Blanca Canales
Blanca Canales | |
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Puerto Rican Nationalist Party | |
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Blanca Canales (February 17, 1906 – July 25, 1996) was an educator and a
As a leader of the Nationalist party in
Early years
Canales was born in
As a child, Canales read many books and stories about other nations and their heroes. She often accompanied her father to political meetings, where she enjoyed the speeches, flag-waving, and patriotic fervor. Canales finished her primary and secondary education in Jayuya.[1]
In 1924, her father died and her mother moved to
Nationalist Party
Canales returned to Jayuya and worked at a local rural school. In 1931, she joined the Nationalist Party and was active in organizing the Daughters of Freedom, the women's branch of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. During the 1940s, Canales' active political participation was limited to making monetary collections because her job kept her constantly traveling from San Juan to Ponce.[1]
After Canales joined the party, a series of increasingly hostile events between the U.S.-appointed government and the Nationalists took place in the 1930s. In 1936, Albizu Campos was arrested and on March 31, 1937 the infamous Ponce massacre took place. In 1947, Albizu Campos was released from jail.
Puerto Rican Gag Law
On May 21, 1948, a bill was introduced before the
Under this new law it became 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. It made it illegal to sing a patriotic song, and reinforced the 1898 law that had made it illegal to display the Flag of Puerto Rico, with anyone found guilty of disobeying the law in any way being subject to a sentence of up to ten years imprisonment, a fine of up to US$10,000 (equivalent to $127,000 in 2023), or both.
According to
On June 21, 1948, Albizu Campos gave a speech in the town of
Police repression
On October 26, 1950, Albizu Campos held a political meeting in
| External audio | |
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 Newsreel scenes on YouTube in Spanish of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party Revolts of the 1950s |
The first battle of the Nationalist uprisings occurred in the pre-dawn hours of October 29, in the barrio Macaná in the town of
Jayuya uprising
On October 30, 1950, the Nationalist leaders in Jayuya – including Canales, her cousin Elio Torresola (Griselio Torresola's brother) and Carlos Irizarry – entered the town of Jayuya with a group of nationalists in a bus and a car. Canales led the group to her house in Barrio Coabey, a neighborhood of Jayuya, where she had been stockpiling arms and ammunition.[7][8]
Armed with the weapons she had stored, Canales and the men attacked and occupied the police station. The Nationalists then occupied the post office, approached the telephone station, and cut the phone lines.
After being notified that Carlos Irizarry was wounded, Canales hurried to the town hospital but the police had shut down the hospital, and she found Irizarry leaning against a lamp post. He had been wounded in a gunfight at the police station. Canales rushed him to a hospital in Utuado, the neighboring town.[7][9]
Jayuya was under Nationalist control for three days until it was attacked by U.S military planes, artillery, mortar fire, grenades, U.S. infantry troops, and the
Canales was arrested and accused of killing a police officer, wounding three others, and burning down the post office. Following a brief federal trial, she was sentenced to life imprisonment plus sixty years. In June 1951, she was sent to the Alderson Federal Prison Camp in Alderson, West Virginia.[1] In prison she developed a close friendship with fellow nationalist Lolita Lebrón, who led the 1954 Nationalist attack on the US House of Representatives, and Rosa Collazo, the wife of Oscar Collazo and treasurer of the New York City branch of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party.[1]
Later years
In 1956, Canales was transferred to the Women's Jail in
Canales died in 1996 in her hometown of Jayuya. She is buried in the "Cementerio Municipal" (Municipal Cemetery) in her hometown Jayuya.[1]
Legacy
The house in which Blanca and Nemesio Canales were born and raised was turned into a museum by the City of Jayuya.[1]
A plaque was placed at the monument to the Jayuya Uprising participants in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, honoring the women of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. Canales' name is on the second line of the third plate.
See also
19th Century female leaders of the Puerto Rican Independence Movement
Female members of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party
- Julia de Burgos
- Rosa Collazo
- Lolita Lebrón
- Ruth Mary Reynolds
- Isabel Rosado
- Isabel Freire de Matos
- Isolina Rondón
- Olga Viscal Garriga
Articles related to the Puerto Rican Independence Movement
- Puerto Rican Nationalist Party Revolts of the 1950s
- Puerto Rican Nationalist Party
- Ponce massacre
- Río Piedras massacre
- Cadets of the Republic
- Puerto Rican Independence Party
- Grito de Lares
- Intentona de Yauco
Notes
- Spanish name, the first or paternal surnameis Canales and the second or maternal family name is Torresola.
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Anonymous, "Blanca Canales", Peace Host website (Spanish), n.d.
- ^ "La obra jurídica del Profesor David M. Helfeld (1948-2008)'; by: Dr. Carmelo Delgado Cintrón Archived March 27, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Puerto Rican History". Topuertorico.org. January 13, 1941. Retrieved November 20, 2011.
- ^ Ley Núm. 282 del año 2006
- ^ La Gobernación de Jesús T. Piñero y la Guerra Fría
- ISBN 978-1-931702-01-0
- ^ ISBN 968-6308-22-9
- ^ a b Federico Ribes Tovar, Albizu Campos: Puerto Rican Revolutionary, p. 106; Plus Ultra Publishers, 1971
- ^ a b c El Vocero; March 3, 1979; p. 6
- ^ Remember the 1950 Uprising of October 30: Puerto Rico
Further reading
- "War Against All Puerto Ricans: Revolution and Terror in America’s Colony"; Author: ISBN 978-1568585017.
External links
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