Michael González-Cruz - Militant Puerto Ricans: Migrants, Armed Struggle & Political Prisoners

Facing discrimination from fellow members in unions, organizations, and political parties, Militant Puerto Ricans tells the story of how Puerto Ricans in the United States participated in traditional politics, while creating clandestine organizations. By 1965, Puerto Ricans had created over six-hundred different political and communal organizations, with different approaches, methods, and tactics. Many organizations focused on improving conditions in Puerto Rican communities, and others aimed at freeing Puerto Rico from its colonial status. Militant Puerto Ricans focuses on the formation and the strategies of the Young Lords Party (YLP), the Puerto Rican Socialist Party (PSP), the Puerto Rican National Left Movement (or the Comit [MINP]), the Puerto Rican Student Union (PRSU), the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberacin Nacional (FALN), the Nationalist Party (PN) and the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP).

Militant Puerto Ricans tells the story of how leaders and activists who belonged to these organizations, constantly travelled between Puerto Rico and the U.S., strengthening the bonds between activists and organizations in and outside Puerto Rico. Additionally, Militant Puerto Ricans tells us the story of how clandestine organizations, such as the FALN and the Macheteros, organized to make others conscious about Puerto Ricos colonial status.

Militant Puerto Ricans timeline starts in 1868, when Puerto Ricans rebelled against the Spanish colonial government in El Grito de Lares. After el grito , rebel bands in Puerto Rico continued their resistance by assaulting landowners, burning their fields, and destroying credit books. These bands were known as the tiznados, who despite their efforts, did not organize into a large-scale revolutionary movement. Puerto Rico would not see a large revolutionary movement until the 1930s, when Pedro Albizu Campos was elected the president of the Nationalist Party, a working-class movement that threatened corporate and colonial powers.

The U.S. fought the Nationalist Party by implementing a Gag Law, they tortured and executed Nationalists, and shot peaceful protesters. Facing violent oppression from the colonial government, the armed struggle became clandestine. The Chicago-based Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN) and the Boricua Popular Army (EPB) [otherwise known as the Macheteros] took command. They attacked and destroyed banks, oil pipelines, military equipment, and federal offices. Their aim was not to overthrow the government, but to protest Puerto Ricos colonial status.

The FBI and Puerto Rican polices tactics against activists were vicious and brutal. Besides their assassinations of activists without due process, one of the most shocking facts this chapter reports on was how a bomb was planted in the Puerto Rican Socialist Partys daycare center. It was only after 150,000 dossiers on independence supporters were revealed to the public in the late 1980s, that the FBI scaled back its vicious assassination campaign. Instead, their tactics shifted to harassment of key individuals, infiltration of activist organizations and a massive media brainwashing campaign to demonize leftist militant tactics.

Militant Puerto Ricans concludes with a chapter on the lives of Pedro Albizu Campos revolutionary disciples. In 1999, the U.S. released twelve Puerto Rican political prisoners after a massive protest took place in the island. Puerto Rico received them with hugs, ovations, and parades. Michael Gonzlez-Cruz tells us that these revolutionaries were radicalized by the tragic circumstances of their nation, their communities, and their reality. In the United States, many became radicalized when they witnessed the police and FBI violently repress the Black Panther Party.

Puerto Ricans who have been born and raised in the United States have faced racism and discrimination to this day. Our militants have fought for liberation, occupied buildings, rescued their history, created culture, and fought their oppressors to achieve a justice that has been denied to them for centuries.

This is their story.

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