Author: machetero5

I am a Young Lord for life who uses art to promote socialist ideas and the struggle for Puerto Rico's independence.

Tribute to Lucy Gonzalez Parsons 1851 – 1942

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“Now, what do we mean when we say revolutionary Socialist? We mean that the land shall belong to the landless, the tools to the toiler, and the products to the producers.” ― Lucy Parsons

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By Carlos “Carlito” Rovira

The struggles of the U.S. working-class have produced some of the most exemplary militant fighters which will continue inspiring millions of people for generation to come. Among these powerful historic figures is Lucy Gonzalez Parsons.

Although Parsons never made mention about it throughout her life researchers disclosed in recent decades that she was born enslaved at a plantation in Virginia. In 1863, her slaveowner brought 12-year-old Lucy to Texas along with her mother named Charlotte.

In the years following the end of the Civil War in the United States of 1860-1865, in which ended African chattel slavery was ended, Parsons became a journalist, labor organizer, revolutionary feminist, and an anarcho-communist.

Artist depiction of Lucy Parsons speaking at a labor rally.

She fought vigorously to bring about the eight-hour day, women’s rights, against child-labor and socialism. Despite hardships caused by tragic events in her personal life Lucy Parsons became a true working class shero with a deep disdain for the capitalist system.

Lucy Parsons lived in Texas with her husband Albert Parsons and their two children. They were despised for being an interracial couple. Albert Parson was white and Lucy an obvious woman of color, with African American, Mexican, and Indigenous racial strains.

As Jim Crow laws intensified and due to her outspokenness, the Ku Klux Klan threaten their lives quite often. Eventually, the family was compelled to move to Chicago where they found relative safety from racist terror.

My portrait of Lucy Parsons. 20″ X 24″, acrylic paint on canvas.

At the first May Day rally in Chicago’s Haymarket Square, on May 4, 1886, during a labor demonstration for the eight-hour workday that was attended by thousands of people, a bomb was thrown. The explosion and subsequent gunfire killed seven police officers and four civilians.

This tragic event became a perfect excuse for the government to make a punishing example by launching a crackdown on the labor movement. What resulted was a controversial trial with questionable evidence. Following a guilty verdict, on November 11, 1887, four labor leaders were executed by hanging at Chicago’s Cook County jail. Lucy Parson’s husband, Albert Parsons, was among the four men accused and executed, alongside his comrades August Spies, Adolph Fischer, and George Engel.

For Lucy Parsons to Lose her beloved to a horrifying government persecution served to further radicalize her. She became more outspoken in condemning the capitalist system. Parsons led a national campaign involving speaking tours to raise funds for legal defense and to expose the injustice committed against the Haymarket martyrs, especially in the New York City tri-state area which became a hub for the labor movement. Parsons’ efforts succeeded in reaching the hearts and minds of millions throughout the country.

As Parsons rose to become a prominent voice, she bonded with another renown female working-class figure, Mary Harris, better known as Mother Jones. Parsons and Jones were the only women to speak at the July 8, 1905, founding convention of the International Workers of the World (IWW) also known as the “Wobblies.” Their quest was to build one big labor union of all trades.

The IWW was one of the most militant workers organizations in U.S. labor history, where Parsons and Jones played leading roles. In many cases, striking Wobbly members would conduct their pickets and other actions by boldly displaying their firearms for self-defense and to convince others of their allegiance to convictions.

Lucy Parsons

As years passed, Lucy Parson’s perspective of the world and class struggle expanded. The 1917 Russian Socialist Revolution had a tremendous impact on her. She was a writer for the Anarchist newspaper The Alarm, where she expressed many controversial views, including support for Vladamir Lenin and the Bolshevik victory that established a revolutionary worker’s state.

Such was the bases for differences she held with Emma Goldman and others in the U.S. feminist movement. Parsons polemicized with those who tended to raise women’s rights isolated from other social issues, the plight of Black people and fighting for a socialist world. She believed that fighting women’s oppression was an integral part of engaging in the class struggle.

During the Great Depression of the 1930s, Lucy Parson became highly critical of the Communist Party USA for excessively supporting President Franklyn D. Roosevelt’s New Deal policy. Parsons believed that it was a government ploy designed to deceive the working-class and prevent its revolutionary politicization.

However, although Parsons identified primarily as an anarchist for much of her life, and despite her critiques, she officially joined the Communist Party USA in 1939. She came to the conclusion that what was more important than sectarian organizational affiliations is to fully commit to advance the cause for the emancipation of the working-class.

For the remainder of her life Lucy Parsons travelled across the country agitating for the freedom of the Scottsboro Boys, partaking in picket lines of numerous striking workers and speaking to audiences at union halls to promote the ideas of socialism.

Lucy Parsons became known for her defiance. She was not afraid of imprisonment nor death. This heroine would challenge law enforcement officials whenever they attempted to shutdown public meetings. The Chicago Police Department and the Justice Department’s J. Edgar Hoover, perceived Lucy Parsons as an active threat to the established social and economic order. Chicago Police Chief Frederick Ebersold famously characterized Lucy Parsons “more dangerous than a thousand rioters,“ referring to her advocacy for socialist revolution.

Tragically, Lucy Gonzalez Parsons died on March 7, 1942, in an accidental house fire in Chicago. She is buried in the Forest Home Cemetery in Forest Park, Illinois. Parson’s life-long examples of resilience and conviction will be remembered. She has earned a special place of honor for all eternity in the historic archives of the class struggle.

LONG LIVE THE LEGACY OF LUCY PARSONS!

Tribute to Ruth Mary Reynolds Feb 28, 1916 – Dec 2, 1989

By Carlos “Carlito” Rovira

Ruth Mary Reynolds was a heroine who is remembered with the highest honors for being one of the greatest allies of the historic struggle for Puerto Rico’s independence and right to self-determination.

Raynolds was born on February 28, 1916. She was raised at a family-owned ranch in the mining town of Terraville, located in the Black Hills of South Dakota. She grew up in a family surrounding with strict Methodist religious customs.

The land on which Ruth Reynolds was reared as a child belonged to the Rose bud Tribal people who lived there for hundreds of years before they were driven out during the Westward expansion that resulted in the so-called “Indian Wars.” It was another example of stolen land by white settlers in U.S. history.

