THE NATIONALIST GENERAL ASSEMBLY YESTERDAY Albizu Campos Speaks “This afternoon must be memorable in the mind of each of us. Here have spoken the representatives of the various political groups of our public life. I regret that in this assembly the voice of a feminine opinion has not been heard, now that the Puerto Rican woman has in her hands the powers to carry out a great civic labor. I treat this question so that women do not fall into the sin in which men have incurred: that is, to divide themselves in the question of the independence of their Homeland when we are all united by indissoluble ties of nationalistic sentiment. Woman is the creative matrix of all physical and moral energies, she is the matrix of transcendental life and therefore the authentic mother of nationality. That is why the Puerto Rican woman cannot give an unconditional example, orphan of civism and dignity, repeating in this way the servile action of the leading men. I desire to see her defined, frankly and openly for the independence of her Homeland, or if on the contrary she desires that her country continue to be a colony subjected to the economic despotism of Estados Unidos.” “It is necessary to carry this moral responsibility to our women in order to determine whether they want to continue the policy of surrender to the invader that the different insular parties have been deploying.” Mr. Albizu Campos then related an anecdote that happened to him in Santo Domingo during his day of propaganda through Latin America. In Puerto Plata a commission of ladies representing a cultural club of the city went to greet him at the hotel to offer him their greetings and ask him what they could do for the independence of Puerto Rico. “I bring this incident up -he said- to highlight the civic and heroic spirit of the Dominican woman and compare it with the civic laxity of our woman,” “Ah!, if we could forge added men like women can, the situation of the Homeland would be different.” “I want to carry to the heart of the Puerto Rican woman that ideal of responsibility towards her Homeland. Women cannot enter into the ridiculous and suicidal game of our cheap politics. Not only is she the depositary of physical life but she must also be the depositary of moral life.” “I want to address myself now to the parties whose representatives we have had the pleasure of hearing here this afternoon. It is noticed by their manifestations that we are united in fundamental questions and divided by tactical questions of a transitory nature. That is why I would like to see the unity of all parties realized for the immediate recognition of the independence of Puerto Rico. But gentlemen, after 30 years of Yankee colonialism, we have seen that all the amiable and diplomatic resources to contain the dominators have been exhausted. We have even fallen into servility to flatter the invader to see if we could get something from them, but nevertheless, the invaders have not respected anything in our Homeland.” “In the economic field they have led us to ruin with their nefarious work of economic penetration and displacement. But it is not only the physical dispossession but also the moral dispossession trying to postpone the native and to submit him by all imaginable means, creating a caste of serviles.” “We cannot risk one more day tolerating this denigrating North American colonialism that annihilates us physically and morally. We have to face the invader in a frank and straightforward manner, we have to unite to stop this painful economic displacement and to prevent a man from the Commissariat of Public Instruction from demoralizing the country with a system that is a school of servility for our people.” “Gentlemen, there is no room to carve out a policy of submission like the one that has been prevailing in Puerto Rico. It is necessary to postulate a frank and defined nationalist ideology against the invaders. There is no room for a fraternal and solidary attitude with the enemies of the Homeland. It is necessary to stand up to the invader bravely, otherwise we will be destined to perish irremediably.” (Ovation) REPORT OF MR. ALBIZU CAMPOS At the request of the President, Mr. Albizu Campos was called to render the report of his nationalist mission through the South American continent. The informant delivered a speech of more than two and a half hours relating the various incidents and activities that he deployed in his propaganda day. He referred preferably to his stay in the República Dominicana where he said he was filled with all the attentions and generosity of the Dominican people who lent him a fraternal cooperation both economic and moral. He referred to the homage he rendered in the company of the Dominican intellectuals and the high clergy of the República in the Chapel of the Immortals to the great patricians of the independence of Santo Domingo. He highlighted the name of the writer and patriot Luis C. del Castillo who answered his speech in an eloquent oration. In Santo Domingo he said he dictated a series of conferences in the main cities of the República without perceiving any monetary remuneration, he organized the Puerto Rican colony in that country and founded several pro-independence juntas of Puerto Rico, some of them presided over by the venerable patrician doctor Henríquez y Carvajal, whose