Ed Ayers: In the late 1940s, Puerto Rico was at a crossroads. For almost 50 years, it had been a colony of the United States, but with colonial subjects in Asia and Africa throwing off their European rulers, many Puerto Ricans were looking forward to a new status for their island as well. Some wanted statehood, others more autonomy. Some demanded outright independence.
Brian Balogh: Throughout the 1930s, the radical wing of the Independence faction, known as the Nationalist Party, violently clashed with the colonial regime in Puerto Rico. In 1936, that party’s leader, a man named Pedro Albizu Campos was imprisoned by American authorities for sedition. Our next story picks up 10 years later when Albizu Campos was released, and his followers saw one last chance to shape Puerto Rico’s future through a devastating act of political violence. Here is producer Nina Earnest with that story.
Nina Earnest: When Pedro Albizu Campos was released from prison in 1947, he picked up right where he had left off, giving fiery speeches in support of independence.
Pedro A. Campos: [foreign language 00:33:57].
Nina Earnest: Puerto Rico had changed in his 10-year absence. When he first rose to prominence in the ’20s and ’30s, support for independence was at an all-time high. Now many political leaders were turning toward a new model, one that meant more autonomy for Puerto Rico with continued oversight by the United States. It was a path favored by a savvy politician named Luis Munoz Marin, who recognized that Puerto Rico’s contributions to the Allied war effort had given it leverage to negotiating more favorable status with the U.S. He was at that very moment on the verge of becoming the island’s first democratically elected governor. In the summer of 1950, the U.S. Congress did pass a law allowing Puerto Ricans to vote on a new constitution, one that would eventually cement the new commonwealth status.
Harry F.-R.: There’s no way Puerto Rico [inaudible 00:34:54] ratifying the constitution that is going to be presented to Congress.
Nina Earnest: This is Harry Franqui-Rivera, a historian at Hunter College New York. He says Albizu Campos regarded the constitution as another form of colonialism, but also realized that the political winds had turned against him.
Harry F.-R.: He realized that he wasn’t a relevant figure anymore politically, so he had to, if he wanted to determine the future of Puerto Rico, which is something that he wanted, he wanted to determine the future of Puerto Rico, he had to do something drastic.