Ruth A. Reynolds

Similarly to the legendary, anti-slavery abolitionist, John Brown, Ruth Reynolds acknowledged her white privilege coming at the expense of oppressed people of color. And like John Brown, she demonstrated true solidarity not just in words but with her actions. Such are standards which progressive minded people of white origin must adopt in the United States today, if they are serious of building unity for eventually defeating white supremacy.

Since the time of her youth, Reynolds was inquisitive about the injustices and inequalities that caused human suffering in society. That may explain why she was eventually drawn to address the socio-economic plight of the Puerto Rican masses.

Raynolds became an educator who taught Indigenous children and adults on the Lakota Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. Despite the existing political environment which insidiously encouraged whites to be indifferent or partake in the racist persecution of Blacks, Latinos and Indigenous people, Reynolds on the other hand, developed to fiercely identity with the oppressed.

After Reynolds earned her master’s degree, in 1941 she relocated to New York City to join the civil rights group known as Harlem Ashram. She lived and worked in East Harlem (El Barrio), where she did advocacy for Puerto Rican children. Between 1945-1975, there was an influx of Puerto Ricans migrating to the urban centers of the U.S. at an annual average rate of 63,000, due to colonial economic policies.

Members of the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico with Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos sitting front center.

It was through her advocacy in East Harlem where she met the prominent Socialist Congressman, Vito Marcantonio, who was legal counsel to and ally of Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos, the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party leader. Marcantonio and Reynolds collaborated for a number of years on the matter of Puerto Rico’s struggle for independence.

When it was brought to Campos’ attention the work that Harlem Ashram did, he asked his confidant Julio Pinto Gandia to have Reynolds visit him at Columbia Hospital, in NYC. Campos was undergoing treatment for a heart attack while serving a 10 years prison sentence for sedition.

My portrait of Ruth Mary Reynolds. 20″ X 24″, acrylic paint on canvas.

When Reynolds and Campos met for the first time in 1943 it was the beginning of a long-lasting comradeship that would last until his death in April 1965.

After Compos’ release from prison in 1949, the U.S. installed colonial government was secretly planning a major crackdown on the Nationalist movement. It was amid the repressive, anti-Communist MaCarthy Era in the U.S., which Puerto Rico felt a thousandfold in the subjugated setting of colonialism.

After Nationalist Party intelligence operatives discovered the government’s plans to suppress the movement, Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos believed it was best for revolutionaries to strike the first blow.

On October 30, 1950, a Nationalist Revolt occurred throughout Puerto Rico. Police and colonial officials became targets of Nationalist rage for the draconian decree known as the “Gag Law” (1948 Law 53) which prohibited any form of reference to independence, in literature, public speech, musical or poetic lyrics. The heinous law also made the Puerto Rican flag illegal.

Ruth A. Reynolds holding a sign that reads
“Free North Americans want a free Puerto Rico.”

The most intense gun battle was in Jayuya. Under the leadership of another gallant woman named Blanca Canales, the insurrectionists seized control of the municipality. U.S. military forces surrounded the Jayuya as warplanes bombed the city.

On November 2, 1950, following the armed rebellion and Nationalists Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torricelli attempted assassination of President Harry Truman in Washington, Reynolds was arrested and charged with sedition, for mere association.

Heavily armed police and agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) stormed into her apartment early in the morning without a warrant. Law enforcement officials confiscated her research papers and whatever else they could find to build a case against Campos and the Nationalist Party.

(L to R) Nationalists Carmen María Pérez Gonzalez, Olga Viscal Garriga and Ruth Mary Reynolds.

Although Reynolds was sentenced to six years in prison, she was released 19 months later after winning an appeal. During her incarceration in the Insular Penitentiary of Arecibo, PR, she was constantly subjected to psychological abuse by prison officials. Reynolds believed that she was also the subject of hidden radiation torture, as was Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos.

However, the trauma she endured did not deter her from pursuing her passion for Puerto Rico’s independence. Her resolve was strengthened by the cruelty she experienced herself. Reynolds co-founded the American League for Puerto Rico’s Independence, continued documenting and defiantly voiced contempt for U.S. atrocities against the Puerto Rican people, especially the beatings and murders of individuals in the independence movement.

With Nationalist Julio Pinto Gandia, Renolds lobbied the delegates of many countries at the United Nations Organization seeking support for Puerto Rico’s independence. She also testified before the U.S. Congress to push the issue.

Nationalist Party women being processed after their arrests by colonial police.

Reynolds was indisputably committed to Puerto Rico’s right to independence. Although she was not officially a member of the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico, the affection, admiration and respect that she earned made her an honorary member.

Her legacy has secured a special place in the archives of Puerto Rican national liberation and the struggle against imperialism. What was unique about Ruth Reynolds, as a U.S. citizen of white origin with all the implied privileges, she fought hard and sacrificed much for the Puerto Rican people as if she was a Boricua by birth herself.

¡QUE VIVA PUERTO RICO LIBRE!

Tribute to Maurice Bishop Freedom Fighter of Grenada

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“Our Revolution in Grenada is a people’s Revolution and as such one of the fundamental principles of our Revolution is the establishment of the people’s rights. Among these rights, we include the right to equal pay for men and women, the right to social and economic justice, the right to work and the right to democratic participation in the affairs of our nation.” – Maurice Bishop

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By Carlos “Carlito” Rovira

Born on May 29, 1944, on the Caribbean island of Grenada, Maurice Bishop became an inspiring revolutionary figure who sought to make Black liberation a reality in his homeland. He envisioned transforming the social and economic life of Grenada on a socialist basis. Bishop founded and led the New Jewel Movement (Joint Endeavour for Welfare, Education and Liberation, a revolutionary political party with a Marxist-Leninist premise.

Bishop studied at the University of London where he graduated in 1969 with a degree in law. It was during those years when he began reading Marxist–Leninist literature and became interested in learning about the histories of socialist movements, especially the Cuban Revolution.

He returned to Grenada in 1970 where he practiced law defending the grievances of poor workers. On that year Bishop provided legal counsel for militant striking nurses at St. George’s General Hospital seeking better working conditions for medical staff and adequate healthcare for patients.

On March 13, 1979, Maurice Bishop led an uprising in which the government of Prime Minister Sir Eric Gairy was overthrown. This was the outcome of deteriorating social and economic conditions that impacted the general population of the island nation.  Gairy was accused of leading a corrupt and oppressive regime that was supported by lumpen elements of the “Mongoose Gang”.

