed there until nearly the end of his sentence. In 1947, after ten years of imprisonment, Albizu was released; he returned to Puerto Rico. Within a short period of time, he began preparing for an armed struggle against the United States' plan to turn Puerto Rico into a "commonwealth" of the U.S.

Passage of Law 53

In 1948, the Puerto Rican Senate passed Law 53, also called the Ley de la Mordaza (Gag Law). At the time, members of the PPD occupied almost all the Senate seats, and Luis Muñoz Marín presided over the chamber.

The bill was signed into law on June 10, 1948, by the U.S.-appointed governor of Puerto Rico Jesús T. Piñero. It closely resembled the anti-communist Smith Law passed in the United States.

The law made it illegal to own or display a Puerto Rican flag anywhere, even in one's own home. It limited speech against the U.S. government or in favor of Puerto Rican independence; and prohibited one 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 (US), or both.

Dr. Leopoldo Figueroa, then a member of the Partido Estadista Puertorriqueño (Puerto Rican Statehood Party) and the only non-PPD member of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives, spoke out against the law, saying that it was repressive and in direct violation of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees Freedom of Speech. Figueroa noted that since Puerto Ricans had been granted US citizenship, they were covered by its constitutional protections.

Second arrest

 The National Guard occupy Jayuya

Pedro Albizu Campos was jailed again after the October 30 Nationalist revolts, known as the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party Revolts of the 1950s, in various Puerto Rican cities and towns against United States rule in 1950. Among the more notable of the revolts was the Jayuya Uprising, when a group of Puerto Rican Nationalists, under the leadership of Blanca Canales, held the town of Jayuya for three days, the Utuado Uprising which culminated in what is known as the "Utuado Massacre," and the attack on La Fortaleza (the Puerto Rican governor's mansion) during the Nationalist attack of San Juan.

On October 31, police officers and National Guardsmen surrounded Salón Boricua, a barbershop in Santurce. Believing that a group of Nationalists were inside the shop, they opened fire. The only person in the shop was Albizu Campos' personal barber, Vidal Santiago Díaz. Santiago Díaz fought alone against the attackers for three hours and received five bullet wounds, including one in the head. The entire gunfight was transmitted "live" via the radio airwaves, and was heard all over the island. Overnight Santiago Díaz, the courageous barber who survived an armed attack by forty police and National Guardsmen, became a legend throughout Puerto Rico.

During the revolt, Albizu Campos was at the Nationalist Party’s headquarters in Old San Juan which also served as his residence. That day he was accompanied by Juan José Muñoz Matos, Doris Torresola Roura (cousin of Blanca Canales and sister of Griselio Torresola), and Carmen María Pérez Roque. The occupants of the building were surrounded by the police and the National Guard who without warning fired their weapons. Doris Torresola, who was shot and wounded, was carried out during a cease in fire by Muñoz Matos and Pérez Roque. Alvaro Rivera Walker, a friend of Albizu Campos, somehow made his way to the Nationalist leader. He stayed with Albizu Campos until the next day when they were attacked with gas. Rivera Walker then raised a white towel he attached to a pole and surrendered. All the Nationalists were, including Albizu Campos, were arrested.

On November 1, 1950, Nationalists Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola attacked the Blair House in Washington, D.C. where president Harry S. Truman was staying while the White House was being renovated. During the attack on the president, Torresola and a policeman, Private Leslie Coffelt, were killed.

Because of this assassination attempt, Albizu Campos was immediately attacked at his home. After a shootout with the police, Campos was arrested and sentenced to 80 years in prison. Over the next few days, 3,000 independence supporters were arrested, all over the island.

Albizu was pardoned in 1953 by then governor Luis Muñoz Marín but the pardon was revoked the following year after the 1954 nationalist attack of the United States House of Representatives, when four Puerto Rican Nationalists, led by Lolita Lebrón opened fire from the gallery of the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C..

Though in ill health, Albizu was arrested at once when Lolita Lebrón, Rafael Cancel Miranda, Andres Figueroa Cordero, and Irving Flores, unfurled a Puerto Rican flag and opened fire on the members of the Representatives of the 83rd Congress with the intention of capturing world wide attention to the cause of Puerto Rican independence on March 1, 1954. Ruth Mary Reynolds, the American Nationalist, went to the defense of Albizu Campos and the four Nationalists involved in the shooting incident with the aid of the American League for Puerto Rico's Indepen­dence.

Later years and death

Image of Albizu Campos in prison some time between 1951 and 1953.

