The Ponce massacre was an event that took place on Palm Sunday, March 21, 1937, in Ponce, Puerto Rico, when a peaceful civilian march turned into a police shooting in which 17 civilians and two policemen were killed,[6] and more than 200 civilians wounded. None of the civilians were armed and most of the dead were reportedly shot in their backs.[7] The march had been organized by the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party to commemorate the abolition of slavery in Puerto Rico by the governing Spanish National Assembly in 1873,[8] and to protest the U.S. government's imprisonment of the Party's leader, Pedro Albizu Campos, on sedition charges.[9]
Governor Winship was never prosecuted for the massacre and no one under his chain of command – including the police who took part in the event, and admitted to the mass shooting – was prosecuted or reprimanded.[13]
The Ponce massacre remains the largest massacre in US imperial history in Puerto Rico.[11] It has been the source of many articles, books, paintings, films, and theatrical works.
Chronology of events
Carlos Torres Morales, a photo journalist for the newspaper El Imparcial was covering the march and took this photograph when the shooting began.
Several days before the scheduled Palm Sunday march, the Nationalists had received legal permits for a peaceful protest from José Tormos Diego, the mayor of Ponce. According to a 1926 Puerto Rico Supreme Court ruling, government permits were not necessary for the use of plazas, parks or streets for meetings or parades.[15] As a courtesy to the Ponce municipal government, the Nationalists nevertheless requested the permit.[16]
Upon learning about the march, the U.S.-appointed governor of Puerto Rico, General Blanton Winship, ordered the new Insular Police Chief, Colonel Enrique de Orbeta, to contact Mayor Tormos and have him cancel the parade permit. He ordered the police chief to increase the police force in the southern city, and to stop, "by all means necessary", any demonstration conducted by the nationalists in Ponce.[17] Without notice to the organizers, or any opportunity to appeal, or any time to arrange an alternate venue, the permits were abruptly withdrawn, just before the protest was scheduled to begin.[13]
Following Governor Winship's orders, Colonel de Orbeta went to Ponce where he concentrated police units from across the island sporting "the latest riot control equipment", among which he included the machine gunners in the island. Winship intended to crush the activities of the Nationalists and their leader, Pedro Albizu Campos.[10]
Police Chief de Orbeta and Insular Police officers, immediately after the massacre
The Insular Police, a force somewhat resembling the National Guard, was under the direct military command of Governor Winship[12] and ultimate responsibility for the massacre fell on Winship, who controlled the National Guard and Insular Police, "and ordered the massacre."[17][11]
Police Chief Guillermo Soldevilla of the municipality of Juana Díaz,[18] with 14 policemen, took a position in front of the marchers. Chief Perez Segarra and Sgt. Rafael Molina, commanding nine policemen armed with Thompson submachine guns[13] and tear gas bombs, stood in the back. Chief of Police Antonio Bernardi, heading 11 policemen armed with machine guns, stood in the east; and another group of 12 police, armed with rifles, was placed in the west. According to some reports, police numbered "over 200 heavily armed" guards.[19]
The "Viva la República, Abajo los Asesinos" (English: "Long live the Republic, Down with the Murderers!") message which cadet Bolívar Márquez Telechea wrote with his blood before he died.
The Insular Police started firing on the marchers – killing 17 unarmed civilians, two policemen,[20] and wounding over 200 civilians, including women and children.[21] Police firing went on for over 15 minutes.[13] The dead included 17 men, one woman, and a young girl. Some of the dead were demonstrators/cadets, while others were passersby. As of 2009, only two survivors were known to be alive, siblings Fernando and Beatriz Vélez.[22]
The flag-bearer of the Cadets of the Republic was shot and killed during the massacre. A young girl, Carmen Fernández proceeded to take the flag, but was shot and gravely injured. A young Nationalist cadet named Bolívar Márquez dragged himself to the wall of Santo Asilo de Damas and wrote with his blood the following message before dying:[16][23][24]
"¡Viva la República, Abajo los asesinos!"
("Long live the Republic, Down with the Murderers!")