Grenada’s Prime Minister Marice Bishop and Cuban President Fidel Castro Ruz, in Cuba, 1980

Between 1979–1983 Maurice Bishop’s government introduced sweeping reforms, including free healthcare, secondary education, construction of homes, paid maternity leave, equal pay for women, and the Center for Popular Education (CPE) for literacy, and land reforms.

As soon as the new government was established it forged close diplomatic relations with Cuba. Havana officials agreed to help Grenada construct the Point Salines International Airport on the southern tip of the island. It was later re-named to Maurice Bishop International Airport, after the Grenadian national hero.

Bishop visited Cuba in 1977 prior to becoming Grenada’s Prime Minister. He returned for the Non-Aligned Countries Summit in Havana on September 2, 1979, and again for the May Day celebration in 1980.

My portrait of Maurice Bishop. 20″ X 24″, acrylic paint on canvas.

Washington officials were enraged by the developing relationship between Grenada, Cuba and the Soviet Union. U.S. officials felt threaten by the revolutionary enthusiasm of that period, in which Grenada added to the anxiety.

Under the Democratic Party presidency of Jimmy Carter and Republican Party Ronald Reagan, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was given approval to conspire and aggravate internal differences within the Grenadian leadership. The country’s second head of state, Deputy Prime Minister Bernard Coard was at odds with Bishop over his relationship with Cuba and other socialist countries. Coard became increasingly anti-communist.

On October 13, 1983, Coard led a coup in which Bishop was arrested. A few days later hundreds of Bishop’s supporters freed him by storming the Fort George prison where he was held, located in the capitol city of Saint George. Soon after, the revolutionary leader was re-captured and on October 19, 1983, Coard ordered Bishop be executed by firing squad.

Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) President Kim Il Sung with
Grenada’s Prime Minister Maurice Bishop.

Taking advantage of the internal strife in the country, on October 25, 1983, U.S. military forces invaded Grenada. Washington officials used “restoring order” and the safety of U.S. students attending school in Grenada as a pretense for the invasion. The real motive for the assault was to eliminate Cuban and Soviet influence in Grenada and the Caribbean islands.

Being that Bernard Coard appeared to work on behalf of U.S. imperialism it’s ironic that he was also arrested by U.S. forces and charged with the assassination of Maurice Bishop. Washington officials, however, were politically cautious and wanted to project the military invasion as an act to uphold justice. U.S.-trained Law enforcement officers from neighboring Caribbean islands were brought to Grenada on a C-5A military transport plane to give the false appearance of their inclusion in the U.S. operation.

It was the first U.S. military incursion in a foreign country since its defeat in the Vietnam War. Washington officials wanted to assert their military might in order to make a political statement to the world. To accomplish this endeavor, elite units were used from Army Special Forces, Navy Seals and Marines.

Despite the tightening grip of U.S. imperialism on the Caribbean island nations and all Latin America, the masses of this region continue to demonstrate their resistance to oppression. What Maurice Bishop aimed to achieve in his beloved Grenada will inevitably become a reality with the defeat of imperialism.

LONG LIVE THE REVOLUTIONARY LEGACY OF MAURICE BISHOP!

Tribute to Civil Rights iconic figure FANNIE LOU HAMER

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“And we can no longer ignore the fact that we can’t sit down and wait for things to change. Because as long as they can keep their feet on our neck, they will always do it. But it’s time for us to stand up and be women and men.” –Fannie Lou Hamer

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By Carlos “Carlito” Rovira

The legacy of Fannie Lou Hamer is one of the most inspiring to come out of the 1960s-70s Civil Rights movement. She was an outspoken activist that never yield to white supremacist terror and fought vigorously for the human rights of Black people.

Born in Montgomery County, Mississippi on October 6, 1917, during the height of Jim Crow laws and lynchings, Fannie Lou Hamer knew first-hand the viciousness of Black oppression. She was the youngest of 20 children in an extremely poor sharecropping family.

At just 6 years old, Fannie Lou began working in the field picking cotton. She was compelled to drop out of school at 12 years old to work full-time in the cotton fields in order to help support her family survive. However, because Fannie Lou loved reading the Bible and other books, she was fully literate by the time adulthood arrived.

Big landowners attempted to use the sharecropping system to re-enslave Black people.

One of the most outrageous acts committed against Hamer was in 1961 at a hospital in Mississippi. She went to undergo a routine surgery for the removal of a uterine tumor. Without her knowledge or consent, a white doctor also performed a hysterectomy.

Years later, Hamer discovered that what was done to her without permission was part of a broader and secret eugenics campaign to reduce the Black population. This heinous genocidal program involved medical institutions as well as agencies of the U.S. government. Indigenous, Chicana/Mexican and Puerto Rican women were also secretly targeted for sterilization. Similarly, in Puerto Rico, one/third of the child-baring female population was sterilized between the 1930s to the 1980s.

My portrait of Fannie Lou Hamer made in 2023. 24″ X 30″, acrylic paint on canvas.

Despite many ordeals that affected her personally, Hamer’s resilience and leadership was strengthened. In 1963, this heroine earned the title Field Secretary for the Student Nonviolence Coordinating Committee (SNCC) for its voter registration drives. This was an exemplary entity initially founded and led by another Civil Rights icon, Ella Baker.

Hamer’s outspokenness was admired by many Civil Rights leaders, including, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr with whom she collaborated. Although Hamer differed with the more radical politics and tactics of the Black Panther Party, they maintained a mutual respect for one another based on their common interest in Black emancipation. In fact, Hamer was quite vocal condemning the media’s slanders and the government’s COINTELPRO attacks on individual Panther leaders and their offices throughout the country.

Fannie Lou Hamer (L) and Ella Baker (R).

The Ku Klux Klan and other racists among the white populace of the deep South did not take well knowing that Black people were emboldened and politically active. The consequential backlash that African Americans encountered for organizing themselves to demand their rights was violence.

In many municipalities throughout the South police and KKK activities were synonymous. For anyone, especially African Americans, who challenged existing racist laws designed to deny Black people the right to vote meant risking your life. Fannie Lou Hamer proved to be a courageous woman; she dismissed the potential physical danger to herself and proceeded in her quest for racial equality.

The police state was never hesitant to use violence against the Civil Rights movement.

