Recently,
I had the opportunity of listening to Rafael Cancel Miranda speak at a
wonderful dinner held at the Tierra
Columbiana in Philadelphia. I’ve
listened to Don Rafa, as he’s known, several times when he’s visited Philly,
and have been greatly inspired on each occasion.
Years
ago I also had the opportunity of seeing Nelson Mandela at Yankee Stadium in
New York. Today, I can say that Cancel
Miranda and Nelson Mandela were the two most important people I’ve personally
seen in my lifetime.
Rafael Cancel Miranda
Cancel
Miranda was born in 1930 in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. His father was a member of the Nationalist
Party that demanded independence. At
this time, Puerto Rico was extremely underdeveloped.
One
of the most common jobs available to workers was to cut sugar cane at the
harvest time known as La Zafra. Under
these conditions large numbers of Puerto Ricans saw no benefit to being a
colony of the United States. Some of the
people who benefitted from this relationship were the owners of the Domino
Sugar Corporation.
When
Cancel Miranda was seven years old, his father took him to attend a
demonstration in Ponce. The
demonstration was attacked by the armed forces.
Hundreds of people were injured and there were 19 fatalities.
When
Cancel Miranda was 10 years old he protested against pledging allegiance to the
flag of the United States. By the age of
18 he refused to be drafted into the U.S. armed forces to fight in the war
against Korea. He spent two years in prison for that
so-called offence.
Cancel
Miranda argued that the Korean people never invaded his country. He also argued that Koreans never attacked
peaceful demonstrations of Puerto Ricans.
Therefore, he had no reason to go to war against a people who, in no way,
brought any harm to Puerto Rico.
After
his release from prison, he continued to be eligible for the draft, so he moved
to Cuba. For several years he worked
construction jobs. Then, Fulgencio
Batista came to power and Cancel Mirada’s writings in support of Puerto Rican
independence were intolerable to the new regime. Cancel Miranda first was sent to prison, and
then deported from Cuba.
In
1954 Cancel Miranda joined with Lolita Lebron, Irving Flores Rodrigues, and
Andres Figueroa, to carry out an armed attack on Congress in Washington. One member of Congress was injured. For this offence, these freedom fighters
received lengthy prison sentences.
Operation Bootstrap
During
the time Cancel Miranda was in prison, some changes took place in Puerto Rico. The U.S. government initiated Operation Bootstrap in 1947. This program gave tax incentives to
corporations who moved their operations to the island. This effort combined with the relatively low
Puerto Rican wages attracted many corporations and billions of dollars were
invested in the island.
However,
this industrialization did not increase the percentage of people who had jobs
and this led to a large migration to the cities of the United States. We might consider that this migration took
place around the same time as Black people were leaving horrendous agricultural
jobs and Jim Crow segregation to work in industrial jobs in the large
cities.
Today
Cancel Miranda is 83 years old. In all
the times I’ve seen him speak, he’s never lost his spirit and confidence in the
Puerto Rican independence movement. He,
as well as many others, have spoken out about the Puerto Rican prisoners who
continue to serve horrendously long sentences ordered by the U.S. government. Oscar Lopez Rivera has been in U.S. prisons for 32 years. Twelve of those years were spent in solitary confinement.
Pedro Albizu Campos
We
can also speak of the father of the Puerto Rican independence movement, Dr.
Pedro Albizu Campos, who lived from 1891 to 1965. Campos was educated at Harvard University. He spoke several languages, and had degrees
specializing in several fields of study.
However, his primary interest was the liberation of his people. He also took an interest in the liberation
struggles in Ireland and India.
He
served in the U.S. military in a segregated unit with Black soldiers. Here Campos identified with the struggle of
Black people in the U.S. for their liberation.
Nelson
Mandela and Albizu Campos could have had a lucrative careers with their
educational background. Instead they
both chose to place the struggles of their people at the center of their lives.
Today
most people in the United States are completely unaware of this history. When people think of the island of Puerto
Rico, it is often in connection with a vacation on a Caribbean island.
Lucy
Parsons was a labor leader in this country she argued to: “Never be deceived
that the rich will permit you to vote way their wealth.” For me, this is the fundamental reason why
people who have power feel especially threatened by those who challenge the
system and have won broad popularity.
Understanding
this reality, we can appreciate the contributions of Rafael Cancel Miranda and
all the other Puerto Rican fighters who dedicated their lives to the dignity
their people deserve. These are just
some of the reasons why this history is extremely relevant to anyone interested
in the struggle to achieve human dignity for all.
