Pedro Albizu Campos and a commission of nationalists together with Mr. Enrique Molina, Consul of Cuba in Puerto Rico during the commemoration of the Anniversary of the Independence of Cuba. May 20, 1930.
“IF WE ARE NOT HEARD, WE SHALL RESORT THEN TO ARMS” SAID IN THE MEETING OF FRIDAY THE PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONALIST PARTY
Lcdo. Arturo O’Neill, who has just entered the Nationalist Party, has given us the following review that he has made of the meeting held on Friday night, by that collectivity, in the Plaza de Baldorioty, of San Juan, asking us for its publication:
THE NATIONALIST MEETING
“Since the times forever lost in which the most eloquent word of José de Diego fulminated from our public tribunes, electrifying the enormous multitudes that listened to him, we had not again witnessed an outpouring of patriotic enthusiasm such as we witnessed last night. “The Plaza Baldorioty was singularly decorated, there was no other kind of flags than the Puerto Rican flag fluttering from the tribune and from the top of the wire fences adorned with lights destined for ornamentation. A large attendance surrounded the tribune, while preceding the speakers, the orchestra filled the environment with renewing musicalities. “Then the tribunicial parade. The comrade Paniagua Serracante used the word in the first term, who eloquently analyzed the program of each of our political parties, reaching the conclusion that the Nationalist program was the only guiding norm for the destinies of this people. He was succeeded in the use of the word by the also comrade Vergne Ortiz, who developed the luminous thesis that a socialism without sovereignty is but a mockery of true socialism. Mr. Lameiro, who consumed the following turn, expressed his concepts around the liberal unionist movement and the causes that separate us from the Union. He reaped general approvals and applause for a very adjusted and very instructive simile. Then the one who writes these lines, addressed a few brief words to the attendance on the occasion of his entry into the Nationalist party. Afterwards Mr. Gallardo delivered a fiery and brief speech that won him enthusiastic applause. Mr. Abelardo Ruiz Morales preceded with heated words and announced Lcdo. Pedro Albizu Campos.
“The attendance eagerly awaited the sinewy and convincing word of the great nationalist tribune. He began by announcing that his speech that night would deal with the economic aspect of the Independence of Puerto Rico. But the speaker, who is a formidable improviser, exceeded the limits of his proposed thesis, encompassing an infinity of aspects of the political problem. He pointed out the ancient cause of our sympathy and admiration for the American people, recalling the fact that Muñoz Rivera, when interviewing the head of the Spanish Government, had proposed this dilemma: “Either we are granted broad autonomy, or I will return to Puerto Rico via New York”, implying with this that Puerto Rico had the libertarian American sympathy. But immediately afterwards, he specified that this admiration for the people of the United States was infused, resting on an ignorance of American life. He said that freedom, equality and fraternity only existed in books, but lacked real existence in the Anglo-American community. He referred to acts of lynching, of torture and cruel homicides perpetrated on the colored race; he evidenced the lack of criteria of equality with narratives of injustices committed against foreigners and their exploitation by capitalists to the point of causing frequent and multiple deaths; and on fraternity he argued that people died of hunger and cold in the midst of citizen indifference.
“He then went on to consider the economic problem, highlighting the fact that the exclusive or almost exclusive trade we have with the United States is ruinous for Puerto Rico; free cabotage deprives us of lucrative possible customs revenues; that the assessment of property in Puerto Rico is unequal, favoring large American interests; that the estimate of the value of the property is very inferior to its real value, which he estimates at about $300,000,000; that the high taxation of the properties of small landowners and the high cost of living, caused by the purchase of protected American articles, is determining the continuous loss of small Puerto Rican property. He also stated that according to the opinion of an American knowledgeable in politics, with whom he exchanged impressions, he had been informed that the San Ciriaco hurricane represented for Puerto Rico twenty-five years of Americanization.
“After an infinity of data supplied to the audience and that we do not want to reproduce here so as not to make this review too long, he emphatically declared that the firm purpose of the Nationalist Party was to draft, upon reaching the parliamentary majorities, the Constitution of Puerto Rico as a Sovereign Independent Republic and to notify the peaceful fact of the declaration of independence of Puerto Rico to all the peoples of the world. This is the only way to call the attention of the American people to the sufferings of the Puerto Rican people, to whose sufferings by foreign spoilation we want to put an end. If we are not heard, if we are not heeded, if we are mistreated, we will then resort to arms, and I want to remind you that a people who loves and knows how to defend its independence cannot be enslaved. The war of cities is impossible for the invaders.