On June 9, 1963, Fannie Lou Hamer was severely beaten by police while in custody. She was traveling on a bus with co-activists of Freedom Summer, returning home from a voter registration workshop. When they arrived at a rest stop to get a meal at a diner the group was refused service. The police were then called and immediately all the Black activists were brutally beaten.

Once in the jailhouse, Fannie Lou had her clothing ripped off. As she was viciously held down on the floor naked the police struck her with a baton repeatedly. The cops sexually abused and tortured her. The horror she helplessly experienced on that day is reminiscent of what enslaved Black women suffered by the hands of overseers and slaveowners.

The beating caused permanent kidney damage, which resulted in a medical condition that lasted until her death on March 14, 1977. Despite her poor health and being emotionally traumatized, Hamer continued her activist work with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).

Fannie Lou Hamer traveled throughout the United States to enlighten people of the noble endeavor. She was invited to speak at universities, churches, political gatherings and rallies. Her influence was indisputably powerful as she promoted the general vision of the Civil Rights movement.

Women played a pivotal role in the Civil Rights movement.

On December 20, 1964, Fannie Lou Hamer visited the Williams Institutional Church in the Mecca of Black politics and culture, Harlem, New York City, where she met and appeared alongside of Malcolm X, El-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz. Hamer was running for office in Mississippi, in a campaign to win a seat in the U.S. House of Representative. It was at the gathering in Harlem when she presented her most famous speech titled, “Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired.”

Hamer was well received by a mostly Black audience who sympathized and admired her defiance and ability to survive many life-threatening ordeals. Her speech included a chronology of racist violence she personally experienced as well as shedding light on the suffering Black people have endured throughout the country.

Fannie Lou Hamer was an outspoken Queen of the Civil Rights movement.

Among the many challenges Fannie Lou Hamer had to confront was the shameful patronizing racism of the overwhelmingly white Democratic Party, or “Dixiecrats,” as Malcolm X frequently described them. Their not-so-hidden social arrogance was transparent to most Black people, especially Fannie Lou Hamer who sensed their insidious prejudices towards her for speaking with a strong rural Southern Black accent and having a sharecropper family background.

White Democratic Party officials postered about “favoring” Black freedom, but only to the extent of securing for themselves the Black vote. It would have been naive to expect anything else. The customs, habits and traditions of the Democratic Party, along with its insidious behavior towards African Americans is all rooted in the history of chattel slavery. The Democratic Party was once the political party of slave owners.

Being aware of the history and insulting behavior by white privileged officials, compelled Black activists affiliated with the Democratic Party to create the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) in 1964, of which Fannie Lou Hamer was a co-founder. The Civil Rights activists had hoped to push for a better position within the Democratic Party while preserving an independent existence beneficial to the political struggles of Black people.

Fannie Lou Hamer was a skillful orator that addressed the plight of the oppressed.

Hamer continued to push forward by creating the Freedom Farm Cooperative in Sunflower County, Mississippi. 640 acres were purchased to provide employment for many Black residents. They collectively cultivated and farmed the land. Hamer was also a co-founder National Women’s Political Caucus (NWPC), an entity that included Black and other women of color. The NWPC played a pivotal role during the rise of the Feminist movement. It made efforts to combine and highlight the relevance of the anti-racist struggle to the demands of women’s emancipation.

Fannie Lou Hamer was inspiring and an indisputably unique representation of an oppressed people. But she was also the product of centuries-long militant traditions which made possible the survival of Black people from the most challenging and unimaginable circumstances throughout their history.

Despite living with chronic pain from injuries sustained during the 1963 savage beating by police, the spirited energy to fight for the freedom of her people never deterred. The selflessness and humanity that Fannie Lou Hamer passionately possessed throughout her life, once it is emulated by millions of people it shall guarantee a victorious fight to end racist oppression and usher in a new society.

LONG LIVE THE LEGACY OF FANNIE LOU HAMER!

Tribute to a Cuban Revolutionary Heroine MELBA HERNANDEZ


By Carlos “Carlito” Rovira

Melba Hernandez’s life is filled with many fascinating stories which reflect the courage, strength and resilience of Cuban women who made overthrowing the U.S.-puppet regime of Fulgencio Batista a reality. Melba was a combatant and leader in the Rebel Army of the July 26 Movement. She became an important and symbolic political figure of the 1959 Cuban Revolution.

During the armed struggle Hernandez fought gallantly alongside of Comandante Fidel Castro Ruz. She was a confidant of the revolutionary leader and after the seizure of power this heroine became part of his executive staff. Melba played a pivotal role during the critical period of consolidating the Cuban state apparatus.

Melba was introduced to politics by her parents who partook in Cuba’s War for Independence of 1895, led by the legendary Jose Marti. She was a lawyer who was affected by witnessing first-hand the disturbing social and economic inequality in Cuba. From the time she completed her education the young Melba was empathetic with the plight of poor peasants and exploited workers whom she represented as legal counsel.

Melba Hernandez (right) and Haydee Santamaria in custody following the
attack on Moncada Barracks.

Melba Hernandez and Haydee Santamaria were the only two women that partook in the July 26, 1953, attack on the Moncada Barracks in Santiago, the event that sparked the Cuban Revolution. Part of Fidel Castro Ruz’s plan was for the revolutionary insurgents to enter the surrounding restricted zone at Moncada dressed in the same uniforms as government soldiers. It was Melba who illegally obtained the uniforms. She convinced a military official who supported the rebel cause to assist with her mission.

The attack on Moncada was bloody and ended in failure. By the time it ended most of the insurrectionists were wounded and killed. Many of these revolutionaries died as by torture at the hands of sadistic henchmen of the Batista regime. Some, like Fidel Castro Ruz managed to escape and hide in the jungle until they negotiated a surrender days later through an intermediary.

Hernandez and Santamaria were arrested, convicted and given shorter prison sentences in comparison to their male counterparts who were released two years later. During their incarceration, Hernandez and Santamaria experienced humiliating abuse by Batista’s prison officials.

My portrait of Melba Hernandez. 20″ X 24″, acrylic paint on canvas.

After these heroines were released, they were determined to carry out the work of building a mass movement and the clandestine network that would eventually topple the Batista government. Melba was instrumental in smuggling out of the prison where Fidel Castro was held a draft of his famous courtroom speech when he was tried “History will Absolve Me”, one of the most important documents of the Cuban Revolution.

