Author Nelson A. Denis sketched the timeline of oppression to Puerto Rico's relationship with the United States and layered that history with Congressman Vito Marcantonio's efforts to combat it.
“It is my strong opinion that Vito
Marcantonio as a man and as a political leader...he did more, he
sacrificed, he struggled more for the people of Puerto Rico and the
Puerto Ricans of East Harlem than any other elected official –
city, state, or federal – including the Puerto Rican elected
officials of the last 40 or 50 years,”
It was the VMF's twentieth event since
being reconstituted on Oct. 11, 2011, according to moderator Gil
Fagiani.
The two-time East Harlem assemblyman's
(1997-2001) talk was animated, even emotional. He used an imaginary
map on the Mulberry Street Library's red brick wall to illustrate
Puerto Rico's value as a naval station (and it worked).
Nelson A. Denis |
What ensued were devaluations of the island currency and a property tax that reduced once land-owning farmers of tobacco, coffee and sugar to day laborers on sugar trust plantations.
Eventually, 80 percent of Puerto Rico's
arable land was owned by U.S. banking interests.
One month after Puerto Rico was made a
U.S. Commonwealth, 18,000 islanders were conscripted into World War
II. Upon their return they learned that the U.S.
Constitution's protections did not extend to them any more than the federal minimum
wage did.
Denis said this episode of extreme
sacrifice, rewarded with a face slap, confirmed that, “Politics is
a conflict of interests disguised as a conflict of principles.”
Pedro Albizu Campos |
Enter Pedro Albizu Campos, leader of
Puerto Rico's independence movement. A graduate of Harvard University
and Harvard Law School, a speaker of six languages, “he could have
sold-out in many directions,” said Denis.
Instead, history steered him into the
leadership of a four-month sugar workers strike that increased wages
and tied pay rates to the U.S. minimum wage.
Retribution came quickly.
A former military man, Blanton Winship,
was appointed governor of Puerto Rico to calm things down. He hired
as a police chief – one E. Francis Riggs – who promised a “War
to the Death Against All Puerto Ricans,” an utterance Denis chose
for the title of his book.
A not unexpected outcome was produced 18 months later with the "Ponce Massacre" during which police killed 17 men, women and children
and left 200 seriously wounded.
“It is within this context that Vito
Marcantonio enters the scene,” said Denis.
"Puerto Rico Libre" Loves Marc. |
Albizu Campos was eventually released and interred at a New York City hospital where Marc yanked a microphone bug installed by
the FBI and began,
“yelling into it, cursing at J. Edgar Hoover through the bug,
telling him he's going expose him on the floor of the U.S. Congress.
“And that's why I love this guy,”
said Denis. "That's a Congressman."
This post is intended as a cursory
summmary of Denis's remarks, the details, anecdotes and shadings of which
are best enjoyed in David Giglio's video of the event.
Actor and VMF co-chair Roberto Ragone continued his
development of Vito Marcantonio as a character worthy of the stage, adding
a Latin twist to complement VMF's guest author with renderings of
speeches from “I Vote My Conscience” addressing Puerto Rico and
South America in general.
"The Goodfather (A Novel): The Rising Fall of the Marvelous Marcantonio," can be purchased here: MARC LIVES!
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