Many were chased by the police and shot or clubbed at the entrance of their houses as they tried to escape. Others were taken from their hiding places and killed. Leopold Tormes, a member of the Puerto Rico legislature, claimed to reporters that a policeman had murdered a nationalist with his bare hands.[25] Dr. José Gandara, a physician who assisted the wounded, testified that wounded people running away were shot, and that many were again wounded by the clubs and bare fists of the police.[23] No arms were found in the hands of the civilians wounded, nor on the dead ones. About 150 of the demonstrators were arrested immediately afterward; they were later released on bail.[25]
Official version of the events
The next day, Winship radioed Washington and reported, officially, that the Nationalists had initiated the shooting.[26][27] Part of his radiogram report stated that "two shots were fired by the Nationalists ... with Nationalists firing from the street, and from roofs and balconies on both sides of the street ... [the police] showed great patience, consideration and understanding of the situation, as did the officers and men under him [the Police Chief]."[26]
The following day, as a result of this misinformation,[12] the New York Times and Washington Post reported that a Nationalist political revolt had claimed the lives of more than eighteen people in Puerto Rico.[28]
The Puerto Rican senator Luis Muñoz Marín traveled to the city of Ponce to investigate the event. After examining the photograph taken by Carlos Torres Morales of El Imparcial, which had not yet been published, he wrote a letter to Ruth Hampton, an official at the Department of the Interior. He said that the photograph showed that the policemen were not shooting at the uniformed Nationalists (Cadets), but at a terrified crowd in full flight.[26]
Investigation and the Hays Commission
Defendants during the trial of the Nationalists at the former Spanish Army barracks in Ponce, Puerto Rico (December 1937).
Initial investigations of the event differed on whether the police or the marchers fired the first shots. Governor Winship applied pressure on the district attorney's office in charge of the investigation. He requested that the public prosecutor from Ponce, Rafael Pérez Marchand, "arrest more Nationalists", and that no charges be filed against the police. The prosecutor resigned as a result of being denied the opportunity to conduct a proper investigation.[29]
A Puerto Rican government investigation into the incident drew few conclusions. A second, independent investigation ordered by the United States Commission on Civil Rights led by the ACLU's Arthur Garfield Hays, together with Puerto Rican citizens Fulgencio Piñero, Emilio Belaval, José Davila Rice, Antonio Ayuyo Valdivieso, Manuel Díaz García, and Francisco M. Zeno took place. This investigation concluded that the events on 21 March constituted a massacre and mob action by the police. The report harshly criticized the repressive tactics and massive civil rights violations by Governor Winship.[13]
After viewing the photograph taken by Carlos Torres Morales, Hays in his report to the American Civil Liberties Union questioned why the governor's investigation had not used the photography, which was among two that were widely published. According to Hays, the photograph clearly showed 18 armed policeman at the corner of Aurora and Marina streets, ready to fire upon a group of innocent bystanders.[30] The image showed the white smoke in the barrel of a policeman's revolver as he fired upon the unarmed people. The Hays Commission questioned why the policemen fired directly at the crowd, and not at the Nationalist Cadets.[16]
Casualties
Relatives of those killed in the Ponce massacre standing by the police bullet-ridden wall at the Nationalist Party headquarters in Ponce.
Delgado Pietrantoni, José Antonio (National Guard)
Reyes Rivera, Juan
Rivera López, Conrado
Rodríguez Figueras, Iván G.