After the seizure of power on January 1, 1959, Hernandez was assigned to several important roles in the government. In 1960, she was placed in charge of women’s prisons in Cuba. For Hernandez, a top priority was to spearhead prison reform to align with the humane principles of the revolution.

Melba Hernandez meeting with Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh.
Melba Hernández and Vilma Espín welcomed Vietnam‘s General Nguyễn Thị Định, during her visit to Cuba

During the late 1960s – 1970s, at the height of the vicious colonial war the U.S. was waging against the Vietnamese people, Hernandez risked danger to herself by traveling frequently to the war-torn country as head of the Cuban Committee in Solidarity with Vietnam. She also served as Secretary General of OSPAAAL, the Organization of Solidarity with the Peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America.

In the 1980s, Hernandez earned Cuba’s Ambassadorship to Vietnam and Cambodia due to her diligent work of solidarity with the Vietnamese Revolution. This heroine also served the Cuban government as a Deputy in the country’s National Assembly of People’s Power.

Melba Hernandez with Comandante Fidel Castro Ruz.

Sadly, on March 9, 2014, Melba died of natural causes. Having lived her life as a diplomat and high-ranking official of a revolutionary government, her legacy shall inspire revolutionaries for generations to come, especially women who will be duty-bound to confront backward traditions that perpetuate women’s oppression.

Hernandez was among other iconic female figures who were decisive in that revolutionary experience, such as Vilma Espin, Celia Sanchez, Aleida March, Haydee Santamaria, and others. Their selflessness and loyalty to the revolution surmounted of of what many would have expected.

Thanks to the Cuban Revolution Melba Hernandez, dared to be amongst those to set standards for challenging the greatest tyrant in human history.

LONG LIVE THE CUBAN REVOLUTION!

Tribute to one of Africa’s greatest revolutionary fighters THOMAS SANKARA

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“Imperialism is a system of exploitation that occurs not only in the brutal form of those who come with guns to conquer territory. Imperialism often occurs in more subtle forms, a loan, food aid, blackmail. We are fighting this system that allows a handful of men on Earth to rule all of humanity.” ― Thomas Sankara

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By Carlos “Carlito” Rovira

Thomas Sankara is one of Africa’s greatest iconic figures who continues to inspire millions throughout the world and is remembered as an example of resistance. This revolutionary lived from December 21, 1949, until his assassination on October 15, 1987. He lived to fight for a free Burkina Faso from the viciousness of colonial rule.

Sankara became President of Burkina Faso on August 4, 1983, at 33 years old, following a popular uprising in the country that overthrew the corrupt and brutal regime of Major Jean-Baptiste Ouédraogo, who maintained questionable ties with the former French colonizers of the country.

Thomas Sankara speaking at the United Nations General Assembly on October 4, 1984,

At the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885, imperialist European powers divided Africa exclusively among themselves without the presence of African people. French colonialism named a region they appropriated the “Upper Volta.” After Sankara led a successful liberation struggle and he became head of state, by decree the country was given the name Burkina Faso.

In the short period of four years of his presidency, Sankara surprised many by transforming the country in a positive direction on a socialist basis. The social, economic and cultural reality of his people were introduced to groundbreaking measures unseen in their history.

For the first time a government existed that prioritized transforming the infrastructure by constructing roads, railways, building waterways, schools, medical clinics, pharmacies, and housing. Sankara also aimed to eradicate illiteracy by launching a campaign throughout Burkina Faso as an essential part of his Socialist economic goals.

Standing on the left side of Thomas Sankara is South Africa’s iconic singer Miriam Makeba, in a photo op with other outspoken African women.

Sankara supported the struggle for women’s equality. Laws were enacted aimed to advance the position of women in the country. The new decrees outlawed young women being forced into pre-arraigned marriages, banning female genital mutilation (FMG) “customs”, polygamy practices, as well as other backward tribal traditions that perpetuate women’s oppression. 

Despite the disapproval of those who sought to preserve patriarchal dominance, by government decree it was mandated that every female receive a free education as well as be given the opportunity to prove their ability for appointment to decision-making government posts, even if pregnant. Sankara was the first African leader to appoint women for the highest government cabinet positions and recruit into the ranks of the country’s military.

To the displeasure of imperialist exploiters of Africa, foreign-owned enterprises were nationalized by revolutionary decree. Although private ownership of industries was not fully eliminated Burkina Faso did undergo a complete break with foreign control of its vital natural resources, thus allowing the country the freedom to develop economically.

My portrait of Thomas Sankara. 20″ X 24″, acrylic paint on canvas.

Sankara’s dream was to transform the country by making it self-sufficient. Without hesitation, he adamantly refused loan offers made by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB) knowing the manipulative schemes they use to keep poor countries in debt and subjugated on behalf of leading imperialist powers.

The economic infrastructure of Burkina Faso was deliberately kept backward, and its people remained downtrodden for decades due to France’s extreme colonial plunder of the country since 1896.

Under Sankara’s leadership the government established land reforms that benefited the poorest landless peasants of the country. He collectivized agriculture and industries following the model of the Cuban Revolution. Every effort was made to involve the broadest number of the population in an endeavor aimed to achieve economic self-reliance thus safeguarding the people’s right to self-determination from imperialist predators.

In September 1984, Cuban President Fidel Castro Ruz awarded Thomas Sankara with the Order of Jose Marti for
his role in the liberation struggle of his people and upholding internationalist solidarity.

But as Burkina Faso intensified its nationalization process of land and mineral wealth French and U.S. officials at the highest level began sensing a threat to their strategic interest in the region, especially after Sankara called for a series of social, ecological, and economic reforms of socialist content.

Imperialism’s contempt of Burkina Faso’s revolutionary leadership intensified when Sankara’s relationship with Cuba and the Soviet Union became official, at the height of the “Cold War.” The two socialist states provided Burkina Faso with military advisers and training, weapons, technical and agricultural equipment, medical supplies, education and so on, despite Sankara’s open criticisms of the Soviet occupation in Afghanistan.

Sankara was first introduced to the writings of Karl Marx and Vladamir Lenin in the early 1970s while undergoing officer training in Madagascar. He was able to advance the legitimacy of Marxism-Leninism and Pan-Africanism by combining the principles of the two revolutionary doctrines, which have historically been complimentary. And when the intelligence agencies of imperialism observed with alarm how a Socialist like Sankara sought ways to unite Pan-Africanists on the continent and beyond, they launched an aggressive campaign to undermine and ultimately overthrow his government.