Napoleon I, failed in Spain due to the heroic spirit of the inhabitants, men and women of the Spanish cities. If the men and women of Puerto Rico are brave and worthy and assume the attitude that I point out, there will be no human power, however extraordinary it may be, that keeps us in servitude. “Latin America has its soul set on Puerto Rico. If we fail in our struggle against the invader without assuming gestures of dignity and rebellion, all of America is lost. If we show ourselves worthy of freedom, America and the world will be with us, concluded Lcdo. Albizu Campos. “At the end of the speaker’s most eloquent prayer, which covered, as we have reviewed, globally the economic and political situation of Puerto Rico, he received an extraordinary ovation, being lifted on shoulders by the multitude electrified with enthusiasm. Even after one in the morning, various groups of those present commented on the extraordinary and courageous speech. “That was the first of the series. Others will follow in the noble mission of propaganda and conviction to the Puerto Rican people that the only solution for the political, economic and social ills of our Homeland lies only in the constitution of the Puerto Rican Nationality.
Arturo O’NEILL
A PROCLAMATION OF THE NATIONAL BOARD OF THE NATIONALIST PARTY ON THE OCCASION OF THIS MONTH MARKING THE 63RD ANNIVERSARY OF THE LARES REBELLION
“The Revolution to establish the Independence of the Homeland has never failed. Nationality has been defined. The sacrifice of its martyrs consecrated its sovereignty. On that glorious date the will to be free was fixed, and from it begins the chronology of the Independent Republic, no matter how long it takes to free its sovereignty from foreign interventions. “September 23 is the maximum day of the Homeland deed. Sixty- three years will have passed since the patriots of Lares proclaimed the Republic of Puerto Rico. “The uprising imposed the series of reforms that culminated in the Autonomic Charter of 1897. People defined by arms are a respectable and indestructible people. “The baptism of sacrifice is national and encompasses posterity so that it, illuminated by a distinguished example, may consecrate itself to the decisive effort of absolute liberation. (“If the bonds of blood, religion, culture, and community of interests’ were not obstacles to the Independence of the Mother Homeland Spain, when there is no bond that binds us to the imperial power of the United States, which, currently, in violation of all right, makes it impossible for us by force to exercise our powers of sovereign nation, if not, on the contrary, everything separates us from these invaders and our vital interests are in serious conflict with theirs, to our detriment, it is imperative to declare roundly that the immediate Constitution of the Republic is unavoidable. “The Municipal Assembly of Lares has ordered that September 23 be celebrated as a holiday. This is a consecration and an example to follow. San Sebastián will respond in the same way because if in Lares the insurrection began, in el Pepino the main combat of the distinguished day was fought. We urge the other municipal governments of the country, which are the legitimate representation of popular sovereignty, to adhere to the patriotic and just Resolution of the government of Lares and decree the glorious anniversary, which is the purest tribute of national decorum, as a holiday in their respective jurisdictions. Compatriots from now on September 23 will be solemnized as the Day of the Martyrs of Independence, in memory and homage to all the men and women sacrificed or persecuted for the cause of freedom. “On that day, let the entire Puerto Rican Nation gather, with the due unction, in Lares, privileged and consecrated land in Homeland history, to render the tribute of respect to the martyrs of the cause of National Redemption; before the tombs of the patricians, let us invoke the spirit of the liberating manes; let us forge the solemn oath to be worthy descendants of our grandparents, and that we will fulfill the patriotic duty of immediately organizing the government of the Republic. It is the August Day! The Day of Independence!”. “I certify that the present is a faithful and exact copy of the Proclamation approved by the National Board of the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico in its session held on the afternoon of Sunday, the 14th of this month. “Given in San Juan de Puerto Rico, on the sixteenth day of the month of September, year 1930 and sixty-second of the Proclamation of the Republic”.
