Ponce massacre

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Ponce massacre

Outbreak of the Ponce Massacre
Location Ponce, Puerto Rico
Date 21 March 1937[3]
3:15pm[4] (EST)
Target Supporters of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party
Attack type mass murder, massacre
Weapon(s) Thompson submachine guns, tear gas bombs, machine guns, rifles, pistols.[5]
Deaths 19 (17 civilians and two police officers). The civilian casualties included women and children.
Injured (non-fatal) 235 civilians wounded[6]
Perpetrators Governor Blanton Winship via the Puerto Rico Insular Police[7]
Part of a series on the
Puerto Rican
Nationalist Party

Flag of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party

The Ponce massacre was a police slaughtering over a peaceful civilian march, taking place in 21 March 1937 in Palm Sunday, Ponce, Puerto Rico, that killed 19 people and wounded over 200 others. It is the largest massacre in Puerto Rican history.[8] 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.[9] The march was also protesting the U.S. government's imprisonment of the party's leader, Pedro Albizu Campos, on alleged sedition charges.[10]

An investigation by the Hays Commission put the blame squarely on the U.S.-appointed Governor of Puerto Rico, Blanton Winship.[11][12] Further criticism by members of the U.S. Congress led President Franklin D. Roosevelt to remove Winship in 1939 as governor.[13] Governor Winship was never prosecuted for the massacre. No one under his chain of command - including the police who took part in the event, and admitted to the mass shooting - was ever prosecuted or reprimanded.[14]

Chronology of events

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] However, as a courtesy to the Ponce municipal government, the Nationalists requested the permit nevertheless.[16]

However, upon learning about the march, the US-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 also ordered Orbeta 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 abrubtly withdrawn, just before the protest was scheduled to begin.[18]

Carlos Torres Morales, a photo journalist for the newspaper El Imparcial was covering the march and took this photograph when the shooting began.[1]

Following Governor Winship's orders, Colonel Orbeta went to Ponce where he concentrated police units from across the island sporting "the latest riot control equipment", among which he also included the machine gunners in the island.[19] For many days, Winship had planned to crush the activities of the Nationalists and their leader, Pedro Albizu Campos.[19]

The Insular Police, a force somewhat resembling the National Guard, was under the direct military command of Governor Winship[13] and ultimate responsibility for the massacre fell on Winship, who controlled the National Guard and Insular Police, and ordered the shootings.[12]

Juana Diaz, Police Chief Guillermo Soldevilla,[20] 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[18] 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.[21]

The "Viva la República, Abajo los Asesinos" (English: “Long live the Republic, Down with the Murderers!”) message which cadet Bolivar Marquez Telechea wrote with his blood before he died.

As La Borinqueña, Puerto Rico's national song, was being played, the Ponce branch of the Cadetes de la República under the command of Tomás López de Victoria and the rest of the demonstrators began to march.[19] The Insular Police then started firing on the marchers - killing 17 unarmed civilians, two policemen,[4] and wounding some 235 civilians, including women and children.

A seven-year-old girl was also killed by a bullet.[6][22] Police firing went on for over 15 minutes.[18] The dead included 17 men, one woman, and the seven-year-old girl. Some of the dead were demonstrators, while others were simply passers-by. At of 2009, only two survivors were still known to be alive, Fernando Velez and his sister Beatriz Velez, nephew and niece of patriots Emeli Velez and Erasmo Vando.[23]

The flag-bearer of the Cadets of the Republic was shot and killed during the massacre. A young girl by the name of Carmen Fernández proceeded to take the flag, but was shot and gravely injured.[24] A young Nationalist cadet by the name of Bolívar Márquez, dragged himself to the wall of Santo Asilo de Damas and wrote with his blood the following message before dying:[25][26][27][28]

“¡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, told reporters how a policeman murdered a nationalist with his bare hands. Dr. Jose N. Gandara, one of the physicians 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.[29] 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.

Official version of the events

External video
You can see a documentary about the Ponce Massacre here. This documentary is in Spanish with many photos, newsreel footage, and archival information.

The next day, Governor Winship radioed Washington and reported, officially, that the Nationalists had initiated the shooting.[30][31] 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]."[32]

The following day, as a result of this misinformation, the New York Times and Washington Post reported that a Nationalist political revolt had claimed the lives of over eighteen people in Puerto Rico.