Sadly, in a blatant example of betrayal, on October 15, 1987, Thomas Sankara was assassinated as part of a coup d’état led by Blaise Compaoré, a close ally, friend, and key partner in the 1983 revolution that overthrew Jean-Baptiste Ouédraogo. A unit of Compaoré’s rogue forces systematically killed Sankara and 12 members of his cabinet while they were having an official meeting. Compaoré served as Minister of State and Minister of Justice, essentially the second-in-command.

Compaoré was against Sankara’s radical Pan-Africanist and Marxist-Leninist views. He was opposed to the socialist path the country was on and preferred that the government institute pro-Western policies. Compaoré was also hostile to the developing relationship Burkina Faso had with Cuba and the Soviet Union. What at first appeared as mere differences eventually evolved to open antagonism.

As if Compaore’s actions were not sinister enough, he pronounced himself President of the country immediately after Sankara’s assassination. The chronology of events leading up to Sankara’s death indisputably demonstrate that Compaoré was a mole of Burkina Faso’s former colonizers.

Although concrete evidence of U.S. and French involvement in Sankara’s assassination doesn’t exist it would be extremely naive to overlook their history of subversion against governments unfavorable to the strategic interests of imperialist states. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and France’s Direction générale de la sécurité extérieure (DGSE) were created specifically to carry out the necessary secret work for preserving their respective empires.

Hopefully, the emergence of Captain Ibrahim Toare as President of Burkina Faso today shall serve the ongoing resistance to imperialism of that country and inspire revolution in the entire African continent. Weakening and ultimately removing imperialism’s stranglehold is the only true act that will bring about justice for the assassination of Sankara and other African warriors.

Thomas Sankara shall forever be remembered as a Pan-Africanist because he sincerely loved his people. And he will also be remembered as a Socialist because he wanted what he strongly believed was best for his people. His legacy is part of traditions long established by many seeking ways to free Africa and inspire future generations of revolutionaries to be like Chris Hani, Amilcar Cabral, Patrice Lumumba, Steve Biko, Kwame Nkrumah, Nelson Mandela, and so many others.

Long Live the Revolutionary Legacy of Thomas Sankara!

DON JULIO PINTO GANDIA & the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico

By Carlos “Carlito” Rovira

Julio Pinto Gandia was someone whom I remember during my childhood visiting our family home on the Lower East Side, New York City. I knew him as Don Pinto. My parents and other family members were affiliated with a secret committee of the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico that operated in New York City, of which Don Pinto was leader.

Born in Manati, Puerto Rico on July 9, 1908, Gandia was one of the most outspoken advocates for the independence of Puerto Rico from U.S. colonialism throughout most of his life. He became a close and trusted confidant of the iconic Nationalist leader Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos and became known as his “right-hand man.”

Pedro Albizu Campos, Gilberto Concepción de Gracia and lawyer Julio Pinto Gandía, in the San Juan courthouse, Puerto Rico (1936)

When Campos was incarcerated in the 1930s for seditious conspiracy to overthrow the U.S. government in Puerto Rico, Gandia was asked to fill in as Interim President of the Nationalist Party.

And because Don Pinto Gandia was a legal attorney himself he worked closely with the Socialist Congressman Vito Marcantonio who represented New York’s East Harlem community. They both collaborated for several years to fight for Campos’ release from prison while using his legal case to expose the criminality of U.S. colonialism in Puerto Rico.

My portrait of Don Julio Pinto Gandia. 20″ X 24″, acrylic paint on canvas.

But Gandia was himself under the watchful eye of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), especially during the repressive McCarthy Era (1947-1957) of which in Puerto Rico it was more fascistic. He was constantly arrested by the FBI and other colonial authorities. And to interfere with his livelihood and cause further personal harm, in 1937 Gandia was disbarred from the practice of law in Puerto Rico.

Gandia was also accused of being the “mastermind” of the March 1, 1954, Nationalist armed attack on the U.S. House of Representatives. Lolita Lebron, Rafael Cancel Miranda, Irvin Flores Rodriguez, and Andres Figueroa Cordero staged that daring act to bring attention to the plight of the Puerto Rican people. From that point on Gandia was frequently arrested for questioning.

His refusal to answer questions by FBI and court judges about the attack on the U.S. Congress usually landed Gandia jail time for contempt of court. His stubbornness and complete loyalty to the Puerto Rican cause was recognized by his comrades and enemies of the independence movement alike.

In many of his conversations with Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos, Don Pinto Gandia raised the importance of aggressively bringing the case of Puerto Rico before the United Nations. Pinto Gandia was then assigned the task of meeting with delegates of countries belonging to the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization to discuss Puerto Rico’s status.

Gandia’s skillful diplomatic work paid off when in 1978 the U.N. Special Committee officially declared Puerto Rico an occupied colony, despite infuriating outbursts made by U.S. delegates and the mainstream mass media. Washington officials reacted by launching a campaign that falsely showcased Puerto Rico as a success story of U.S. imperialism in Latin America.

However, two years prior to the political embarrassment the U.S. Government faced at the United Nations, in September 1976, after leaving his apartment in Puerto Rico, Julio Pinto Gandia vanished forever without a trace.

Don Julio Pinto Gandia in FBI custody.

Considering that Operation COINTELPRO was taking place with the Puerto Rican independence movement as one of its main targets, it is believed by many that the U.S. government was directly responsible for Gandia’s disappearance. The work this revolutionary was perceived as a threat to U.S. interest in its highly valued colonial possession.

Although we will never know what tragedy occurred to Julio Pinto Gandia his legacy has secured a special place in the archives of that historic liberation struggle. His resilience, sacrifice, and courageousness, under the most difficult circumstances reflect the moral strengths of the Puerto Rican people.

¡QUE VIVA PUERTO RICO LIBRE!

General Vo Nguyen Giap, and the Vietnamese people’s defeat of U.S. imperialism

General Vo Nguyen Giap, August 25, 1911 – October 4, 2013

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“It wasn’t me, but the Vietnamese people who won the Vietnam war. You call me a legendary general, but I think I’m no different from my soldiers”.

