War
Against All Puerto Ricans by Nelson Denis, 2015, Excerpts
Ponce’s La Cantera was one of
the island’s poorest districts. Albizu rented a wooden house on a dirt road and
from a hill behind his house, he could see the Central Constancia sugar cane
plantation. The vista showed an infinity of cane: thousands of rows, multiplied
in successive mirrors, all the way to the Atlantic Ocean.
Albizu was practicing povety
law, and his clients were simple people – mostly sugar can workers and jibaros
– who paid with chickens, vegetables, and sometimes a simple thank-you. Albizu
had no savings or property, but he was building something more important:” a
reputation as a man of principle, a man who could be trusted. This reputation
grew when he started writing for El
Nacionalista de Ponce and advocating for independence around the island.
From 1927 to 1930, he traveled
to Cuba, Panama, Mexico, Venezuela, Peru, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti,
campaigning and networking for his revolution. When he spoke about US banks
owning Puerto Ricans’ land, the US Navy controlling their borders, the US
Congress writing their laws, and US companies paying them starvation wages in
the sugar fields, everyone knew what he was talking about.
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