Rodríguez Méndez, Jenaro
Rodríguez Rivera, Pedro Juan
Rosario, Obdulio
Sánchez Pérez, Eusebio (Insular Police Officer)
Santos Ortiz, Juan
Torres Gregory, Juan
Vélez Torres, Teodoro
Aftermath
Lack of convictions
In the aftermath of the massacre, no police officer was convicted or sentenced to jail. No police were demoted or suspended and Governor Winship never issued a public apology.[13]
Reaction in the U.S. Congress
The Ponce massacre reverberated through the U.S. Congress. On the House floor, Congressman John T. Bernard expressed his shock and outrage. He said: "The police in Ponce, probably with the encouragement of the North American police chief and even the governor, opened fire on a Palm Sunday Nationalist march, killing seventeen and wounding more than two hundred."[31][32][33][34]
Congressman Vito Marcantonio joined in the criticism, filing charges against Governor Winship with President Roosevelt. In his speech before Congress titled "Five Years of Tyranny", Congressman Vito Marcantonio reported that "Ex-Governor Blanton Winship, of Puerto Rico, was summarily removed by the President of the United States on May 12, 1939" after charges were filed against Mr. Winship with the President. In his speech, the Congressman detailed the number of killings by the police and added, "the facts show that the affair of March 21 in Ponce was a massacre ... Governor Winship tried to cover up this massacre by filing a mendacious report" and the congressman called Governor Winship a "tyrant".[3]
Attempt on Governor Winship's life
The year following the Ponce massacre, on 25 July 1938, Governor Winship wanted to mark the anniversary of the US 1898 invasion of Puerto Rico with a military parade. He chose the city of Ponce to demonstrate that his "Law and Order" policy had been successful against the Nationalists. During the parade, shots were fired at the grandstand where Winship and his officials were sitting in an attempt to assassinate him. It was the first time that an attempt was made on the life of a Governor of Puerto Rico. Winship escaped unharmed but two men, the assailant and a police officer, were killed, and 36 people were wounded.[35]
The dead were the Nationalist Ángel Esteban Antongiorgi and National Guard Colonel Luis Irizarry. The Nationalist Party denied participation in the attack, but the government arrested several Nationalists and accused nine of "murder and conspiracy to incite violence."[36] Among the nine Nationalists charged and convicted were Tomás López de Victoria, captain of the Ponce branch of the Cadets of the Republic, and fellow cadets Elifaz Escobar, Santiago González Castro, Juan Pietri and Prudencio Segarra. They served eight years in the Puerto Rico State Penitentiary. The four were pardoned by the next full-term US-appointed governor, Rexford Guy Tugwell.[37]
Winship tried to repress the Nationalists. Jaime Benítez Rexach, a student at the University of Chicago at the time and later long-time chancellor of the University of Puerto Rico, wrote to President Roosevelt stating, "Governor [Winship] himself through his military approach to things has helped keep Puerto Rico in an unnecessary state of turmoil. He seems to think that the political problem of Puerto Rico limits itself to a fight between himself and the Nationalists, that no holds are barred in that fight and that everybody else should keep out."[36] Winship was replaced in 1939.
Newsreel scenes related to the Ponce massacre Here
One of the by-products of the Ponce Massacre and the Hays Commission was the creation in Puerto Rico of a chapter of the ACLU on May 21, 1937. It was named "Asociación Puertorriqueña de Libertades Civiles" (Puerto Rican Association of Civil Liberties). Its first president was Tomás Blanco, Felipe Colón Díaz and Antonio Fernós Isern were its vice-presidents, the treasurer was Inés María Mendoza, the Secretary was attorney Vicente Géigel Polanco, and the association's legal counsel was attorney Ernesto Ramos Antonini. Luis Muñoz Marin and many leaders from Ponce, including attorney Pérez Marchand and some of the members of the Hays Commission were also among the founders.[38][26]
Today, the Ponce massacre is commemorated annually.[2]
The main consequence of the Ponce Massacre, like the main consequence of the other episodes of state terrorism in the history of our people, is the fear that has been planted into the people of Puerto Rico, the fear that has come to form part of the life of our people, regarding the idea of the struggle for independence. The people of Puerto Rico has, [sic] for the most part, reached the conclusion, as a result of those episodes, that to be an independentista is dangerous, that to be indepedentista means persecution, damage to the person, serious financial difficulties. As a result, that has diminished the rank and file for the ideology of independence and has made very difficult the growth of the independence ideology in Puerto Rico."[39]
The book Revolucion en el Infierno (Revolution in Hell) was published in 2002, and the television film by the same name was released in 2004. It illustrates the events of the Ponce massacre through the life of one of the victims, Ulpiano Perea. The film is an adapted from the playwright by Roberto Ramos Perea, Ulpiano's nephew.[43]
Pedro Albizu Campos was a Puerto Rican attorney and politician, and a leading figure in the Puerto Rican independence movement. He was the president and spokesperson of the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico from 1930 until his death. He led the nationalist revolts of October 1950 against the United States government in Puerto Rico. Albizu Campos spent a total of twenty-six years in prison at various times for his Puerto Rican independence activities.
