On May 10, 1943, twenty-four days before his release, Juan Antonio Corretjer visited Pedro Albizu Campos at the Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta. Prison regulations prohibited note-taking. What follows is Corretjer’s reconstruction of Albizu’s words, published in Pueblos Hispanos on May 15, 1943.
I will not accept any form of conditional freedom. I ordered you to serve out your suspended sentence in New York. That was the right thing. I was pleased that you imposed your authority on the comrades who have been leaving prison and who have probationary sentences, so that they would not return to jail. The reason I will not accept serving my own suspended sentence I will tell you later. It involves a serious question of patriotic dignity.
History has moved rapidly. In a public document, President Roosevelt has clearly stated that he has appointed a committee to study and elucidate the permanent separation of relations between the Federal Government and Puerto Rico. The United States is engaged in a war in defense of democracy, they are going to open the necessary second front in Europe, they have signed the Atlantic Charter. I do not believe it is reasonable, in the political sense, that under these circumstances they should want to release me from prison while carrying the prison shackled to my ankle.
If there is sincerity in the government’s attitude, that sincerity must be proven by my unconditional release. With that act of sincerity accomplished first, I would feel capable of offering my services to the Committee dealing with the clarification of Puerto Rico’s permanent political status. This would mean setting aside my broken health. I have a permanent pain in the left side of my chest and my left arm is withering — I am already losing its mobility. Personally, if I am unconditionally released, I would prefer to go to Mexico to attend to my health and rest for a year. Or to be admitted to Johns Hopkins Hospital.
You keep leading the movement. Keep doing your work. Do not let yourself be troubled or discomforted by anything or anyone. Maintain your spiritual serenity and your clear political mind. And impose them on everyone. Do not allow impatience in anyone. Everyone must remain calm. This is the hour in which we can achieve Puerto Rico’s independence by peaceful means. Our homeland has proven its resilience. The Party has sufficient maturity to understand the tremendous transcendence of this hour, in which nothing and no one can compromise the opportunity that history offers us to achieve the independence of our homeland.
Here is Velázquez, who finishes his sentence the same day as I. He should accept the terms of the probationary sentence. Arrange for him to be with you.