– General Võ Nguyên Giáp

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By Carlos “Carlito” Rovira

Vietnam’s General Võ Nguyên Giáp is one of the most outstanding revolutionary figures in history to provide military leadership in modern times. Thanks to Giáp’s superior strategy, poor village peasants were transformed into a formidable guerilla army called the Viet Minh which became the People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN). Against often seemingly insurmountable odds, the PAVN went on to defeat two imperialist powers, France in 1954 and the United States in 1975.

The young Võ Nguyên Giáp and Ho Chi Minh.

General Giáp was a most trusted confidant of the iconic Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh. Giáp was a firm believer that doing the impossible was not impossible, when it came to waging struggle to end tyranny and human suffering.

In May 1941, under the occupation of both French and Japanese imperialism, Giáp became leader of the Viet Minh, the military component of the League for the Independence of Vietnam, organized by Ho Chi Minh. Giáp’s leadership in the tactics of conventional and guerilla warfare was decisive in defeating Japanese, French, and U.S. imperialism.

Personal tragedies resulting from horrors caused by French colonialism profoundly affected Giáp which played a big role in molding his fury, resilience and revolutionary disposition. In 1938, he fled North to China to avoid arrest by pursuing colonial authorities.

My portrait of General Võ Nguyên Giáp. 20″ X 24″, acrylic paint on canvas.

In 1940, his wife Nguyen Thi Quang Thai, also a leader in the Communist Party of Vietnam, was arrested. She experienced extreme torture including being forced to watch the murder of her parents and other family members. Nguyen eventually died while in the Hoa Lo Prison. Her sister also arrested was tortured and guillotined.

General Giáp’s military talents and skill were developed without any formal military schooling or training. He became attracted to military science by studying the history of warfare in different countries, the military writings of China’s Communist leader Mao Zedong and the classic Art of War by Sun Tzu.

In September 1973, Cuba’s President Fidel Castro Ruz made a secret and symbolic trip to Vietnam where he was warmly greeted by General Giap. Fidel Castro was the only head of state to visit Vietnam during the war.

General Giáp’s skillfulness in strategy and tactics proved decisive on March 13, 1954, at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. Vietnamese combatants humiliated and painfully stunned the better trained and equipped French Army by smashing their ability to fight.

Giáp masterfully developed guerilla tactics which he passed on to other leading combatants for applicability like the iconic Nguyễn Thị Định, an exemplary fighter who became the country’s first female ranking military general.

General Giáp was the leading figure of the People’s Army during the war against U.S. imperialism and their South Vietnamese puppets. He was the architect and organizer of the famous Ho Chi Minh Trail which served as a secret supply route for guerilla fighters in the Southern occupied portion of the country.

The Ho Chi Minh Trail.

The Ho Chi Minh Trail went through the jungles and tunnels of neighboring countries Laos and Cambodia. This network was used as a secret thruway to transport weapons and supplies. The engineering of this project was so sophisticated that the U.S. Air Force and Special Forces failed to detect its locations in order to destroy them.

In 1968, General Giáp masterminded the famous Tet Offensive. Under Giap’s command this military offensive achieved the desirable political outcome once it was launched on January 30, 1968. The revolutionary Vietnamese forces created extreme turmoil to counter false claims made by Washington officials that the National Liberation Front of Vietnam (NLF) was losing the war.

However, the opposite proved to be the case when U.S. casualties increased dramatically as a result of the fury the NLF unleashed with immense firepower throughout Vietnam. The growing number of body bags containing remains of American G.I.s could no longer be concealed from the mass media.

And when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. presented his famous speech at Riverside Church in New York City, titled “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence“ it added to a major shift in public opinion. Opposition to the war ignited everywhere in society, especially among the youth who were distressed about being drafted for military service. Once the Tet Offensive began young men of age were increasingly refusing to enlist or evading the draft.

The country was consumed in protests. Many people who never attended a demonstration were now compelled to take a stance against the hypocritical politics of the War in Vietnam, especially in Black and Brown communities who were disproportionally the ones to be killed.

Units of the People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN).

The Tet Offensive caused havoc for war planners at the Pentagon, as U.S. military forces became demoralized and resentful to the military brass. Many who were already in uniform serving in Vietnam staged acts of insubordination or rebellion. The Tet Offensive had a psychological affect on combat soldiers there and U.S. military personnel everywhere.

General Giap’s achievements for the liberation of his people are tremendous and continue to inspire millions throughout the world. His wisdom in strategy and tactics also serve as inspiring lessons for other oppressed people. Giap’s leadership in battle against a more powerful foe reaffirmed that colonizers, tyrants and white supremacists are not invincible.

Long live the legacy of General Vo Nguyen Giap and the heroic Vietnamese people!

SHIRLEY A. CHISHOLM – a defiant voice of the Civil Rights movement

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“Health is a human right, not a privilege that you purchase” — Shirly A. Chisholm

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Tribute to Shirley Chisholm, November 30, 1924 – January 1, 2005

By Carlos “Carlito” Rovira

The legendary Shirley Anita Chisholm was a powerful voice of defiance that never ceded her fight for human rights in the United States. As a community activist and member of the U.S. House of Representatives she fought for racial and gender equality, anti-poverty programs, educational reform, and civil rights.

Although Chisholm was never a revolutionary in the traditional sense the Civil Rights movement, she played a significant role in had the potential of evolving in a more radical direction. When making public speeches she agitated like a Black nationalist, a feminist, labor organizer, supporter of LGBTQ+ rights, and used her Spanish language fluency to express support for the Latinx community. 

Chisholm was born in Brooklyn, New York to poor immigrant parents from Guyana and Barbados. Being that her family was undergoing financial difficulties, the young Shirley and her sister were sent to live with relatives in Barbados during her childhood.

Although I do not give grandeur to figures in bourgeois politics, Congresswoman Shirley A. Chisholm is a unique case. While Chisholm’s story was not restricted to her achievements in mainstream politics, she represents a particular part in the history of the Civil Rights movement that also fought for social justice.

Chisholm was among progressive politicians that challenged the government by fighting to achieve what oppressed people were demanding. Among these voices in mainstream politics were figures like Vito Marcantonio, Adam Clayton Powell, Charles Diggs, and others.

Chisholm waged a relentless struggle against white supremacist practices in the House of Representatives and other parts of the U.S. Government. Despite the desire of many white racist colleagues not to acknowledge Chisholm’s title, she was nevertheless an elected official who did not hesitated to call out anti-Black legislative proposals motivated to resist the Civil Rights momentum.

