to respect her, beginning with Estados Unidos. When Nationalism rises up energetically for the vindication of its sovereignty, the invading power seeks to disorient public opinion, to protect its usurpation and its dispossession by imposing concessions on the oppressed country that perpetuate the foreign oppressor regime. Liberalism has its insolences. Let us not forget, the pretentious liberals of all empires; they have always been imperialists who have suggested the most subtle means to complete foreign absorption. It is preferable for a nationality, victim of a military occupation, a frank and decided despotism that serves as a spur and awakens indigenous resistance, to a veiled and liberal despotism that anesthetizes the national conscience. Estados Unidos has a duty to fulfill with us. And it is to withdraw immediately from our country. It is the only way to demonstrate respect for the law of nations. Immense damage has been caused by that invading nation to our nationality, by depriving it of the exercise of its sovereignty and subjecting it to the most barbaric and inhuman economic exploitation known to history. If any North American legislator wants to do some good for his Homeland, he should propose respect for the rights of others. If the representative La Guardia wants us to take care of his projects, let him propose to his country the immediate withdrawal of the North American armed forces from our land, and the payment of reparations they owe us for the damage immense caused in our country during 33 years of North American military occupation. “The apparently liberal manifestations of Mr. La Guardia are directed especially to the Puerto Rican colony of New York to obtain from it the votes that Mr. La Guardia needs to stay in power. “The National Board has given instructions to the New York Board to enlighten our compatriots in that modern Babel that they refrain from the internal struggles in that country so that they do not let their feelings be exploited by any North American politician; that their only duty is to organize to restore the Republic of their Homeland. -What significance do you attribute to the revolutionary movement of Filipinas? Fearing the Philippine revolution, the North American government by Law of the year 1917 committed itself to recognizing the Independence of the Islas Filipinas (as soon as there was a stable government) and in the opinion of the government of Estados Unidos, there has not yet been “a stable government” in Filipinas nor will there ever be despite the fact that the Philippine government is of North American making. “The Filipinos have been waiting with this promise for fourteen years.” “In that period, the interests North American have been strengthening. Conservative sentiment has been stimulated in important nationalist sectors of that archipelago to such an extent that the eminent statesman Roxas, about ten months ago, has raised the flag of non-cooperation adopting tactics very similar to those
of Puerto Rican nationalism. “The Filipinos clearly see that the moment is opportune for the immediate suppression of the North American military occupation. Estados Unidos does not have today a friendly nation in the entire Universe, because its policy of absorption has been unmasked. Is crossing the North American power through an internal crisis of revolutionary characters produced by the economic crisis, consequence of the loss of markets. “I firmly believe that the Filipinos will act to impose their independence. “The opportunity that the Puerto Rican nation has is identical to the that the Philippine nation has. Our duty is to act immediately.
Here are published the cables that do not harm North American imperialist politics and the news agencies Prensa Asociada and Prensa Unida transmit news that interests that government. The “International Telegraph and Telephone Co.” has incurred in a very serious responsibility by lending itself to this maneuver of the government North American and we must demand the corresponding responsibility. The same haste that the head of the occupation North American, Coronel Roosevelt, has had to deny affirmations not made until now, about the interference of the government North American in this serious matter, confirms that interference. The country can set up a transmitting station if it so wishes. And it should do so immediately, to end the monopoly enjoyed by the foreign company “International Telegraph and Telephone Co.”
It is true that a permit is needed to transmit, which could be denied by the North American occupying power. It is worth it, however, to force the invader to remove the mask completely. If that permit is denied, it should be dispensed with. The nation Puerto Rican should not tolerate being besieged by air. The “Radio Corporation of Porto Rico,” subsidiary of the “International Telegraph and Telephone Co.” and called Station W.K.A.Q., has declared itself an enemy of our sacred rights. The entire nation has to demand responsibilities from this local corporation and to the “International Telegraph and Telephone Co.,” of which it is subsidiary and that without a doubt has sanctioned that attack against our sovereignty.
LETTER TO MR. LUIS SANCHEZ MORALES72
July 1, 1932.
Hon. Luis Sánchez Morales, President of the Senate and to the Gentlemen Senators.