The Puerto Rican senator Luis Muñoz Marin 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 United States 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.[33]

The investigation and the Hays Commission

Defendants during the trial of the Nationalists at the former Spanish Army barracks in Ponce, Puerto Rico. (December, 1937)

Subsequent investigations of the event reached conflicting conclusions 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 also requested that the public prosecutor from Ponce, Rafael Pérez Marchand, "arrest more Nationalists," and that no charges be filed against the police. In response to this pressure, prosecutor Perez Marchand resigned for not being allowed by the governor to conduct a proper investigation.[34]

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 ACLU's Arthur Garfield Hays, together with prominent Puerto Rican citizens Fulgencio Pinero, Emilio Belaval, Jose Davila Rice, Antonio Ayuyo Valdivieso, Manuel Diaz Garcia, and Franscisco M. Zeno took place. This investigation concluded that the events on March 21 constituted a massacre and mob action by the police. The report harshly criticized the repressive tactics and massive civil rights violations by Governor Winship.[18]

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. The image also 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.[35]

Casualties

Relatives of those killed in the Ponce massacre standing by the police bullet-ridden wall at the Nationalist Party headquarters in Ponce.[2]

The following is a list of the people killed in the Ponce massacre:[36]

  • Cotal Nieves, Juan Delgado
  • Hernandez del Rosario, Maria
  • Jimenez Morales, Luis
  • Loyola Perez, Ceferino (insular police)
  • Maldonado, Georgina (7-year-old)
  • Marquez Telechea, Bolivar
  • Ortiz Toro, Ramon
  • Perea, Ulpiano
  • Pietrantoni, Juan Antonio
  • Reyes Rivera, Juan
  • Rivera Lopez, Conrado
  • Rodriguez Figueras, Ivan G.
  • Rodriguez Mendez, Jenaro
  • Rodriguez Rivera, Pedro Juan
  • Rosario, Obdulio
  • Sanchez Perez, Eusebio (insular police)
  • Santos Ortiz, Juan
  • Torres Gregory, Juan
  • Velez Torres, Teodoro

Aftermath

Impunity

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.[37]

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. A record of his speech is found in the Congressional Record. It says, "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."[38][39][40][41] Later, Congressman Vito Marcantonio also joined in the criticism, filing charges against Governor Winship with President Roosevelt.

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 a governor's life in Puerto Rico. Winship escaped unscathed, but two men were killed and 36 other people were wounded.

The dead included the Nationalist Angel 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."[42] Among the nine Nationalists charged and convicted were Tomas Lopez de Victoria, captain of the Ponce branch of the Cadets of the Republic, and fellow cadets Elifaz Escobar, Santiago Gonzalez Castro, Juan Pietri and Prudencio Segarra. They served 8 years in the Puerto Rico State Penitentiary. The four were pardoned by the next full-term US-appointed governor, Rexford Guy Tugwell.[43]

Winship tried to repress the Nationalists. Jaime Benitez, 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 a 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."[44] Winship was replaced in 1939.

Removal of Winship as Governor

Marcantonio had continued to draw attention to Winship's egregious actions, appealing to Roosevelt to replace him. In his speech before Congress titled "Five Years of Tyranny", U.S. Congressman Vito Marcantonio reported how "Ex-Governor Blanton Winship, of Puerto Rico, was summarily removed by the President of the United States on May 12, 1939" after Marcantonio had filed charges against Mr. Winship with the President. In his speech, Congressman Marcantonio 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." He called Governor Winship "the tyrant".[45]

Legacy

The Ponce Massacre Museum in Ponce
External video
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 Dr. Tomás Blanco, attorneys Felipe Colón Díaz and Dr. 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.[46]

Today, the Ponce massacre is remembered and memorialized annually in honor of the Puerto Ricans who perished or were wounded for their political beliefs.[4]

Ponce Massacre Museum

The Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, an agency of the Government of Puerto Rico, operates the Ponce Massacre Museum. It is located at the intersection where the events took place (corner of Marina and Aurora streets). The museum houses photographs and various artifacts from the Ponce massacre. A section of the museum is dedicated to Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos.