Juan Antonio Corretjer, Administrative Secretary, Party Nationalist of Puerto Rico
LETTER TO MR. LUIS VENEGAS CORTES San Juan, P.R., September 19, 1930 Mr. Luis Venegas Cortés, President of the University Committee Pro-Victims of Santo Domingo, Río Piedras, P.R. Friend of all my esteem:
I acknowledge receipt of your emotional communication accompanied by check number 7402, drawn by the University, charged to the “Banco Territorial y Agrícola” of Río Piedras and endorsed to me, for the sum of four hundred and ninety-eight dollars and fifty cents, amount of the funds collected to date among university students to help the victims of Santo Domingo. You inform me that the University Committee Pro-Dominican Victims agreed to make the remittance through the Nationalist Party. In the name of our Party I accept the noble commission and I will immediately send the funds placed at the disposal of your government for the charitable purpose that you have arranged to the Honorable Mr. Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, President of the Dominican Republic. No Puerto Rican act before the catastrophe that has overwhelmed us with pain has the transcendence of yours. It indicates, first, the clear orientation of university students in national and international matters. In that heroic nation, noble and hospitable, to exaggeration, if in that order one can exaggerate, no memory of your immense sorrow will produce the emotion that yours will. Here is an absolute disinterest and a love of brothers to brothers. The ideal of the Antillean Confederation will be realized by the present Antillean youth because it is willing to create a power that will be imposed on every invader. This corozonada of yours is the message of solidarity that announces the era that is already glimpsed. Our Party, which in reality is not a Party, but the Homeland organized to rescue its sovereignty, so that even those who today fight for Independence can enjoy the dignity of being free, enjoys because of the purpose it pursues the respect and sympathy of all Dominicans. And they will be pleased that this demonstration of your sensitivity arrives through our mediation. With my cordial congratulations for the work of nobles, I am yours sincerely, P. ALBIZU CAMPOS
THE CIVIC ACT OF THE DAY BEFORE YESTERDAY IN LARES REPRESENTATIONS FROM VARIOUS POINTS OF THE COUNTRY ATTENDED
ALBIZU CAMPOS SPEAKS
As the crowd did not fit in the theater, the public asked that Mr. Albizu Campos speak on the tribune of the plaza since the threats of rain had passed. When the President of the Nationalist Party climbed the tribune he was received with a prolonged salvo of applause. “Today a supreme desire of my life is fulfilled when I find myself in this city of Lares. I would have entered Lares on my knees: one enters holy land on one’s knees. The men and women of the current generation do not even know how to walk and get tired of walking two kilometers even if it is to honor the heroes of our freedom. Our grandparents did not know the automobile, or the electric train and yet, they performed wonders. They did not know the paved roads, or the modern means of communication, but they had a physical and moral strength superior to us, and they climbed those peaks with ease and risked their lives for an ideal. What was the superiority of those heroes? In that they were men of high principles in their conscience. Devotion to an idea is not enough, consecration to the idea is necessary and this implies sacrifice. “You are not like the hero Ramírez because you do not have the conscience of consecration to an ideal, nor the conscience of your own strength. The day that happens the independence of Puerto Rico will have been achieved as a fatality in history. “The force that weighs on our people is the sense of impotence. It is necessary, then, to evoke the opposite forces, the forces of wisdom and beauty immanent in the nature of man. “Science itself puts powerful weapons in our hands. With a microphone installed on this tribune I can inform the world of what is happening in Puerto Rico. “The strength of nationalities and empires depends on the esteem that is held for them. If the concept that an empire deserves us is poor, the stronger it seems, the more deleterious it should be. All empires support propaganda in their colonies to maintain the myth of their superiority. United States resorts to all means of propaganda to maintain a
moral ascendancy over our people and thus keep them subjected to its power. “We do not have weapons to sink their naval forces, but we have the weapon of sinking their prestige in the world”. Then the speaker related how our parents had been wrong in the concept they had of the United States and gave as an example his father who received the invading army with a speech in English only to later realize his mistake. “We are today in a new stage of nationalism, we are acquiring the internal awareness of nationalism which is the very life of nationality. This nationalism has no ties nor does it want to have ties with any political party whose ambiguous, contradictory and anti-scientific programs are lures to deceive the people and achieve the power of the colony. Those are its only aspirations. Nationalism is a transcendental movement, it is the secular and millennial force of our redemption. To belong to this nationalism it is necessary the consecration to the ideal and therefore the sacrifice. “I do not come to tell you that you are beautiful and precious women and you that you are patriots. I come to tell you that you are not fulfilling your duty. “I want to repeat here the question I formulated in Havana before the monument to José Martí. Do Lares and Puerto Rico deserve that monolith to the heroes of ‘68? To deserve it, one must be at least at the moral height of the base of that monument. And neither Lares nor Puerto Rico are currently at that moral height. It is necessary to cover that monolith with a shroud of mourning until the men and women of Puerto Rico know how to wield the weapons for independence as our grandparents did. “I want this day to be like a dagger stuck over your hearts that tells you in moments of weakness what your duty is. Our Homeland lived under the weight of a tragedy. Its redemption is unavoidable if we want to save ourselves from perishing as a people and be worthy of the sacrifice of those martyrs. To fulfill then, each one with their duty. His final words were followed by a prolonged ovation while the band cleft the air with the chords of the Borinqueña.
