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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!

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!

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a fighter for Black emancipation during the struggle for Civil Rights

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“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

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By Carlos “Carlito” Rovira

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was among a number of significant Black religious figures whose actions and leadership in the 1950s-1960s propelled the fury of the Civil Rights movement. The Southern Baptist Church for the most part served as a vehicle for expressing the wishes of Black people. But with the advent of the 1960s mass upsurge nothing was exempt from the political storm that created a potential for revolution in the United States, including the Black Church.

The momentum consumed most of society, as the outcry for Black emancipation gained support even outside the African American community. This phenomenon provided favorable conditions for the Black struggle to play an exemplary and leadership role in the intensifying political climate.

Other oppressed sectors of the population yearning for freedom as well began to follow suit. The Civil Rights movement which started as an expression for Black freedom was now a factor in a mass upsurge which had a profound impact on the spectrum of politics in this country.

Photos taken of Dr. King while in custody by Birmingham, Alabama police.

Dr. Martin Luther King’s empathy for the historic suffering of Black people, heightened his contempt for the legacy of slavery, racist Jim Crow laws. It instilled in his character a defiance and resilience that would inspire millions of people from all nationalities and races to take part in his quest.  

Figures like Evelina Antonetty and Gerena Valentin from the Puerto Rican community as well as Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, representing Mexican/Chicano migrant workers, aligned with Dr. King, thus adding to the strength of the Civil Rights movement.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, March 26, 1964, in Washington, DC.

Despite differences among Black leaders, the February 21, 1965, assassination of Malcolm X impacted Dr. King. There is indisputable evidence in his speeches that he was becoming radicalized, a reflection of the political militancy that was evolving among Black and Brown people in this country. Malcolm X’s assassination naturally brought to the open what was already being felt in the hearts and minds of millions of people, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., himself.

Contrary to assertions made by bourgeois historians, which depict MLK as nonaggressive and passive, he supported and boldly encouraged civil disobedience. He was also an outspoken critic of the U.S. political and economic system.

Civil Rights activists demonstrated dignity and were not afraid of white supremacist attacks.

Although MLK never identified himself as revolutionary, by traditional definition, objective circumstances compelled him to side with radical views. Towards the end of his life, Dr. King showed signs of gravitating towards an anti-capitalist analytical conclusion to the human suffering he witnessed.

During a speech he gave on August 16, 1967, at a Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, Dr. King boldly stated: “The evils of capitalism are as real as the evils of militarism and evils of racism.”

And when Dr. King gave his April 4, 1967, speech at Riverside Church in Harlem, New York City, titled: “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” the rulers of this country became infuriated. Considering the history of political reaction and racist hatred in the United States, it cannot be ruled out that delivering this speech sealed Dr. King’s death.

Washington officials were defensive due to the Vietnamese anti-colonial struggle gaining momentum while receiving massive support throughout the world, as the U.S. anti-war movement added to the pressure.

When Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. articulated the relevance of Civil Rights with the fight to end the war in Vietnam U.S. officials experienced political embarrassment on a global scale. It was no coincidence or surprise that the notorious J. Edgar Hoover had ordered intensifying COINTELPRO activities against Dr. King to seek ways to ruin his reputation and discredit the politics of the movement.

My portrait of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 20″ X 24″, acrylic paint on canvas.

Exactly a year after the Riverside Church speech, Dr. King was assassinated. He was shot while speaking to an audience from a hotel balcony in Menphis, Tennessee. The assailant was a white supremacist named James Earl Ray, who used a high-power rifle from a distance away to kill the renown Black leader.

African Americans reacted justifiably with indignation and rebelled on the streets of major cities throughout the country. The killing of Dr. King was reminiscent of the terror Black people experienced throughout the history of this country since chattel slavery.

Moments before Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was fatally shot by sniper.

There are many apologists in the mainstream who will distort the critical role Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. played in the Civil Rights movement. They will also present sanitized narratives that focus solely on his “peaceful, non-violent” tactics while avoiding mention of the vicious police terror unleashed on Dr. King and that entire movement.

What we today must always raise is the tenacious resistance Black and Brown people demonstrated then and will continue until freedom prevails, as Dr. King and the Civil Rights movement had envisioned.

LONG LIVE THE LEGACY OF DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Coretta Scott-King and their children.

Remember the October 25,1977 Puerto Rican takeover of the STATUE OF LIBERTY

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“We seized the Statue of Liberty in 1977 to expose to the world the hypocrisy of the United States that projects itself as a beacon of freedom. When in fact, it is the colonizer of Puerto Ricans and unjustly imprisons us when we challenge their rule. The takeover was also an act of solidarity with the struggles of our Black, Native American, Chicano-Mexican, Asian, and Arab brothers and sisters, whom we share a common oppressor.”

Fernando Ponce Laspina, Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico -NY Committee

One of the participants and arrestees of the 1977, Statue of Liberty takeover.