See also

References

  1. ↑ La Masacre de Ponce. Proyecto Salón Hogar. Retrieved 8 December 2012
  2. ↑ Relatives of Nationalists killed in the Ponce massacre in front of Nationalist Party headquarters. Machine gun bullet holes in the wall. Ponce, Puerto Rico. Rosskam, Edwin. U.S. Library of Congress. LC-USF34-012572-E. December 1937. Retrieved 13 December 2012.
  3. ↑ Kal Wagenheim & Olga Jiminez Wagenheim. The Grim Years. In, "The Puerto Ricans: A Documentary History." Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener Publishers. pp. 179-180. Retrieved 14 December 2012.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Tres cuartos de siglo no anulan tragedia. Reinaldo Millán. La Perla del Sur. Ponce, Puerto Rico. Year 30. Issue 1477. Page 12. 21 March 2012. Retrieved 21 March 2012.
  5. ↑ Five Years of Tyranny. Vito Marcantonio. Retrieved 14 December 2012.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Apology Isn't Enough for Puerto Rico Spy Victims. John Marino. The Washington Post. 28 December 1999. Page A03. Retrieved 8 December 2012.
  7. ↑ Meyer, Gerald J. Pedro Albizu Campos, Gilberto Concepcion de Gracia, and Vito Marcantonio's Collaboration in the Cause of Puerto Rico's Independence. Centro Journal. Vol. XXIII. Issue 1. 2011. pp. 87-123. New York: The City University of New York.
  8. ↑ Remembering Puerto Rico’s Ponce Massacre. Democracy Now website. 22 March 2007. Retrieved 8 December 2012.
  9. ↑ When a Heart Turns Rock Solid: The Lives of Three Puerto Rican Brothers On and Off the Streets. Timothy Black. Pantheon Books. 2009. Page 5. Retrieved 14 December 2012.
  10. ↑ Latino Americans and Political Participation: A Reference Handbook. Sharon Ann Navarro and Armando Xavier Mejia. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, Inc. 2004. ISBN=1-85109-123-3. Retrieved 8 December 2012.
  11. ↑ Luis Muñoz Marín: Puerto Rico's Democratic Revolution. A. W. Maldonado. Editorial UPR. 2004. p. 152. Retrieved 14 December 2012.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Remembering Puerto Rico’s Ponce Massacre. Democracy Now website, 22 March 2007. Retrieved 8 December 2012.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Ponce Massacre, Com. of Inquiry, 1937. Hays Commission. Law Library Microform Consortium. Retrieved 9 July 2009.
  14. ↑ Stephen Hunter and John Jr. Bainbridge. American Gunfight: The Plot to Kill Harry Truman--And the Shoot-Out That Stopped It. Simon and Schuster. 2005. Page 179.
  15. ↑ Puerto Rican revolutionary remembers Ponce Massacre. Carlos Rovira. Workers' World. 1 April 1999. Retrieved 10 December 2013.
  16. ↑ Latino/a Thought: Culture, Politics, and Society. Francisco H. Vazquez. Lanham, Md: Rowman Littlefield Publishers. 2009. Page 393. Retrieved 14 December 2012.
  17. ↑ Raul Medina Vazquez. Verdadera Historia de la Masacre de Ponce. Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña. 2001. Pages 50-65
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 18.3 Stephen Hunter and John Brainbridge (2005). American Gunfight: The Plot to Kill Harry Truman--And the Shoot-Out That Stopped It. Simon and Schuster. p. 179. ISBN 0-7432-8195-0. Retrieved 2009-03-17. 
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 A.W.Maldonado (2004). Luis Muñoz Marín: Puerto Rico's Democratic Revolution. Editorial UPR. p. 120. ISBN 0-8477-0158-1. Retrieved 2012-12-08. 
  20. ↑ The Ponce Massacre (1937). Encyclopedia Puerto Rico. Retrieved 8 December 2012.
  21. ↑ Racial and Ethnic Relations. Joe R. Feagin. Prentice-Hall. 2010. page 311. Retrieved 8 December 2012.
  22. ↑ Note: Some records state the age of the girl killed was 12 years old.
  23. ↑ Emelí Vélez de Vando Papers. Archives of the Puerto Rican Diaspora. New York: Hunter College, Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños. New York State Department of Education. New York State Archives. Retrieved 8 December 2012.