representation the doctor Manuel Guzmán Rodríguez, of Mayaguez, held in the assembly. He made a succinct reference to his visit to Haití, where the Unión Patriótica presided over by M. Pierre Paul paid him an homage of sympathies. He said that in Cuba “the government of Machado put many obstacles to his mission,” but that “the youth showed openly in his favor.” He added that the university students designated him to represent them “on the great commemorative date of the students shot during the Spanish regime.” That in la Habana he dissolved the Congreso de la Prensa Latina with a resolution requesting that the Congress be solidary with the cause of the independence of Puerto Rico and Filipinas, “and that the assembly was closed for not discussing the motion despite the adhesion that the delegations of Bélgica, España and la América Latina gave it.” The speaker stated that due to the advanced hour and how much he had to narrate of his visit to Méjico and el Perú he suspended his report. Before finishing he censured the attitude that the leaders and the Partido Nacionalista in general had been assuming. “It is necessary to finish with this cardboard nationalism and it is necessary to foment a true nationalism, of action, informed of a spirit of sacrifice and of refined patriotism,” he finished saying. (Applause). THE LCDO. PEDRO ALBIZU CAMPOS WAS ELECTED PRESIDENT OF THE PARTIDO NACIONALISTA DE PUERTO RICO The General Assembly of the Partido Nacionalista held at the Ateneo adopted in the early morning of yesterday the following resolution: “The Partido Nacionalista solemnly declares: “That the immediate suppression of North American colonialism is unavoidable, and it commits itself to celebrate the constituent convention that establishes in Puerto Rico the government of a free, sovereign and independent república, as soon as it receives the suffrage of the majorities. “The citizens of Puerto Rico, who, worthy of their origin, fight for a Homeland independent of all tutelage, must enter the Partido Nacionalista to immediately present a united front to the invader. Their adherence to other political parties contributes to the Puerto Rican disorientation, weakens the national resistance, all in the sole benefit of the North American imperial invasion, skillfully and systematically directed from Washington, to reduce our people to impotence so that we are pariahs in our own Homeland. “It will treat without pity the natives or foreigners who, by good or bad arts, try to strengthen the colonial regime, in any form that it presents itself to the country. “It will end the illusion of converting our Homeland into a North American province, (“estado”, sic), because that represents the voluntary and ignominious suppression of our international personality. “It will abolish by all means at its reach the obligatory system of teaching in the language of the invader, which disorients and brutalizes our youth, in grave prejudice of our cultural personality. It will try to maintain close international, cultural and political relations, especially with the nations of our origin. “Under the hard yoke of North American colonialism of a nation of proprietors, we have passed to be a mass of pawns, a rich economic mine for the exploitation of the invading capital. “Let us free the worker immediately from the caudillaje of the workerism disoriented of Yankee origin, that, under the suggestive denomination of socialist, but without any political definition, and, therefore, the most skillful and efficient defenders of colonialism, have made him bearer of the North American flag, under whose shadow this colonialism that has converted us into slaves of the North American corporations and companies reigns. “The Partido Nacionalista will develop the following economic program: “1 It will organize the workers so that they can recover from the foreign or invading interests the participation in the profits to which they have the right, assuming their immediate direction, putting men of stature, responsibility and patriotism to direct them. “2 It will try by all means that the fiscal weight falls on the non-residents, to destroy the latifundisino and the absenteeism, and divide the real property among the largest possible number of landowners. “3 It must by all means at its reach reserve the effect of free cabotage between Estados Unidos and Puerto Rico that today exclusively benefits the invader. “4- It will favor exclusively the native commerce where it exists and will foment it where it has disappeared. “5 It will favor exclusively the consumption of the fruits of the earth and of Puerto Rican industry trying by all means to satisfy the national needs. “6- It will foment the exportation and the establishment of the maritime transportation industry. “7- It will favor exclusively the native banks and where there are none it will try to organize them. “8 It will try to organize the finances in such a form of native banking respectability that the national deposits are made only in its banks, and, it will try to free the country from foreign public or private loans, so that agriculture, commerce, and industry in Puerto Rican hands can resurge powerfully.” The election for President of the Partido was carried out by secret ballot resulting in the election of the Lcdo. Pedro Albizu