Juan Antonio Corretjer Montes was a Puerto Rican poet, journalist and pro-independence political activist opposing United States rule in Puerto Rico.
The Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico is a Puerto Rican political party founded on September 17, 1922, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Its primary goal is to work for Puerto Rico's independence. The Party's selection in 1930 of Pedro Albizu Campos as its president brought a radical change to the organization and its tactics.
Blanca Canales was an educator and a Puerto Rican Nationalist. Canales joined the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party in 1931 and helped organize the Daughters of Freedom, the women's branch of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party.
The Jayuya Uprising, also known as Jayuya Revolt or Cry of Jayuya, was a Nationalist insurrection that took place on October 30, 1950, in the town of Jayuya, Puerto Rico. The insurrection, led by Blanca Canales, was one of the multiple insurrections that occurred throughout Puerto Rico on that day against the Puerto Rican government supported by the United States. The insurrectionists were opposed to US sovereignty over Puerto Rico.
Blanton C. Winship was an American military lawyer and veteran of both the Spanish–American War and World War I. During his career, he served both as Judge Advocate General of the United States Army and as the governor of Puerto Rico. An investigation led by the United States Commission on Civil Rights blamed him for the Ponce massacre, which killed 19 people.
The Río Piedras massacre occurred on October 24, 1935, at the University of Puerto Rico in Río Piedras. Puerto Rico Police officers confronted and opened fire on supporters of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. Four Nationalist Party members were killed, and one police officer was wounded during the shooting.
The Utuado uprising, also known as the Utuado revolt or El Grito de Utuado, refers to the revolt against the United States government in Puerto Rico which occurred on October 30, 1950, in the town of Utuado. There were simultaneous revolts in various other towns in Puerto Rico, including the capital of San Juan and the cities of Mayaguez and Arecibo, plus major confrontations in the city of Ponce and the towns of Peñuelas and Jayuya.
The San Juan Nationalist revolt was one of many uprisings against United States Government rule which occurred in Puerto Rico on October 30, 1950 during the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party revolts. Amongst the uprising's main objectives were an attack on La Fortaleza, and the U.S. Federal Court House Building in Old San Juan.
The Puerto Rican Nationalist Party insurgency was a series of coordinated insurrections for the secession of Puerto Rico led by the president of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, Don Pedro Albizu Campos, against the United States government's rule over the islands of Puerto Rico. The party repudiated the "Free Associated State" status that had been enacted in 1950 and which the Nationalists considered a continuation of colonialism.
José Valentin Tormos Diego was a Puerto Rican politician and Mayor of Ponce, Puerto Rico, from 1937 to 1941. He is best remembered for under his administration the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party received a permit for a peaceful march, which resulted in the Ponce massacre by Insular Police under authority supplied by US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to Governor Blanton Winship. During his administration he also rebuilt the historic Teatro La Perla, and reconditioned the Teatro La Perla northern annex to be used as headquarters of the municipal public library.
The Museo de la Masacre de Ponce is a human rights museum and historic building in Ponce, Puerto Rico. It depicts the history and events surrounding the Ponce massacre, which occurred in broad daylight on Palm Sunday in 1937. The museum is housed inside the building where the event itself occurred, with one of its sections devoted to the Nationalist leader, Pedro Albizu Campos. It also documents the blacklisting of Puerto Rican Nationalists performed by the United States, as well as hosting a considerable number of photos from the Nationalist era.
Hugo Margenat, was a Puerto Rican poet and Puerto Rican Independence advocate. His art was committed to serving a militant nationalistic agenda. He was the founder of the political youth pro-independence organizations "Acción Juventud Independentista" and the "Federación de Universitarios Pro Independencia".
Casimiro Berenguer Padilla was a Puerto Rican nationalist. He was the military instructor of the Cadets of the Republic who received permission from Ponce Mayor Tormos Diego to celebrate a parade on March 21, 1937, in commemoration of the abolition of slavery and to protest the jailing of its leaders, including Pedro Albizu Campos. The parade resulted in the police riot known as the Ponce massacre.