During his imprisonment, Albizu suffered deteriorating health. In 1956, he suffered a stroke in prison and was transferred to San Juan's Presbyterian Hospital under police guard. He alleged that he was the subject of human radiation experiments in prison and said that he could see colored rays bombarding him. When he wrapped wet towels around his head in order to shield himself from the radiation, the prison guards ridiculed him as El Rey de las Toallas (The King of the Towels).^{[citation needed]}

Officials suggested that Albizu was suffering from mental illness. Doctors were allowed to examine him. The President of the Cuban Cancer Association, Dr. Orlando Damuy, traveled to Puerto Rico to examine him. Dr. Damuy concluded, from his direct physical examination of Albizu, that the burns on Albizu's body were caused by intense radiation.^{[citation needed]}

On November 15, 1964, on the brink of death, Albizu was pardoned by Governor Muñoz Marin. He died on April 21, 1965. More than 75,000 Puerto Ricans were part of a procession that accompanied his body for burial in the Old San Juan Cemetery.

Later events

In 1994, under the administration of President Bill Clinton, the United States Department of Energy disclosed that human radiation experiments had been conducted without consent on some prisoners in the United States from the 1950s through the 1970s. There is no evidence that Albizu was among them.

Victor Villanueva, a professor in English at Washington State University wrote in 2009 that Albizu had repeatedly said that he was being subjected to radiation. Villanueva acknowledged that this was not proven. He repeats the US Department of Energy disclosure of experimentation.

FBI files on Albizu Campos

In the 2000s, researchers got files released under the Freedom of Information Act from the FBI, revealing that the San Juan FBI office had coordinated with FBI offices in New York, Chicago and other cities, in a decades-long surveillance of Albizu Campos and Puerto Ricans who had contact or communication with him. These documents area viewable online, including some as recent as 1965.

Legacy

Albizu's legacy is the subject of discussion among supporters and detractors. His followers state that Albizu's political and military actions served as a primer for positive change in Puerto Rico, these being:

• the improvement of labor conditions for peasants and workers
• a more accurate assessment of the colonial relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States
• an awareness of this colonial relationship, by the political establishment in Washington, D.C.

The Pedro Albizu Campos statue and monument, at the Park named for him in his birthplace of Ponce, Puerto Rico.

External audio

You may listen to one of the speeches made in Spanish by Albizu Campos here

and view a portion of the Albizu Documentary Trailer made in English here.

Albizu can definitely be credited with preserving and promoting Puerto Rican Nationalism and national symbols, at a time where they were virtually taboo in the country - and even actively outlawed by Law 53, known as La Ley de la Mordaza (the Gag Law). The formal adoption of the Puerto Rican flag as a national emblem by the Puerto Rican government can be traced to Albizu; the revival of public observance of the Grito de Lares and its significant icons was a direct mandate from him as leader of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party.

Albizu was the most vocal and prominent Puerto Rican of African descent of his generation. He had primarily European (Spanish) ancestry from both parents, with mixed ancestry in his mother's line. Afro-Puerto Rican leaders of other political affiliations (such as Ernesto Ramos Antonini and Jose Celso Barbosa) attained similar status only after facing (and enduring) considerable discrimination from racism. Albizu, while not exempt from it, confronted it and denounced it publicly.

Honors

• In Chicago, an alternative high school was named the Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos High School.
• In New York City, Public School 161 in Harlem is named after him.
• In Puerto Rico, five public schools are named after him, as well as streets in most of Puerto Rico's municipalities.
• In his birthplace city of Ponce, there is a Pedro Albizu Campos Park and lifesize statue dedicated to his memory.
• In 1993, Chicago alderman Billy Ocasio, in supporting a statue of Albizu Campos in Humboldt Park, likened him to such American leaders including Patrick Henry, Chief Crazy Horse, John Brown, Frederick Douglass, and W.E.B. Dubois.

See also

• Puerto Rican Independence Movement
• Puerto Ricans in World War I
• Puerto Rican Nationalist Party
• Jayuya Uprising
• Utuado Uprising
• Puerto Rican Independence Party
• Blanca Canales

References

• Acosta, Ivonne, La Mordaza/Puerto Rico 1948-1957. Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, 1987
• Connerly, Charles, ed. Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos, Vieques Times, Puerto Rico, 1995
• Corretjer, Juan Antonio, El Lider De La Desesperación, Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, 1978
• Davila, Arlene M., Sponsored Identities, Cultural Politics in Puerto Rico, Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 1997
• Garcia, Marvin, Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos, National Louis University
• Torres Santiago, Jose M., 100 Years of Don Pedro Albizu Campos

External links

• Joan Klein, Oncology Times Interview: "Susan B. Horwitz, PhD, Finishes Term (Plus!!) As AACR President!/Cornelius P. Rhoads Controversy", Oncology Times, 25 July 2003, Vol. 25 - Issue 14, pp. 41–42
• "Pedro Albizu Campos", Portraits of Notable Individuals in the Struggle for Puerto Rican Independence, Peace Host website
• FBI Files on Puerto Rico
• "Human Radiation Experiments", US Department of Energy, 1994
• "Pedro Albizu Campos" Biografias y Vidas
• Habla Albizu Campos, Paredon Records, Smithsonian Institution
• ¿Quien Es Albizu Campos? (Who is Albizu Campos?), Film Documentary website, not in distribution