Campos. The public standing gave him an ovation upon knowing the result of the scrutiny. The other elected officials were: First Vice-President, Cándido Martínez; second Vice-President, M. Fernández Mascaró, Treasurer, Abelardo Ruiz Morales; Secretary, Manuel Rivera Matos. The National Junta of the Partido was formed by two appointments from each judicial district in accordance with the regulations. By San Juan: Rafael Rojas Lozano and Ramón H. Vicente; by Ponce: Eduardo G. Ramú and Juan Augusto Perea; by Arecibo: Fernando Sierra Berdecía and José G. Gardé; by Humacao: Lcdo. Pedro Pérez Pimentel and José P. Berríos; by Aguadilla: José M. Gil Cabassa and Severino Lecároz; by Mayaguez: Dr. M. Guzmán Rodríguez and Modesto Gotay. The interim President, Mr. Miguel Marcos Morales, abandoned the presidency so that the Lcdo. Albizu Campos occupied it. INAUGURAL SPEECH OF ALBIZU CAMPOS The Lcdo. Albizu Campos upon occupying the Presidency addressed himself in the following terms to the assembly: “We are going to carry out an intense work of purified nationalism with a defined orientation and program of action. Our Partido will not enter into compromises with the other parties nor at any moment will we tolerate immediate transactions that undermine the purity of the ideal. This Directive will not have prejudices against any nationalist as long as this nationalist fulfills the duties that his party imposes on him. “This Directive will do everything in its power to carry out an effective and combative work. It is impossible, companions, for this shameful colonialism to continue without acting in a definitive manner. We cannot tolerate even for a minute more the prevailing situation of the country. There is no need to fear this Directive in any sense. We will be implacable of course, with those who want to mutilate the integrity or the purity of our party. We will carry out an intense ideological campaign to demonstrate to the country the fallacies that the political programs of the other parties contain. “I am going to demand a promise from the patriots of blood and bone, of valor and of spirit that have remained in this assembly until these late hours of the night. An optimistic philosophy must inform all our actions. A pessimistic doctrine rains on our people that demoralizes and cowards them and that we must stop at all times. It is necessary to lift the public spirit of Puerto Rico and tell it that it can become what it wants and conquer its independence if its will so desires. We are in full civic bankruptcy and it is necessary that we carry a moral infusion to our people so that they return to believe in their destiny and in their possibilities. Our Homeland is in full war without defending itself; only a resurgence of collective morals can save it. I have never believed in numbers. We have to bring here the brothers consecrated to the nationalist ideal. We have to tell our Homeland the truth and the enormous disgrace that weighs on her life. I am going to invoke the name of our great patricians who died for the freedom of this land so that they illuminate us in our mission. “Now companions, I am going to demand an oath of honor from you. (The concurrence stood up and raised their hand high). Let us swear here solemnly that we will defend the nationalist ideal and that we will sacrifice our hacienda and our life if it were necessary for the independence of our Homeland.” (Applause). WHAT THE PRESIDENT OF THE PARTIDO NACIONALISTA ANSWERS TO THE MANIFESTATIONS OF DON JOSE COLL CUCHI “Mr. José Coll Cuchí, has retired from the Partido Nacionalista definitively. This he declared flatly before the Assembly that the Partido has just celebrated. He disdained the commission that went to look for him to rectify what was said. He refused in absolute terms. I can assure Mr. José Coll Cuchí, that the Partido Nacionalista has definitively left a huge nightmare. In response to his insult to the Nationalist Assembly that applauded what I said before it, I will limit myself to reject his declarations, all false, affirming that Cuba, Santo Domingo, foreigners, especially Spaniards, and other entities were offended there. I have maintained here and everywhere, and not for any convenience, the following postulates: The independence of Puerto Rico; The antillean confederation; The Ibero-American Union; The world hegemony of the iberoamerican nations. The prestige of each of those nations has been and is sacred to me. He accuses me of having attacked Estados Unidos for the policy that the invader has imposed in our land. I do not defend myself from that nor will I ever defend myself. It honors me. I grant Mr. José Coil Cuchí the privilege of continuing singing to the flag of Estados Unidos as he did in my presence in the first nationalist meeting that we celebrated in the Plaza Baldorioty in the year 1924, something that obliged me to rectify him in the same tribune and in his presence. That same praise to the flag of Estados Unidos he repeated in the Assembly of the Alianza celebrated in Mayaguez in the past year. Such is the information that deserves my full credit and that I have received from respectable gentlemen attending the said act. We venerate the glorious name of José Martí all the defenders of freedom. That is why I called him in the speech that I pronounced in the