Isabel Rosado, also known as Doña Isabelita, was an educator, social worker, activist and member of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. Influenced by the events of the Ponce massacre, Rosado became a believer of the Puerto Rican independence movement and was imprisoned because of her commitment to the cause.
Vidal Santiago Díaz was a member of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party and served as president of the Santurce Municipal Board of officers of the party. He was also the personal barber of Nationalist leader Pedro Albizu Campos. Though not involved in the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party Revolts of the 1950s, Santiago Díaz's barbershop was attacked by forty armed police officers and U.S. National Guardsmen. The attack was historic in Puerto Rico—the first time an event of that magnitude had ever been transmitted live via radio and heard all over the island.
Raimundo Díaz Pacheco was a political activist and the Treasurer General of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. He was also commander-in-chief of the Cadets of the Republic, the official youth organization within the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. This quasi-military organization was also known as the Ejército Libertador de Puerto Rico.
Cadets of the Republic, known in Spanish as Cadetes de la República, was the paramilitary wing of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party in the twentieth century. The organization was also referred to as the Liberation Army of Puerto Rico(Ejército Libertador de Puerto Rico)
Tomás López de Victoria (1911–????) was a political activist and the Sub-Commander of the Cadets of the Republic. These cadets were the official youth organization within the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. They were also known as the Ejército Libertador de Puerto Rico.
Elías Beauchamp was a member of the Cadets of the Republic, the paramilitary wing of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. Beauchamp is best known for having assassinated Col. Elisha Francis Riggs, the United States appointed chief of the Puerto Rico Police, along with fellow Cadet Hiram Rosado. Both men were arrested and shot without trial, officially while attempting to escape, at Police Headquarters in San Juan. News of the assassinations spread throughout the United States and led to legislative proposal by U.S. Senator Millard Tydings, to grant independence to Puerto Rico.
References
↑ Wagenheim, Kal; de Wagenheim, Olga Jiminez (2008). "The Grim Years". The Puerto Ricans: A Documentary History. Markus Wiener Publishers. pp.179–180. ISBN9781558764767.
↑ Nelson A. Denis. War Against all Puerto Ricans: Revolution and Terror in America's Colony. New York: Nation Books, Perseus Books Group. 2015. pp.47, 49. ISBN9781568585017
↑ Meyer, Gerald J. (2011). "Pedro Albizu Campos, Gilberto Concepción de Gracia, and Vito Marcantonio's Collaboration in the Cause of Puerto Rico's Independence". Centro Journal. XXIII (1). New York: The City University of New York: 87–123. ISSN1538-6279.
↑ Wagenheim, Kal; Jiménez de Wagenheim, Olga (1998). The Puerto Ricans: A Documentary History. Maplewood, N.J.: Water Front Press. pp.179–182.
↑ "Declara al Gobernador que ha dado 'instrucciones terminantes' en el caso de Ponce". El Mundo (in Spanish). San Juan, Puerto Rico. 23 March 1937. p.1.
1 2 3 Hayes, Arthur Garfield; Commission of Inquiry on Civil Rights in Puerto Rico (22 May 1937). Report of the Commission of Inquiry on Civil Rights in Puerto Rico (Report). OCLC304563805.
↑ Feagin, Joe R.; Feagin, Clairece Booher (2007). Racial and Ethnic Relations. Pearson/Prentice Hall. ISBN9780132244046.
↑ Siete décadas no anulan tragedia. Reinaldo Millán. La Perla del Sur. Ponce, Puerto Rico. Year 30. Issue 1477. p. 12. 21 March 2012. Retrieved 18 January 2021.
↑ Nelson A. Denis. War Against all Puerto Ricans: Revolution and Terror in America's Colony. New York: Nation Books, Perseus Books Group. 2015. pp.47, 49. ISBN9781568585017
↑ "The Emelí Vélez de Vando Papers". Archives of the Puerto Rican Diaspora. Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños, Hunter College, CUNY. June 1998.
