There is no one word that can do justice to the human phenom, Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos (June 29, 1893 or September 12, 1891-April 21, 1965). That he happened to have been born Puerto Rican, well, that is just one more reason I have to take pride in my cultural roots.
Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos is popularly known as the Father of Puerto Rican Nationalism; he fought for Puerto Rican Independence, peasant and workers' rights, brought to light injustices perpetrated by medical institutions, organized many uprisings and is credited for implementing national Puerto Rican holidays and emblems in existence today, such as, the Puerto Rican Flag.
In Latin American cultures, both parents' last names are used, first the paternal and then the maternal. This, in a sense, announces which two families you are bred from; a very powerful and sometimes, damning aspect of our culture. You either had to live up to the family name or distance yourself from it as much as possible.
Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos was to have been very proud of both family names. He was nephew of danza composer Juan Morel Campos and cousin of Puerto Rican educator Dr. Carlos Albizu Miranda. Both of these men are illustrious figures in Puerto Rican history. In keeping with family expectations, Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos excelled in academics at an early age. In 1912, Dr. Albizu Campos was awarded a scholarship to study Engineering, specializing in Chemistry at the University of Vermont. In 1913, he continued his studies at Harvard University.
When War World I broke out, in the summer of 1914, Dr. Albizu Campos volunteered in the United States Infantry. Once his basic training was completed he was assigned to the 375 Infantry Regiment, an all black unit, according to the U.S. military segregation policies of the time. First Lieutenant Pedro Albizu Campos was honorably discharged from the Army in 1919. The racism he experienced during his military service influenced the way Dr. Albizu Campos viewed the relationship between the United States and Puerto Rico. It cemented firmly his belief that Independence was the only path for Puerto Rico.
After the War, he returned to Harvard University and graduated with a Law Degree, in June 1922, while studying Literature, Philosophy, Chemical Engineering and Military Science. He was fluent in English, Spanish, German, Portuguese, French, Italian, Latin and Greek. Dr. Albizu Campos met, and I am sure, was influenced by the likes of Subhas Chandra Bose (Indian Nationalist Leader with Mahatma Gandhi); the Hindu poet Rabindranath Tagore; and Éamon de Valera, Irish Nationalist and future President of Ireland. Dr. Albizu Campos later became a consultant in the drafting of the constitution of the Irish Free State.
Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos, was elected president of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, advocating Puerto Rican Independence, on May 11, 1930. Due to his involvements in the many riots that were occurring throughout the island, Dr. Albizu Campos was tried in 1937 for "seditious conspiracy to overthrow the U.S. Government in Puerto Rico." He was acquitted with a jury of 7 Puerto Ricans and 5 Americans. The presiding judge in the case, Judge Cooper, ordered a new jury, which consisted of 10 Americans and 2 Puerto Ricans; resulting in the desired guilty verdict. The Boston Court of Appeals, which has appellate jurisdiction over federal matters in Puerto Rico, upheld the verdict.
In his 1939 speech, Five Years of Tyranny, U.S. Congressman Vito Marcantonio, called the trial a "frame-up" and "one of the blackest pages in the history of American jurisprudence." Providing evidence that the Albizu Campos' jury was a prejudiced one, which had been hand-picked by the prosecuting attorney, Mr. Cecil Snyder, to include "jurors who had expressed publicly bias and hatred for the defendants" and a prosecuting attorney [Snyder] who had been assured via a dispatch from Washington that "the Department of Justice would back him until he did get a conviction", Marcantonio added, "The continuance of this [Albizu Campos] incarceration is repugnant to our democratic form of government; it is repugnant to our Bill of Rights and out of harmony with our good neighbor policy. There is no place in America for political prisoners. As long as Puerto Rico remains part of the United States, Puerto Rico must have the same freedom, the same civil liberties, and the same justice which our forefathers laid down for us. Only a complete and immediate unconditional pardon will, in a very small measure, right this historical wrong." Congressman Marcantonio then concluded, "When we ask ourselves, "Can it happen here?" the Puerto Rican people can answer, "It has happened in Puerto Rico." Wikipedia
Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos' first incarceration lasted more than 10 years, in 1947, he returned to Puerto Rico, just in time to organize and begin the struggle against the proposed plans to change Puerto Rico's political status into a commonwealth of the United States.
It was during these decades of turmoil that in 1950 Dr. Albizu Campos was again incarcerated and sentenced to 80 years. He was accused of inciting the Harry S. Truman assassination attempt, and later, while in custody, masterminding the 1954 Nationalist Shooting in the House of Representatives. Although, pardoned twice by Luis Muñoz Marín, Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos spent the rest of his life in prison. His pleads that he was being blasted with radiation rays, were mostly ignored as the rantings of a lunatic. On April 21, 1965, Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos died of his various mysterious illnesses. In 1994, under the Clinton Administration, the United States Department of Energy disclosed that human radiation "experiments" had in fact been conducted without consent on prisoners in the 1960s and 1970s. It has been alleged that Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos was among the subjects of such experimentation.
*A second more precise blog on human experimentation in Puerto Rico is forthcoming.
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