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By Carlos “Carlito” Rovira

On October 25, 1977, a group of 30 Puerto Ricans and allies unexpectedly caused shock to the ruling class when they courageously seized physical control of the Statue of Liberty, located in New York Harbor. This daring act of civil disobedience became monumental in the history of resistance in the United States. The group called itself the New York Committee to Free the Five Puerto Rican Nationalists, an entity of various groups and individuals from the Puerto Rican diaspora during the 1970s.

With military–style planning and discipline, prior to boarding and during their ride on a ferry boat from Manhattan to Liberty Island, the group divided itself into several teams of fours. They pretended to be tourists and strangers to one another to avoid suspicion of their intentions.

As soon as the vessel reached its destination and docked, the activists went into action demonstrating a powerful energy of resistance to oppression. They ran to storm with fury the entrances of the facility where the giant human-like figure stands tall.

Boricuas with energy of resistance. El Maestro’s Fernando Ponce Laspina holding up the flag on the right.

Within 15 minutes the protestors secured their position in this national monument by locking doors and shutting windows to forestall an aggressive response they expected by law enforcement. Once inside, and after they expelled visiting tourists and Federal employees, the activists hurried up the staircase to reach the top level where the head of the Statue is located.

With a strong sense of both political and cultural conviction for the beloved homeland, they unfurled and hoisted a very huge Puerto Rican Flag from the statue’s crown, where it was proudly displayed for the world to witness.

An arial photo of Boricua dignity at Statue of liberty.

Among the non-Boricua participants of this action who merits recognition for risking her own personal safety in the interest of a Puerto Rican cause was the legendary Japanese American internationalist, Yuri Kochiyama.

Yuri Kochiyama

While the mainstream media depicted this act of resistance as “terroristic”, the inspiration for it was to bring about world attention to the criminal U.S. colonial domination of Puerto Rico and to demand the release of political prisoners Lolita Lebron, Rafael Cancel Miranda, Irvin Flores Rodriguez, Andres Figueroa Cordero and Oscar Collazo.

These freedom fighters were passionate about upholding the dignity of the liberation struggle. They were members of the Nationalist Party who responded to a directive given by Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos. All five patriots were sentenced to life imprisonment for carrying out justified armed actions against the U.S. colonizers in two separate historic events.

On November 1, 1950, Nationalist Party members Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola went to the Blair House in Washington, D.C. to assassinate President Harry Truman. Their intended purpose was to counter Washington’s lies about the Jayuya-Nationalist revolt of October 30, 1950, and the severe repression that followed. U.S. government officials falsely depicted the conflict as Puerto Ricans vs. Puerto Ricans.

Torresola was killed and Collazo critically wounded in a shootout with Capital Police and Secret Service. However, their brave act did bring about political exposure to what was occurring in Puerto Rico.

From L to R: Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola.

And then, on the morning of March 1, 1954, as members of the House of Representatives met in the Chamber of the Capitol, Lolita Lebrón, Rafael Cancel Miranda, Irvin Flores Rodriguez and Andres Figueroa Cordero, calmly walked up a staircase to the balcony. Lolita pulled out a Puerto Rican flag and a handgun from her shoulder bag. She then shouted the solemn words of the liberation struggle: “QUE VIVA PUERTO RICO LIBRE!” Within seconds of brandishing their weapons, the four Nationalists opened fire on the colonizers in the U.S. Congress.

From L to R: Rafael Cancel Miranda, Andres Figueroa Cordero, Lolita Lebron, Irvin Flores Rodriguez.

Considering the fury of the 1960s-70s in poor, working-class communities of the diaspora and Puerto Rico, the boldness of the Statue of Liberty takeover added to the broadly supported call for their release. No one can ever dispute how this militant action contributed to the release of the five Puerto Rican Nationalists two years later, when President Jimmy Carter was pressured to grant amnesty.

Among other factors that led to a victorious outcome was the solidarity received from the Government of Cuba. Despite many threats and a brutal economic blockade, the Cuban Revolution has always maintained its principles of solidarity by upholding the centuries-long revolutionary tradition known as the “Two Wings of the Same Bird“, Cuba and Puerto Rico.

After a nine-hour siege the police forced their way through and arrested the demonstrators. In discipline fashion they lined up waiting for the inevitable by chanting slogans and singing the revolutionary Puerto Rican National Anthem, “La Borinqueña.”

Among the names of individuals arrested were Yuri Kochiyama, Fernando Ponce Laspina, Charlie “Indio” Alejandro, Madelyn Gonzalez, Chino Lopez, Julio Wells, David (DJ) Tirado, Emma Torres, Richie Perez, Mickey Meléndez and others. Serving as media-spokesperson for the action, outside the perimeter of the Statue of Liberty was Vicente Alba-Panama.

Despite everything U.S. rulers have done to Boricuas through racist violence, discrimination, economic deprivation, and attempts to eliminate our identity as a people, the innate instinct to resist oppression can never be destroyed.

There is reason to feel proud knowing that it was the power of the Puerto Rican struggle which made possible the release of all five political prisoners. This profound example of resilience and determination has added to the unbreakable traditions of the Puerto Rican people.

¡QUE VIVA PUERTO RICO LIBRE!