War Against All Puerto Ricans

War Against All Puerto Ricans
Author: Nelson A Denis
Publisher: Bold Type Books
Total Pages: 402
Release: 2015-04-07
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1568585020

The powerful, untold story of the 1950 revolution in Puerto Rico and the long history of U.S. intervention on the island, that the New York Times says "could not be more timely." In 1950, after over fifty years of military occupation and colonial rule, the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico staged an unsuccessful armed insurrection against the United States. Violence swept through the island: assassins were sent to kill President Harry Truman, gunfights roared in eight towns, police stations and post offices were burned down. In order to suppress this uprising, the US Army deployed thousands of troops and bombarded two towns, marking the first time in history that the US government bombed its own citizens. Nelson A. Denis tells this powerful story through the controversial life of Pedro Albizu Campos, who served as the president of the Nationalist Party. A lawyer, chemical engineer, and the first Puerto Rican to graduate from Harvard Law School, Albizu Campos was imprisoned for twenty-five years and died under mysterious circumstances. By tracing his life and death, Denis shows how the journey of Albizu Campos is part of a larger story of Puerto Rico and US colonialism. Through oral histories, personal interviews, eyewitness accounts, congressional testimony, and recently declassified FBI files, War Against All Puerto Ricans tells the story of a forgotten revolution and its context in Puerto Rico's history, from the US invasion in 1898 to the modern-day struggle for self-determination. Denis provides an unflinching account of the gunfights, prison riots, political intrigue, FBI and CIA covert activity, and mass hysteria that accompanied this tumultuous period in Puerto Rican history.

Puerto Rico's Revolt for Independence

Puerto Rico's Revolt for Independence
Author: Olga Jiménez Wgenheim
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2019-05-29
Genre:
ISBN: 9781558766440

This book interprets Puerto Rico's first and most significant attempt to end its colonial dependence on Spain. Looking at the imperial policies and conditions within Puerto Rico that led to the 1868 rebellion known as El Grito de Lares, the author compares the colonization of Puerto Rico with that of Spanish America and explores why the island's independence movement began decades after Spain's other colonies of the region had revolted. Through the extensive use of previously unresearched archival materials of the rebel movement, she corrects many errors found in earlier accounts of the revolt, and offers new interpretations of the movement's impact on Spanish-Puerto Rican relations.

Free Puerto Rico

Free Puerto Rico
Author: Pedro Albizu Campos
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2021-07-15
Genre: Nationalism
ISBN: 9781105772696

Pedro Albizu Campos (September 12, 1891 - April 21, 1965) was a Puerto Rican attorney and politician, and the leading figure in the Puerto Rican independence movement. Contained in this volume are the most prescient of his words on Puerto Rico, which to this day remains a subject of the United States of America.

Dream Nation

Dream Nation
Author: María Acosta Cruz
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Total Pages: 285
Release: 2014-03-19
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0813571294

Over the past fifty years, Puerto Rican voters have roundly rejected any calls for national independence. Yet the rhetoric and iconography of independence have been defining features of Puerto Rican literature and culture. In the provocative new book Dream Nation, María Acosta Cruz investigates the roots and effects of this profound disconnect between cultural fantasy and political reality. Bringing together texts from Puerto Rican literature, history, and popular culture, Dream Nation shows how imaginings of national independence have served many competing purposes. They have given authority to the island’s literary and artistic establishment but have also been a badge of countercultural cool. These ideas have been fueled both by nostalgia for an imagined past and by yearning for a better future. They have fostered local communities on the island, and still helped define Puerto Rican identity within U.S. Latino culture. In clear, accessible prose, Acosta Cruz takes us on a journey from the 1898 annexation of Puerto Rico to the elections of 2012, stopping at many cultural touchstones along the way, from the canonical literature of the Generación del 30 to the rap music of Tego Calderón. Dream Nation thus serves both as a testament to how stories, symbols, and heroes of independence have inspired the Puerto Rican imagination and as an urgent warning about how this culture has become detached from the everyday concerns of the island’s people. A volume in the American Literature Initiatives series

Los Macheteros

Los Macheteros
Author: Ronald Fernandez
Publisher: Prentice Hall
Total Pages: 272
Release: 1987
Genre: Bank robberies
ISBN: 9780135406007

Caribbean Revolutions

Caribbean Revolutions
Author: Rachel A. May
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 177
Release: 2018-06-21
Genre: History
ISBN: 1108424759

A comprehensive history and comparative analysis of the most important Caribbean armed revolutionary movements during the Cold War era.

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico
Author: José Trías Monge
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 276
Release: 1997-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780300076189

Former Attorney General and former Chief Justice of Puerto Rico, Jose Trias Monge describes his island as one of the most densely populated places on earth, with a severely distressed economy and limited political freedom--still considered a colony of the U.S. Monge claims the island has become too dependent on U.S. money and argues for decolonization and movement toward more independence. 28 illustrations.