Like many progressive Black figures and openly anti-capitalist political organizations of that period, Chisholm was implicitly and explicitly accused of having “communist ties.” She adamantly condemned McCarthy Era legislation maintained for repressing the Communist Party USA and anyone that promoted the ideals of socialism.

My portrait of Shirley A. Chisholm. 20″ X 24″, acrylic paint on canvas.

Chisholm was the first Black woman from New York to win a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. She was an outspoken member of Congress who was vehemently opposed to the criminal U.S. war in Vietnam which she linked to the social and economic disparity in the United States.

The Congresswoman participated in many anti-war demonstrations and rallies throughout the country where she added her voice to the massive public outcry against the war. Her denunciations of Washington officials were fearlessly made to expose their criminal warmongering policies.

Chisholm unapologetically supported the Black Panther Party (BPP). She admired their courageous militant spirit. In April 1972, Chisholm met with BPP leader Huey P. Newton. The BPP recognized Chisholm’s courageousness and empathy for the suffering of the Black masses. The Panthers openly endorsed her campaign to get elected to Congress and set their organizational infrastructure for a voter registration drive to have her elected.

Black Panther Party Minister of Defense Huey P. Newton.

Although Chisholm possessed a fiery spirit that added to the strength of the Civil Rights movement, she came under heavy criticism and condemnation from many circles including within the Black community. On June 8, 1972, Chisholm unexpectedly visited the racist Alabama Governor George Wallace at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, Maryland where he was recovering from gunshot wounds in an assassination attempt. In that same year Wallace and Chisholm were competing candidates for the Democratic Party presidential nomination.

Chisholm’s response to her many critics, who viewed the visit to an outspoken white supremacist as absurd, was that she acted with empathy consistent with her religious faith. Like all mainstream political figures Chisholm also had her own significant contradictions.

Despite Chisholm’s political complexities, how she viewed her involvement in bourgeois politics on behalf of oppressed people merits appreciation and applause. Washington officials were irked by an outspoken Black woman intruding in their world of white privilege and entitlement. Nothing could have been more uncomfortable than a strong and dignified woman of color with character always ready to call them out

The humiliation she experienced from the disrespectful behavior of racist colleagues did not deter her. Chisholm’s life journey which at times included unpleasant moments taught her to be resilient. Nothing stopped her from moving forward to carry out legislative work. Her famous motto was: “If they deny you a seat at the table bring your own folding chair.” She had a way of frustrating the most condescending and arrogant elements in the U.S. Congress.

Tribute to Blanca Canales, heroine of the Jayuya Uprising

By Carlos “Carlito” Rovira

Below is a 20” X 24”, acrylic paint portrait of the legendary Puerto Rican Nationalist, Blanca Canales, one of my favorite super-sheroes. Her story always fascinated me whenever my parents spoke of her with admiration during my childhood.

Blanca Canales lived from February 17, 1906, to July 25, 1996. She was an educator and staunch leader of the Nationalist Party in Jayuya, Puerto Rico. As a child she was reared by parents who advocated independence for the homeland from U.S. domination. By the time Blanca reached adulthood she became well versed in the anti-colonial cause.

The young Blanca Canales and Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos.

Canales was motivated to join the Nationalist Party due to her disdain for the repressive U.S. colonial presence in Puerto Rico, especially during the 1948 Law 53, also known as the Gag Law. This decree made it illegal to mention independence in literature, recorded music or public speeches. In addition, waving or possessing a Puerto Rican flag was a criminal offense punishable by 10 years in prison.

When Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos rose to the presidency of the Nationalist Party Blanca participated in organizing the women’s section of that entity, known as Daughters of Freedom. Her charisma and convictions inspired many women to join the ranks of the Nationalist Party.

My portrait of Blanca Canales. 20″ X 24″, acrylic paint on canvas.

But Blanca Canales is best known for leading the famous October 30, 1950, Jayuya Uprising, part of the general Nationalist revolt in Puerto Rico. The Nationalist Party leadership chose to strike with armed force once their intelligence operatives discovered a secret plan the U.S. colonizers preparing to destroy the independence movement with violence.

On that morning, Canales led a contingency of insurrectionists in an armed attack on the police headquarters of Jayuya, where a fierce gun battle ensued for several hours. Police officials were shocked by the unexpected tenacity of the Nationalists. Overwhelmed and outnumbered, colonial officials and police were compelled to surrender and exit the building with their hands raised in the air.

Blanca Canales in custody by colonial police after the Jayuya Uprising.
Nationalist Party women faced the same repressive consequences as their male comrades. In this photo they are being processed after arrest by colonial police.

Puerto Rican Nationalists also launched armed attacks on police and government facilities in other cities, Utuado, Arecibo, Mayaguez, Naranjito, Peñuelas, and Ponce. In San Juan, Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos and other patriots defended the Nationalist Party headquarters in a shootout with colonial police. Blanca Canales was one of many women who took part in this significant chapter in Puerto Rican history.

Immediately after the Nationalists gained control of Jayuya, Blanca proceeded to give the command to burn down the despised police facility. Surrounded by crowds of residents, the brave patriots defiantly raised the outlawed Puerto Rican flag. With her weapon raised in the air, Canales shouted the solemn historic words of the struggle — “QUE VIVA PUERTO RICO LIBRE!” She boldly declared the independence of Puerto Rico!

Blanca Canales flanked by two other Nationalist heroines, Lolita Lebron (left) and Isabel Rosado (right).

The response of U.S. colonialism to the insurrectionists was swift and brutal. The National Guard was utilized to repress the revolt including bombing Jayuya and Utuado from warplanes in a desperate rush to subdue the Nationalists.

The Jayuya Uprising is an episode in Puerto Rican history that remains virtually hidden from mainstream education. Puerto Rico’s colonial status points to the plunderous intentions of the U.S. in Latin America and Caribbean. What the Jayuya Uprising did was to cause political embarrassment for U.S. rulers, who were quick to depict the situation as a conflict among Puerto Ricans.

Blanca’s love for the homeland was uncompromising. Despite the revolt being suppressed and having sacrificed so much by spending years in prison, her courageous role in the liberation struggle is unforgettable. Her legacy will surely give rise to future revolutionaries that will fight for a free Puerto Rico.

QUE VIVA PUERTO RICO LIBRE!