Gentlemen: In our memorial filed before the legislature at the opening of the present extraordinary session, by virtue of a mandate of the National Board of the Nationalist party of Puerto Rico, we demand for our patriotic organization equality before the electoral law. The Prensa of today informs us that that body has approved in third reading the draft Electoral Law submitted to its consideration. To Nationalism was not granted the opportunity to be heard despite the terms of his already cited memorial. The project has been approved unanimously although it does not take into consideration the situation of the Nationalist party. This action of the Senate is simultaneous with the letter from the Executive Secretary communicating to us the suspension of the registration of the new candidacies that we have filed in his secretariat, alleging the expectation of a new opinion from the attorney general that illustrates him about the right to register candidacies by convention, when by right already recognized, the Nationalist party has filed general candidacies. We see in all that machinations of the intervening governor to prevent Nationalism from going to the polls. What happened in the year 1924 is repeated. It is hard for us to believe that that body without distinction of parties has entered into an anti-patriotic intelligence with the North American power, to prevent the nationalist will of the country from manifesting itself peacefully in the electoral contests. Given the gravity of the situation that such a policy could bring if it is proven to be true, it is our duty to demand again, equality before the electoral law, and, to that effect, we request that we be granted to be heard.
With all consideration P. ALBIZU CAMPOS President of the Nationalist Party
Albizu Campos is acclaimed upon making his entrance to the people’s theater of Lares on September 23, 1931.
NATIONALISM AND THE ELECTORAL SITUATION 73
Gentlemen D. Luis Sánchez Morales and D. Manuel F. Rossy, presidents of the Senate and the Chamber respectively. Gentlemen:
In fulfillment of the mandate that has been imposed on me by resolution the National Board of the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico, I have the honor of addressing this communication to you to demand equality before the electoral law to which our patriotic organization is entitled. Nationalism has systematically refrained from entering into the bitter controversy over the electoral law because that fratricidal struggle benefits exclusively the North American interventor who contemplates it smiling and with approval. Nationalism will always compromise with its Puerto Rican countrymen rather than favoring in any way, the policy of Yankee foreign intervention that seeks to annihilate Puerto Rico. We do not believe in the tactics of the parties with which we painfully have to face, because those tactics are condemned by the very experience of those same groups, which have exhausted their patience in a sterile diplomacy for the Government of Estados Unidos to respect our sovereignty. Our country is in ruins. It has lost in thirty-two years more than seventy percent of its wealth that has passed to Yankee interests by virtue of the monopoly they have of our market, which forces us to buy theirs under the conditions they want to impose on us. And to sell them ours in the terms that are pleasing to them. We call attention to the fact that the high purchasing power that Puerto Rico accuses and that allows it to occupy the position of the fifth market for Estados Unidos in the world, and the first in América Latina, is not based on real income, but on the displacement of our farmers, industrialists and merchants, who are buying
not with profits derived from capital, but with the remnant of those capitals after their forced liquidation by virtue of the public auction of the assets to satisfy the contribution burden that falls only on the natives of the country, as is proper in every regime of foreign intervention.
That system respects not even the humblest home, and day after day we have to contemplate the effect of that silent war of the public auction, which throws the entire Puerto Rican family to the side of the roads. No well-intentioned government would allow such a situation, because the contributory power can never be exercised to the extermination of the ancestral home, as happens in Puerto Rico; the exercise of that power is permissible for the promotion of the economic independence of the home.
No people can stand idly by to watch the proletarian tide rise that ascends with indifference, conspiracy or cowardice own.
The social and cultural ills inflicted on the Puerto Rican nation during the Yankee intervention are too clear to require more analysis.
That is why, and based on the tragic experience of our countrymen who do not militate in our ranks, that nationalism has arisen to give a definitive halt to the Yankee government that sucks the blood of the Homeland. Our program is clear as soon as we receive the suffrage of the Puerto Rican majorities will immediately declare the celebration of the Constituent Convention of the Republic.
We do not recognize the validity of the Yankee regime, because it is based on the nullity of the Treaty of Paris. On the date of its signature by the mother Homeland España, Puerto Rico had international personality, and no treaty of España could oblige us without the express consent of the Insular Parliament, and that indispensable requirement for its validity was not obeyed. In other words, Puerto Rico was not a tradable thing and could not be the object of traffic, not only by virtue of the principles of natural law, but by mandate of the strictest positive law that informs the life of relationship between civilized nations.
