Jayuya Uprising
Jayuya Uprising | |||||||
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Part of Puerto Rican Nationalist Party revolts of the 1950s | |||||||
Puerto Rican flag removed by a member of the National Guard after the 1950 Jayuya Uprising | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Puerto Rican Nationalist Party | United States | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Blanca Canales | Luis R. Esteves | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
3 Nationalists dead | 6 police officers injured |
Part of a series on the |
Puerto Rican Nationalist Party |
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The Jayuya Uprising, also known as Jayuya Revolt or Cry of Jayuya (
Events leading to the revolt
The
In the 1930s, the United States-appointed governor of Puerto Rico,
On May 21, 1948, a bill was introduced before the
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. 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.[3]
According to Dr.
On June 21, 1948, Albizu Campos gave a speech in the town of Manatí that explained how this Gag Law violated the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Nationalists from all over the island had gathered to hear Albizu Campos's speech and to prevent the police from arresting him.[3]
Uprising
From 1949 to 1950, the Nationalists in the island planned and prepared an armed revolution. The revolution was to take place in 1952, on the date the United States Congress was to officially approve the Estado Libre Associado ("Free Associated State") political status for Puerto Rico.[8][9][10]
Albizu Campos called for an armed revolution because he considered the "new political status" to be a colonial farce. Albizu Campos picked the town of Jayuya as the headquarters of the revolution because of its location and because weapons were stored in the home of Blanca Canales.[8][9][10]
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 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.[8][9][10]
On October 30, the Nationalists staged uprisings in the towns of Ponce,
In the pre-dawn hours of October 29, the Insular Police surrounded the house of the mother of Melitón Muñiz Santos, president of the Peñuelas Nationalist Party, in Barrio Macaná, where they were storing weapons for the Nationalist revolt. Without warning, the police fired on the house and a gunfight ensued. Two Nationalists were killed and six police officers were wounded.[11] Nationalists Melitón Muñoz Santos, Roberto Jaume Rodríguez, Estanislao Lugo Santiago, Marcelino Turell, William Gutierrez and Marcelino Berríos were arrested and accused of participating in an ambush against the local Insular Police.[11]
Members of the Nationalist Party had stored weapons in Canales's house in Jayuya. Canales and the other leaders, including her cousin Elio Torresola and Carlos Irizarry, led the armed Nationalists into the town and invaded the police station. Shots were fired, one officer was killed, three were wounded, and the other officers surrendered. The Nationalists cut the telephone lines and burned the U.S. post office. Canales led the group into the town square where, in defiance of the Ley de la Mordaza (Gag Law), they raised the Flag of Puerto Rico.[12] In the town square, Canales declared Puerto Rico a free Republic. Torresola had a brother, Griselio Torresola, living in New York City, who was outraged by the attacks.
The governor, Luis Muñoz Marín, declared martial law. The United States sent ten
Although an extensive part of Jayuya was destroyed, news of the military action was prevented from spreading outside of Puerto Rico. Instead, the American media reported President Truman saying it was "an incident between Puerto Ricans."[12][3]
Nationalists in New York City as well as Puerto Rico were outraged by the counterattack. Griselio Torresola and
Some attempt to frame the events as if the Puerto Ricans bombed themselves (Luis Ferrao). Nelson Denis refutes this: "The P-47 fighter planes that bombed Utuado and Jayuya were built in the US, hangared in US airfields, maintained with US equipment, flown by US-trained pilots who dropped US-made bombs, and all of it – the planes, the airfield, the pilots, the bombs – were financed by the US. Yet Ferrao would have us believe that a decal saying “Air National Guard” means that Puerto Rico bombed itself." Denis, Nelson. "The Many Lies of Luis Ferrao".
Aftermath
External audio | |
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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 convicted of murder in the US and sentenced to death. U.S. President Truman commuted his sentence to life. In 1979 President Carter commuted Collazo's sentence to time served and he returned to Puerto Rico. The city of Jayuya converted the Blanca Canales home into a historical museum.[citation needed]
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 nationalist leader
Gallery
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 Puerto Ricans
- Truman assassination attempt
References
- ^ Britannica
- ISBN 978-1-58843-116-5
- ^ ISBN 978-1568585017
- ^ "La obra jurídica del Profesor David M. Helfeld (1948–2008)'; by: Dr. Carmelo Delgado Cintrón Archived 2012-03-27 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
- ^ a b c d The Jayuya Uprising and Puerto Rican Independence; By Lenny Flank
- ^ a b c d Puerto Rico Marks 60th Anniversary of Jayuya Uprising
- ^ ISBN 978-1573561495.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-931702-01-0
- ^ a b New York Latino Journal Archived October 21, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
- Denis, Nelson (2015). "Chapter 18: The Revolution". War Against All Puerto Ricans: Revolution and Terror in America's Colony. Bold Type Books. pp. 194–195.
- ^ Puerto Rico National Guard Archived 2013-02-15 at the Wayback Machine
- Denis, Nelson (2015). "Chapter 18: The Revolution". War Against All Puerto Ricans: Revolution and Terror in America's Colony. Bold Type Books. pp. 194–195.
- ^ Ribes Tovar et al., p.132
Further reading
- ISBN 978-1568585017.
External links
- Sánchez, Laura N. Pérez (October 3, 2011). "La mismas rutas, el mismo sueño". El Nuevo Dia.
- Photos of the Jayuya Uprising
- Puerto Rico Marks 60th Anniversary of Jayuya Uprising – video report by Democracy Now!
- Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico-FBI files, PR-Secret Files, raw data