Juan Mari Brás (December 2, 1927 – September 10, 2010 [1]) was an advocate for Puerto Rican independence from the United States who founded the Puerto Rican Socialist Party (PSP). On October 25, 2006, he became the first person to receive a Puerto Rican citizenship certificate from the Puerto Rico State Department.
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Mari Brás was born in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, to a father active in the independence movement who often took his son to political meetings and rallies. In 1943, when Mari Brás was 18 years old, he founded a pro-independence movement in his high school, along with some of his friends, in Mayagüez. He was also the founder and director of the first pro-independence political radio program "Grito de la Patria".
In 1944, he enrolled in the University of Puerto Rico (Universidad de Puerto Rico) and in 1946 became a founding member of Gilberto Concepción de Gracia's Puerto Rican Independence Party. Mari Brás became the president of the party's "Puerto Rican Independence Youth". In 1948, the university's pro-independence student body invited nationalist leader Pedro Albizu Campos to the Río Piedras campus as a guest speaker. The chancellor of the university, Jaime Benítez, did not permit Albizu access to the campus. As a consequence, the students protested and went on strike. Mari Brás was one of the student leaders who chanted anti-American slogans and who marched with a Puerto Rican flag in his hand. Both of these acts were considered as acts against the Government of the United States, which at that time had a complete control of the government of the island. Mari Brás and those who protested, were expelled from the university.[2]
Mari Brás went to Lakeland, Florida, where he received his Bachelor's Degree.[3] He also studied at Georgetown University. In 1954, he went to study law at George Washington University Law School but was expelled.[2][4] He finally obtained his law degree from American University.
In 1959, Mari Brás founded the "Pro-Independence Movement", which grouped Puerto Rican independence followers who supported the Socialist philosophy. Along with César Andreu Iglesias he founded the political newspaper Claridad, which he directed for three decades. In 1971, the "Pro-Independence Movement" was renamed and became the Puerto Rican Socialist Party (PSP). In 1973, he spoke before the United Nations about Puerto Rico being a colony of the United States and demanded the decolonization of the island. He was the first Puerto Rican to raise this issue.
On March 1976, one of Mari Brás' sons, Santiago Mari Pesquera, was murdered while his father was campaigning for the PSP. Police investigations have hinted that Mari Pesquera was assassinated as a reprisal against his father's political activism, but have stopped short of obtaining definite proof to accuse his suspected assassins. Mari Pesquera's murder has never been officially solved.
On July 11, 1994, Mari Brás renounced his United States citizenship at the American Embassy in Caracas, Venezuela. He did this to test a technicality in United States citizenship laws. Ordinarily, a person holding United States citizenship and who subsequently renounces his citizenship is deported to his country of origin. Since Puerto Rico is a territory of the United States, Brás theorized that the U.S. Department of State would have to deport, to Puerto Rico, Puerto Ricans who renounced their American citizenship.
In 1997 Brás was taken before the Puerto Rico Supreme Court (in 97 DTS 135 RAMIREZ V. MARI BRAS[5]) on the allegation that if he had renounced his American citizenship, then he also had renounced his right to vote in the local Puerto Rican elections. The Puerto Rico Supreme Court determined that Mari Brás could continue to vote in Puerto Rico.
Later litigation in U.S. District Court in 1998 (in the case of Alberto O. LOZADA COLON, Plaintiff, v. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, et. al., Defendants) the Court held that the case was about "the much debated political question as to the status of Puerto Rico and its nationals in relation to the United States." It added that "While Plaintiff may well have strong political views with regard to Puerto Rican independence and the need for a citizenship separate and apart from the United States, this is not an issue for this Court to decide." and it concluded that "the Plaintiff must seek another, more appropriate forum to express his political views."[6] These actions and rulings continue to be a popular subject of debate.[7][8][9][10]
Based on the federal court ruling on Colon v. U.S. Department of State, months after the U.S. State Department accepted his renunciation, Juan Mari Bras was notified on June 4, 1998, by the U.S Department of State, that they were rescinding their acceptance, and refused to accept Bras renunciation, determining that Mari Brás could not renounce his American citizenship because he did not request another national citizenship, and he was born and remains living and working in Puerto Rico. This, said the federal agency, makes Mari Brás a U.S. citizen, the only national citizenship that Washington recognizes for Puerto Ricans.[11][12]
By the end of his life Juan Mari Brás, had retired from active politics and was no longer as the president of the defunct "Puerto Rican Socialist Party", but did, however, make appearances at pro-independence activities and continued to teach law at the Eugenio María de Hostos School of Law which he cofounded in his native Mayagüez over a decade ago. On December 10, 2008, he was recognized by the Puerto Rico chapter of the American Association of Jurists with the award of Jurist of the Year, along with fellow lawyer Noel Colón Martínez.[13]
Don Juan died the morning of September 10, 2010 in the city of San Juan. That very morning after hearing of his passing the mayor of the city of Mayagüez José Guillermo Rodríguez decreed five days of mourning and ordered that the flags in all municipal building be flown at half mast.[14] Guillermo Rodríguez publicly stated that the city would be collaborating with the funeral arrangements as he was sure the Hostos School of Law would do as well.[14] After a mass at the Catedral Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria he was laid to rest in the Cementerio Municipal de Mayagüez.
After attempting to renounce his American citizenship, a renunciation which was in turn revoked by the United States Department of State, and over 10 years of litigation claiming he was a citizen of Puerto Rico, the State Department of Puerto Rico granted him the certification, rendering Mari Blas the first one to hold it. He stated "I freed myself from the indignity of a false citizenship...that of the country that invaded mine, which continues to keep the only country that I owe allegiance to as a colony.[15]
The Supreme Court of Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rican Secretary of Justice determined that Puerto Rican citizenship exists and was recognized in the Constitution of Puerto Rico. Since the summer of 2007, the Puerto Rico State Department has developed the protocol to grant Puerto Rican citizenship to Puerto Ricans.[16]
Former Puerto Rico Supreme Court Associate Justice and former Secretary of State Baltasar Corrada questioned the legality of the certification, citing a law passed in 1997 and authored by Kenneth McClintock which establishes United States citizenship and nationality as a prerequisite for Puerto Rican citizenship.[17] Mari Bras' efforts have generated vigorous public debate regarding the citizenship issue.[18]
Mari Bras' is not the only Puerto Rican citizen to renounce his U.S. citizenship. Since Mari Bras' application, a number of other Puerto Rican citizens have also presented the required application papers before U.S. authorities to renounce their American citizenship.[19]
| “ | Only through a great unified movement looking beyond political and ideological differences, can the prevalent fears of hunger and persecution be overcome for the eventual liberation of Puerto Rico, breaking through domination by the greatest imperialist power of our age. | ” |