We resort to peaceful means to effect the change of regime because it is a norm that must be respected in the contemporary age. Modern empires are obliged to respect the independence of the intervened countries when the national will shows itself unshakable. Empires consult their convenience, and this is never found in provoking the revolution that wreaks havoc on their interests. It has been ten years since the Nationalist Party was constituted. Has resorted to the elections of the year 1924, in about ten municipalities and the year 1928 only in Caguas, under the present current electoral law, made under the direction of the head of the intervention in the year 1924, Mr. Towner, and approved unanimously at the suggestions of the same.
governor. The purpose was to prevent any nationalist sentiment in the country. Currently the Party has registered general candidacies by convention, but, according to the current interpretation, it does not have representation in the Insular Electoral Board, and in the colleges will have only an observer with voice but without vote, if the current law is respected, which is being interpreted by the Superintendent of Elections, Mr. Terry, as is natural in a North American official, in the most restrictive sense in what concerns the vital interests of the Nationalist Party. We have been contemplating the electoral picture with patience while waiting for this legislative assembly. The head of the occupation, as befits the one who commands, has submitted to you the draft “law” that does not take into consideration, ex professo, as was to be expected the position of party by convention to which nationalism has arrived. We are aware that if you do not accept the will already expressed by the Governor, the tacit will of the Yankee Congress is expected that defines in advance who should triumph in the elections. You do not have legislative powers because you stumble with the absolute veto or with the annulment of your acts by the Yankee Congress. It is yours, without limitations, however, the legislative initiative, and it is to be expected that, as Puerto Ricans, you accept only a law that guarantees to the patriotic cause of nationalism that does not dispute anything from you unless it is the sacrifice to constitute a free Homeland for all the Puerto Ricans. In international life, nationalism is what is representative; internally, it is the spur that obliges the invader to cede the fruit that does not fall into our hands, but in the skirt of the parties that represent the middle ground. Nationalism is the only thing that belongs to every Puerto Rican. Demands from you respect for your most sacred right: the independence of the Homeland. With all consideration,
P. ALBIZU CAMPOS President, Nationalist Party
A PROCLAMATION OF THE NATIONALIST PARTY AROUND THE DATE OF TOMORROW FRIDAY 23 OF SEPTEMBER 74
The Puerto Rican nationality celebrates on September 23, 1932, sixty-four years of baptism. On such a day of the unforgettable 68, the liberators of Lares baptized with their blood the marvelous body of the nation. An something of perfumed vestment travels through our recollections similar to a bugle call of religious faith, exalted by the ties indissoluble of the concept of free Homeland. As if from the amphitheater of immortality an effluvium of perfect joy softens our Calvary and illuminates our decorum. It is that the liberators, in the capacity of immortals, sweeten the life of oppressed peoples establishing themselves as guardians of the code of honor. Where the greatest number of illustrious dead rests lies the most vigorous national dignity, because peoples are sustained by the glory of their illustrious dead. Puerto Rico, the only country in América that has produced holiness and unfortunately the only country in América that suffers the most degrading of enslavement, is sustained spiritually, thanks to the Olympic feat of Lares, which marked, to the pride of generations to come, the genesis of the most tender republic of América. And pure men and wise men were the patriarchs of 68; pure as the essence of supreme pain and wise as the beauty of the Almighty. They were inspired by God and produced infinite redeeming faith. Thus they lived and thus they taught to live a life of purest liberties and of wise fulgurations, abominating the men diminished by betrayal and demanding purity and wisdom from those who guarded the sacred dough of Homeland independence. Sixty-four years of reactionary politics have passed, in which sacrilege, erected in the name of beatitudes, betrayed the sublime teaching of the liberators; sixty-four years of concealed hypocrisy in the market of dishonor. But the zeal of the illustrious dead arose in time. Vibrated in the sky of human redemptions the birth of the nationalism of Puerto Rico under whose flag, which is the flag of the Homeland, are sheltered the children of the liberators of 68; thus ensuring the
precious custody of Puerto Rican liberties. The nationalism of Puerto Rico, depositary in América of the faith of the liberators, celebrates on September 23, 1932 the festival of patriotism in Lares, cradle of the first heroes of independence. To this festival of the spirit invites all Puerto Ricans who have not mortgaged their souls to treason, wishing to contribute with the devotion of the good believers in the religion of the Homeland to the homage that is paid to the fathers of national history. Given in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on the twenty-first day of the month of September, sixty-fourth year of the proclamation of the republic.
P. ALBIZU CAMPOS President of the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico
Rafael Rivera Matos General secretary