This book interprets Puerto Rico's first and most significant attempt to end its colonial dependence on Spain. Looking at the imperial policies and conditions within Puerto Rico that led to the 1868 rebellion known as El Grito de Lares, the author compares the colonization of Puerto Rico with that of Spanish America and explores why the island's independence movement began decades after Spain's other colonies of the region had revolted. Through the extensive use of previously unresearched archival materials of the rebel movement, she corrects many errors found in earlier accounts of the revolt, and offers new interpretations of the movement's impact on Spanish-Puerto Rican relations.
The powerful, untold story of the 1950 revolution in Puerto Rico and the long history of U.S. intervention on the island, that the New York Times says "could not be more timely." In 1950, after over fifty years of military occupation and colonial rule, the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico staged an unsuccessful armed insurrection against the United States. Violence swept through the island: assassins were sent to kill President Harry Truman, gunfights roared in eight towns, police stations and post offices were burned down. In order to suppress this uprising, the US Army deployed thousands of troops and bombarded two towns, marking the first time in history that the US government bombed its own citizens. Nelson A. Denis tells this powerful story through the controversial life of Pedro Albizu Campos, who served as the president of the Nationalist Party. A lawyer, chemical engineer, and the first Puerto Rican to graduate from Harvard Law School, Albizu Campos was imprisoned for twenty-five years and died under mysterious circumstances. By tracing his life and death, Denis shows how the journey of Albizu Campos is part of a larger story of Puerto Rico and US colonialism. Through oral histories, personal interviews, eyewitness accounts, congressional testimony, and recently declassified FBI files, War Against All Puerto Ricans tells the story of a forgotten revolution and its context in Puerto Rico's history, from the US invasion in 1898 to the modern-day struggle for self-determination. Denis provides an unflinching account of the gunfights, prison riots, political intrigue, FBI and CIA covert activity, and mass hysteria that accompanied this tumultuous period in Puerto Rican history.
Pedro Albizu Campos (September 12, 1891 - April 21, 1965) was a Puerto Rican attorney and politician, and the leading figure in the Puerto Rican independence movement. Contained in this volume are the most prescient of his words on Puerto Rico, which to this day remains a subject of the United States of America.
This book is a socioeconomic interpretation of Puerto Rico's first and most significant attempt to end its colonial relationship with Spain. Looking at the imperial policies and conditions within Puerto Rico that led to the 1868 rebellion known as "El Grito de Lares," Dr. Jiménez de Wagenheim compares the colonization of Puerto Rico with that of Spanish America and explores the reasons why the island's independence movement began decades after Spain's other colonies in the region had revolted. Through the extensive use of previously unresearched archive material, she examines the economic and social backgrounds of the leaders of the rebel movement, corrects many errors of earlier accounts of the revolt, and offers new interpretations of its impact on Spanish-Puerto Rican relations.
A detailed analysis of Puerto Rican society during the Spanish colonial period, highlighting the roles and responsibilities of women and workers. Rather than celebrating the victors, the author has composed the book from the viewpoint of the colonized, suppressed and exploited.
This book is a socioeconomic interpretation of Puerto Rico's first and most significant attempt to end its colonial relationship with Spain. Looking at the imperial policies and conditions within Puerto Rico that led to the 1868 rebellion known as "El Grito de Lares," Dr. Jiménez de Wagenheim compares the colonization of Puerto Rico with that of Spanish America and explores the reasons why the island's independence movement began decades after Spain's other colonies in the region had revolted. Through the extensive use of previously unresearched archive material, she examines the economic and social backgrounds of the leaders of the rebel movement, corrects many errors of earlier accounts of the revolt, and offers new interpretations of its impact on Spanish-Puerto Rican relations.
"A group of Nationalists led by Pedro Albizu Campos made it clear that they would free Puerto Rico from colonial rule. A confrontation between the Nationalists and the colonial police in October 1935 left four Nationalists dead. Albizu Campos and seven of his aides were convicted on seditious charges and sent to a federal prison in Atlanta, Georgia. His followers attempted to hold a demonstration in Ponce, Albizu Campos' hometown, and were gunned down by the police: nineteen were killed and more than one hundred and fifty were wounded. Eight Nationalists then attempted to kill Governor, Blanton Winship. Back in Puerto Rico in 1947, Albizu Campos began to plan for a revolution, which he launched on October 30, 1950. A commando unit of five attacked the Governor's residence while others assaulted police stations in half a dozen cities and towns throughout the island. One woman (Doris Torresola) was shot while protecting her leader. The same day Blanca Canales was one of three to lead the revolt in Jayuya. Two days later, two Nationalists, residents of New York, attempted to kill, President Truman at Blair House, his temporary residence. Massive arrests followed and forty-one women were detained on suspicion they had conspired with the rebels. Two of the fifteen women indicted were sentenced to life in prison. Then, on March 1, 1954, another woman (Dolores Lebraon) led three male companions in the attack of the U.S. House of Representatives where five congressmen were shot for keeping Puerto Rico in bondage. Historians have largely overlooked the roles of these Nationalist women. Now the book, Nationalist Heroines: Puerto Rican Women History Forgot, 1930s-1950s seeks to rescue the stories of the women who gave up their freedom in search of freeing their homeland"--Provided by publisher.
The effect of Saint Domingue's decolonization on the wider Atlantic world The slave revolution that two hundred years ago created the state of Haiti alarmed and excited public opinion on both sides of the Atlantic. Its repercussions ranged from the world commodity markets to the imagination of poets, from the council chambers of the great powers to slave quarters in Virginia and Brazil and most points in between. Sharing attention with such tumultuous events as the French Revolution and the Napoleonic War, Haiti's fifteen-year struggle for racial equality, slave emancipation, and colonial independence challenged notions about racial hierarchy that were gaining legitimacy in an Atlantic world dominated by Europeans and the slave trade. The Impact of the Haitian Revolution in the Atlantic World explores the multifarious influence—from economic to ideological to psychological—that a revolt on a small Caribbean island had on the continents surrounding it. Fifteen international scholars, including eminent historians David Brion Davis, Seymour Drescher, and Robin Blackburn, explicate such diverse ramifications as the spawning of slave resistance and the stimulation of slavery's expansion, the opening of economic frontiers, and the formation of black and white diasporas. They show how the Haitian Revolution embittered contemporary debates about race and abolition and inspired poetry, plays, and novels. Seeking to disentangle its effects from those of the French Revolution, they demonstrate that its impact was ambiguous, complex, and contradictory.