Militant Puerto Ricans

Militant Puerto Ricans
Author: Michael González-Cruz
Publisher:
Total Pages: 198
Release: 2020-08
Genre:
ISBN:

Facing discrimination from fellow members in unions, organizations, and political parties, Militant Puerto Ricans tells the story of how Puerto Ricans in the United States participated in traditional politics, while creating clandestine organizations. By 1965, Puerto Ricans had created over six-hundred different political and communal organizations, with different approaches, methods, and tactics. Many organizations focused on improving conditions in Puerto Rican communities, and others aimed at freeing Puerto Rico from its colonial status. Militant Puerto Ricans focuses on the formation and the strategies of the Young Lords Party (YLP), the Puerto Rican Socialist Party (PSP), the Puerto Rican National Left Movement (or the "Comité MINP"), the Puerto Rican Student Union (PRSU), the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional (FALN), the Nationalist Party (PN) and the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP). Militant Puerto Ricans tells the story of how leaders and activists who belonged to these organizations, constantly travelled between Puerto Rico and the U.S., strengthening the bonds between activists and organizations in and outside Puerto Rico. Additionally, Militant Puerto Ricans tells us the story of how clandestine organizations, such as the FALN and the Macheteros, organized to make others conscious about Puerto Rico's colonial status. Militant Puerto Ricans' timeline starts in 1868, when Puerto Ricans rebelled against the Spanish colonial government in "El Grito de Lares." After El Grito, rebel bands in Puerto Rico continued their resistance by assaulting landowners, burning their fields, and destroying credit books. These bands were known as the "Tiznados," who despite their efforts, did not organize into a large-scale revolutionary movement. Puerto Rico would not see a large revolutionary movement until the 1930s, when Pedro Albizu Campos was elected the president of the Nationalist Party, a working-class movement that threatened corporate and colonial powers. The U.S. fought the Nationalist Party by implementing a Gag Law, they tortured and executed Nationalists, and shot peaceful protesters. Facing violent oppression from the colonial government, the armed struggle became clandestine. The Chicago-based Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN) and the Boricua Popular Army (EPB) [otherwise known as the "Macheteros"] took command. They attacked and destroyed banks, oil pipelines, military equipment, and federal offices. Their aim was not to overthrow the government, but to protest Puerto Rico's colonial status. The FBI and Puerto Rican police's tactics against activists were vicious and brutal. Besides their assassinations of activists without due process, one of the most shocking facts this chapter reports on was how a bomb was planted in the Puerto Rican Socialist Party's daycare center. It was only after 150,000 dossiers on independence supporters were revealed to the public in the late 1980s, that the FBI scaled back its vicious assassination campaign. Instead, their tactics shifted to harassment of key individuals, infiltration of activist organizations and a massive media brainwashing campaign to demonize leftist militant tactics.Militant Puerto Ricans concludes with a chapter on the lives of Pedro Albizu Campos' revolutionary disciples. In 1999, the U.S. released twelve Puerto Rican political prisoners after a massive protest took place in the island. Puerto Rico received them with hugs, ovations, and parades. Michael González-Cruz tells us that these revolutionaries were radicalized by the tragic circum-stances of their nation, their communities, and their reality. In the United States, many became radicalized when they witnessed the police and FBI violently repress the Black Panther Party. Puerto Ricans who have been born and raised in the United States have faced racism and discrimination to this day. Our militants have fought for liberation, occupied buildings and rescued their history.

Boom and Bust in Puerto Rico

Boom and Bust in Puerto Rico
Author: A. W. Maldonado
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Pess
Total Pages: 318
Release: 2021-08-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 0268200998

Who is to blame for the economic and political crisis in Puerto Rico—the United States or Puerto Rico? This book provides a fascinating historical perspective on the problem and an unequivocal answer on who is to blame. In this engaging and approachable book, journalist A. W. Maldonado charts the rise and fall of the Puerto Rican economy and explains how a litany of bad political and fiscal policy decisions in Washington and Puerto Rico destroyed an economic miracle. Under Operation Bootstrap in the 1950s and '60s, the rapid transformation and industrialization of the Puerto Rican economy was considered a “wonder of human history,” a far cry from the economic “death spiral” the island’s governor described in 2015. Boom and Bust in Puerto Rico is the story of how the demise of an obscure tax policy that encouraged investment and economic growth led to escalating budget deficits and the government’s shocking default of its $70 billion debt. Maldonado also discusses the extent of the devastation from Hurricane Maria in 2017, the massive street protests during 2019, and the catastrophic earthquakes in January 2020. After illuminating the century of misunderstanding between Puerto Rico and the United States—the root cause of the economic crisis and the island’s gridlocked debates about its political status—Maldonado concludes with projections about the future of the relationship. He argues that, in the end, the economic, fiscal, and political crises are the result of the breakdown and failure of Puerto Rican self-government. Boom and Bust in Puerto Rico is written for a wide audience, including students, economists, politicians, and general readers, all of whom will find it interesting and thought provoking.