1 2 Janeiro, Luis Fortuño (1963). Album Histórico de Ponce (1692–1963) (in Spanish). Ponce, Puerto Rico: Imprenta Fortuño. OCLC37361481.
↑ Jose Enrique Ayoroa Santaliz. La Masacre de Ponce: Breve relacion de hechos y algunos de sus personajes. Ponce, Puerto Rico: Ponce Massacre Museum. March 2011.
1 2 Denis, Nelson Antonio. War Against All Puerto Ricans, Revolution and Terror in America's Colony, p. 263, Nation Books, Perseus Books Group. 2015. ISBN978-1568585017
↑ Radiogram from Blanton Winship to Ernest Gruening, Director of the Division of Territories and Insular Possessions, Department of the Interior. 23 March 1937. Arthur Garfield Hayes Collection. Seeley G. Mudd Research Library. Princeton University.
↑ Rodriguez-Perez, Katherine. Reports on the Ponce Massacre: How the U.S. Press Protected U.S. Government Interests in the Wake of Tragedy. Wesleyan Scholar (2010), p. 10.
↑ Delgado, Linda C. (2005). "Jésus Cólon and the Making of a Ney York City Community, 1917 to 1074". In Whalen, Carmen Teresa; Vázquez-Hernández, Víctor (eds.). The Puerto Rican Diaspora: Historical Perspectives. Temple University Press. ISBN9781592134137.
↑ Ruby A. Black. "Ponce Massacre" Report is Before Senate Committee: Describes Men, Women and Children Being Shot in Back, Clubbed to Death by Island Police", Oshkosh Daily Northwestern, 19 June 1937, pg. 3.
↑ Extension of Remarks of the Honorable Congressman John T. Bernard of Minnesota in the Congressional Record, 75th Congress, 1st Session, 14 April 1937, volume 81, pp. 934–936
↑ Hull, Harwood (28 March 1937). "Clash Rekindles Puerto Rican Feud". New York Times. p.11.
↑ "7 Die in Puerto Rican Riot: 50 Injured as Police Fire on Fighting Nationalists". New York Times. 22 March 1937. p.1.
↑ Briggs, Laura (2002). Reproducing Empire: Race, Sex, Science, and U.S. Imperialism in Puerto Rico. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. p.220. ISBN9780520232587.
1 2 Beruff, Jorge Rodriguez (2007). Strategy As Politics: Puerto Rico on the Eve of the Second World War. Universidad de Puerto Rico. ISBN9780847701605.
↑ Documental: La Masacre de Ponce, Puerto Rico (21 de Marzo de 1937). Manuel E. Moraza Choisne (Esq.) In, "1937: Masacre de Ponce", Fundacion Puertorriqueña de las Humanidades, Corporacion de Puerto Rico para la Difusion Publica TuTV, National Endowment for the Humanities, Archivo General de Puerto Rico del Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, National Endowment for the Arts, Oficina de Apoyo a las Artes del ICP, Fondo de Fianza Notarial del Colegio de Abogados de Puerto Rico, Museo y Centro de Estudios Humanisticos de la Universidad del Turabo, Fundacion Francisco Manrique Cabrera, Escuela de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades de la Universidad Metropolitana. Publisher: Islas de Borinken. Produced by Manuela E. Moraza Ortiz (Esq.) & Dr. Jaime Hamilton-Márquez (PhD). 2002. Retrieved 19 February 2014.
Corretjer, Juan Antonio (2009). "19 – Albizu Campos and the Ponce Massacre". In Vázquez, Francisco Hernández (ed.). Latino/a Thought. Rowman & Littlefield. pp.377–404. ISBN978-0742563544. This book, sometimes called a pamphlet, by Corretjer was written in English as it was intended for the U.S. American public audience. Its purpose was to raise conscience among the American people about the event of the Ponce Massacre as most Americans had never heard of the involvement of the U.S. government and the U.S. media in that massacre. The pamphlet, currently (January 2014) out of print, was reprinted in its entirely as Chapter 19 in Francisco Hernandez Vazquez's book Latino/a Thought (pp 377–404), Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (2009).
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