Manuel Rivera Matos Secretary of the Nationalist Party
THE NATIONALIST ACT OF SUNDAY IN PONCE THE SPEECH PRONOUNCED BY LCDO. P. ALBIZU CAMPOS When Albizu Campos climbed the tribune, the people of Ponce received him with a prolonged ovation. The President of the Nationalist Party delivered an eloquent and substantial speech that extended for two and a half hours. “My beloved people: I want to greet you after three years of absence throughout our America. A deep emotion overwhelms my spirit when appearing before the people of Ponce who saw me born. To love the soil that gave us life is the first duty of man. I want to send a collective greeting from this tribune to my school classmates, to my physical and moral protectors, to my friends and fellow citizens. “Tonight we celebrate the great epic of the race that discovered and civilized this continent. To the Mother Homeland Spain we owe the immense gratitude for this work without parallels in human history. With the feat of Columbus, the spherical shape of the planet was definitively verified. With this discovery man realized that he did not live on an isolated land but that he belonged to a celestial system of which he was its collaborator and interpreter. Man was then aware of the infinity of the universe and that within himself lay the possibilities of infinite progress. His concept of the universe and of its creator was amplified, and he understood that his mission was to interpret the laws that governed it and live the higher life of the spirit”. After a philosophical digression on the meaning of the discovery and its transcendence in the life of Western culture he went on to analyze the transcendental orientation of nationalism “Nationalism is the force that rises against any power that denies us personality. It is a movement that aspires to awaken the forces of wisdom in the people, to save nationality for culture and history. He wants this people who are the first spiritual unity that crystallizes on the continent, who are the most culturally and racially integrated nationality in America, who are an improvable and sensitive mass, not to be annulled and to reintegrate into the life of culture through the full affirmation of his personality. Nationalism is not merely the reintegration of lands into Puerto Rican hands, nor the salvation of its commerce and finances: it is nationality standing to rescue its sovereignty and save this people for the higher values of life. Colonialism is the annulment and absorption of our moral forces; independence is spiritual plenitude, it is the enjoyment of all the physical and moral gifts that God deposited in our land. If a madman is denied personality by law, he is also denied his capacity to verify any legal transaction. If a people is denied its collective personality, it is denied the capacity to govern its own destiny and we are put on the level of an irresponsible madman. Nationalism is not a party in the limiting sense of the word but a movement that tends to save all the constituent values of nationality. That is why we will not rest until the flag of the United States has been lowered from Puerto Rico”. The speaker then analyzed the historical, sociological and cultural panorama of the Ibero-American nations and stressed the need to maintain intense ties with the sister peoples “because the case of Puerto Rico is the evident example of the intentions that the United States has for Latin America” “America is the richest continent in the world for its territorial extension, its population and its immense natural resources. That is why it is the object of the world’s greed. She is becoming aware of this phenomenon and remains on guard against exotic aggressions. She knows the greedy intentions of the United States and that is why all the governments that the people suspect are submitted to the Yankees are falling”. He then commented on the policy of the United States in the Caribbean. “The Caribbean Sea is the heart of the world. From here the tropical sea currents that carry heat and life to all the continents of the earth depart and converge. This will be the theater of the great war that is eight or ten years away to overthrow the imperialist power of the United States. We must prepare for that hour that will be that of our political salvation”. He then made an analysis of the problems of the United States, of American social life, of its attitude towards the black race, etc. He announced that one of the most bloody social revolutions in history awaited him, since there “the exploitation exercised against the people had made the communist seed prosper in a way dangerous for the stability of their plutocratic institutions”. He commented on the recent speeches of President Hoover in which he recognizes the importance that these movements have taken when he takes the trouble to comment on them. He also censured the society of Ponce for the welcome it gave to the American sailors. “The slave can never pay homage to the master,” he said. At the end of his speech Albizu Campos, the public burst into a delirious applause, carrying him on his shoulders throughout the square while the band intoned the melodious chords of the Borinqueña.
By Manuel Rivera Matos