Assembly, the Apostle, the Teacher, and the Martyr of the libertarian ideals. I do not know if Mr. José Coll Cuchí is known in Cuba are informed of my pro-Cuba work. However, we have the luck that he and I are known in the República Dominicana. I leave to the opinion of Quisqueya the judgment that must be made of his irreflexions pregnant with anger when the instrument to impose himself in the Partido Nacionalista was snatched from him. All the Prensa was represented in the magno depurating act that authentic nationalism has just celebrated. I remember perfectly the presence of the representatives of all our newspapers and of the “Prensa Asociada”. The information given by the Prensa until now, condemns all the insidious assertions of José Coll Cuchí. It is necessary to do justice and for that it is necessary to say the truth, hurt whoever it hurts. It is not true that Mr. Ayuso nor Mr. Coll Cuchi were the organizers of the Assembly. The truth is that they opposed its organization by all possible means, until the last hour, that they tried to embark in the triumphal car already in march, evidently to manage it at their whim. That intention was manifest before the Assembly before the unheard of insistence of Mr. Ayuso to want to persist in the presidency of the Assembly when it desired a Provisional Directive that deserved its confidence, It was necessary to force the Presidency of the National Junta, Mr. Ayuso, to name a Commission that would carry out the organization of the Assembly. It was presided over by the Lcdo. Cándido Martínez, and after many sorrows, it had the resounding success that has surprised everyone. Insidious and insincerity are twins. Since there is talk of concord for all, I ask Mr. José Coll Cuchí, who was the one who had the audacity to alter at his whim the invitation that the National Junta approved to be communicated to all the Political Parties? Why did Mr. Ayuso and Mr. José Coll Cuchí oppose inviting the Partido Unión de Puerto Rico to the Assembly? Why did these gentlemen try to invite exclusively the Alianza Puertorriqueña? Why did they mutilate the text of the invitation to all the parties, with the purpose of attacking the Partido Unionista? Daring that did us great damage. And finally, why did Mr. José Coll Cuchí not wait for the replica that his outpouring of bile deserved, and, instead of enduring what he should deserve in the presence of the entire Assembly, ran down the stairs at the end of his speech, and refused to return to the Assembly when a Commission designated by the presidency of the Assembly went to look for him at his house? There is no doubt, Mr. José Coll Cuchí. The temple is clean. The Puerto Rican Nation is in glee. You will not be able to continue doing damage with your nefarious shadow to Puerto Rican Nationalism. PEDRO ALBIZU CAMPOS FEMINISMO Y LA INDEPENDENCIA PATRIA By Pedro Albizu Campos In front of a people anxious for its independence and willing to make the necessary sacrifices to obtain it, a group of leaders not willing to break with the prevailing regime of the colony had placed itself. When we say a people, of course, we refer to the Puerto Rican national unit, without distinctions of any kind, and much less, the absurd distinction of dividing it between men and women. The contemporary Puerto Rican woman has suffered, until now from the abrogation that a group of ladies has made of her representation, who with the title of feminists, have always spoken in her name, and have fought because she was granted the right to suffrage. If the men directors of public opinion wasted a great part of their time fighting each other, instead of facing the invader, the feminists dedicated all their energies to the acquisition of suffrage, believing without a doubt, that fighting the men who opposed this measure, they filled the purpose of the existence of their organization. They have obtained suffrage. We are obligated to ask them what they want it for. Is it perhaps to reinforce colonialism over their Homeland? Or to annex it to Estados Unidos definitively, annulling its international personality to convert it into a North American province. (“Estado” sic.?) Or is it to make Puerto Rico a Homeland, free, sovereign and independent? We repeat the public interrogation that we formulated before the last Nationalist Assembly: Are women going to repeat the sin of men of dividing themselves among themselves on the vital question of the independence of their Homeland? If the feminist women are to present themselves to the country representing, not a solid libertarian movement, but to the various existing political parties, fighting among themselves, and diffusing before the public opinion of the country all the political errors committed by the leading men during the last thirty years, it is necessary that their attention is called in the most energetic form on the historical responsibility that they acquire when exercising suffrage for the first time. If you want to opine in politics you have to assume the necessary responsibilities. The woman as director of political opinion, since in that field she has placed herself, has and must expect, that responsibility is demanded of what she says. It is not a patriotic ideal to preach the annexation of her country to any other country. Nor is it a patriotic ideal to defend the colonialism that weighs on the country. The only transcendental civic duty that has the one who was born in a colony, whether man or woman, is to redeem it from colonialism. Are the feminist ladies ready to fulfill that unavoidable duty? It seems so. We have read with great interest the manifestations that in the section denominated “Conversing with the main feminists of the country”, Mrs. Angela Negrón Muñoz regularly publishes in the Sunday edition of EL MUNDO. With rare exceptions, the interviews published in that section with that epigraph, have discouraged us enormously. We have seen repeated almost all the errors of political, social, economic and religious appreciation that have given the go-ahead with a healthy orientation of our people. Everything, almost everything, has been a cumulus of repetitions of old things, worn out and refuted, ad nauseam. It is the sad case that when the direction headed by men in the different political parties begins to orient itself towards patriotic and definitive purposes, it is from this feminist section that the most disorienting affirmations rain on our people. We insist that the woman, like the man, has to be responsible for what she says. Doña Angela confesses to be mortified by certain manifestations that we made before the last assembly of the party on the occasion of the emotional offer that the Club de Damas de Puerto Plata, República Dominicana, made me, in representation of the Dominican woman, to defend the independence of Puerto Rico. Has Doña Angela not been moved by this offer? Have the feminist ladies who she alleges feel hurt by my manifestations before the Assembly not been moved? Why if they represent the highest values of our woman, have they not met yet to send a message of gratitude to the Club de Damas de Puerto Plata that in such a generous and spontaneous way has offered its contest to free them from this shameful tutelage? We owe Doña Angela a congratulation. For the first time, since we read her, we have seen her invoke the name of immortal women of our Homeland who sacrificed everything for its independence. We also owe her a rectification. We must not compare with figures anointed by the sacrifice for the redemption of this land to people who maintain as an ideal the annexation of their country to any other, or defend the empire in their Homeland, imposed by a foreign power. Madam, allow me to tell you that there are impossible parallels. That the one who writes has a historical responsibility and cannot make confusion of values. Several times we have repeated that we have to go back to the year 1868. At the hour of the Grito de Lares. There existed then an authentic and patriotic direction in our Homeland, of men and women willing to all sacrifice to impose its independence. We will thank you to continue presenting only to our people those luminous libertarian figures. If that was so in 68, as you well say, that more civism than today was needed to defend the cause of freedom, without a doubt, you will estimate justified, that today, according to what you affirm that it does not cost anything to do the same, we urge men and women to fulfill the most important civic duty: To constitute immediately the free, sovereign and independent república. “EL PARTIDO NACIONALISTA WILL ACCEPT ONLY THOSE CHARGES THAT DEPEND ON THE SOVEREIGNTY OF OUR PEOPLE”, SAYS THE LCDO. ALBIZU CAMPOS With
Motivated by the letter of Mr. Luis García Casanova, President of the Local Board of the Nationalist Party in Caguas, published in our edition of the day before yesterday, in which he declines the position of Director of Public Works that was offered to him by Dr. José Reguero González, alleging that the policy of his Party prevents him from accepting anything that implies “contact with the usurping government of the rights of our people, which is the government of Estados Unidos de Norte América”, we interviewed Lcdo. Pedro Albizu Campos, President of the Nationalist Party, and we formulated the following questions to him: What should be the future attitude of the Nationalist Party in electoral matters, as such a political collectivity? Will it register candidates in the Executive Secretariat? Mr. Albizu Campos made the following statements to us: “The attitude of the Nationalist Party is defined in the declaration formulated in the program adopted in the last assembly and which reads as follows: “That the immediate suppression of North American colonialism is unpostponable and it commits itself to celebrate the constituent convention that establishes in Puerto Rico the government of a free, sovereign, and independent republic, as soon as it receives the suffrage of the majorities.” “To achieve this purpose, it will resort to the polls and will make use of all legal means at its disposal, including of course registration with the Executive Secretariat or before any existing colonial body as provided by the Electoral Law then in force.” “The Nationalist Party will only accept those positions that depend on the sovereignty of our people, that is, only elective positions, but it will never directly or indirectly solicit positions in the administration of the colony that depend on the will of the President of Estados Unidos, or of his representative in Puerto Rico, the Governor of the colony.”