  24. ↑ The Ponce Massacre, why is it important to remember.
  25. ↑ Luis Fortuño Janeiro. Album Histórico de Ponce (1692-1963). Page 306. Ponce, Puerto Rico: Imprenta Fortuño. 1963.
  26. ↑ 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.
  27. ↑ Latino/a Thought: Culture, Politics, and Society. Francisco H. Vazquez. Lanham, Md: Rowman Littlefield Publishers. 2009. Page 381. Retrieved 8 December 2012.
  28. ↑ The Ponce Massacre, why is it important to remember? Puerto Rico and the American Dream. Retrieved 8 December 2012.
  29. ↑ Luis Fortuno Janeiro. Album Historico de Ponce (1692-1963). Page 245. (Ponce, Puerto Rico: Imprenta Fortuno. 1963.)
  30. ↑ Luis Muñoz Marin, Arthur Garfield Hays y La Massacre de Ponce: Una Revelacion Documental Inedita. Carmelo Rosario Natal. Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico, Recinto Metropolitano. Page 3. 2010. Retrieved 14 December 2012.
  31. ↑ Radiogram from Blanton Winship to Ernest Gruening (Ernest Gruening, Director of the Division of Territories and Insular Possessions, Department of the Interior. 23 March 1937. Arthur Garfield Hays Collection. Seeley G. Mudd Research Library. Princeton University.
  32. ↑ Natal (2010), Luis Muñoz Marin, Arthur Garfield Hays y La Massacre de Ponce, p. 4, Retrieved 14 December 2012.
  33. ↑ Natal (2010), Luis Muñoz Marin, Arthur Garfield Hays y La Massacre de Ponce, pp. 5-6, Retrieved 8 December 2012.
  34. ↑ Linda C. Delgado (2005). The Puerto Rican Diaspora. Temple University Press. p. 76. ISBN 1-59213-413-0. 
  35. ↑ Latino/a Thought: Culture, Politics, and Society. Francisco H. Vazquez. New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. Page 398. ISBN 978-0-7425-6355-1. Retrieved 8 December 2012.
  36. ↑ La Masacre de Ponce. Proyecto Salón Hogar. Retrieved 14 December 2012
  37. ↑ Stephen Hunter and John Bainbridge, Jr. American Gunfight: The Plot to Kill Harry Truman. p. 179.
  38. ↑ Extension of Remarks of the Honorable Congressman John T. Bernard of Minnesota in the Congressional Record, 75th Congress, 1st Session, 14 April 1937, Volume 81:934-936
  39. ↑ Harwood Hull. Clash Rekindles Puerto Rican Feud. New York Times. 28 March 1937, page 11.
  40. ↑ 7 Die in Puerto Rican Riot: 50 Injured as Police Fire on Fighting Nationalists. New York Times, 22 March 1937, p.1.
  41. ↑ Reproducing Empire: Race, Sex, Science, and U.S. Imperialism in Puerto Rico. Laura Briggs. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. 2002. Page 220. Retrieved 8 December 2012.
  42. ↑ Jorge Rodriguez Beruff. Strategy as Politics. La Editorial, Universidad de Puerto Rico. Page 27. ISBN 978-0-8477-0160-5
  43. ↑ Timeline: The Imprisonment of Men and Women Fighting Colonialism, 1898 - 1958, 1930 - 1940., Retrieved 8 December 2012.
  44. ↑ Jorge Rodriguez Beruff. Strategy as Politics. San Juan, Puerto Rico: Universidad de Puerto Rico. Page 178. ISBN; 0-8477-0160-3
  45. ↑ Five Years of Tyranny. Piri Thomas. Berkeley, CA: Cheverote Productions. 2003. Retrieved 8 December 2012.
  46. ↑ Luis Muñoz Marin, Arthur Garfield Hays y La Massacre de Ponce: Una Revelacion Documental Inedita. Carmelo Rosario Natal. Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico, Recinto Metropolitano. Pages 5 and 6. 2010. Retrieved 8 December 2012.

External links

Further reading

  • Corretjer, Juan Antonio (2009). "19 - Albizu Campos and the Ponce Massacre". In Vázquez, Francisco Hernández. Latino/a Thought. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 377–404. ISBN 0742563545. 

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 US government and the US media in that massacre. The pamphlet, currently (January 2014) out of print, was reprinetd in its entirely as Chapter 19 in Francisco Hernandez Vazquez's book Latino/a Thought (pp 377–404). Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. 2009.

  • Gonzalez, Juan (2012). Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America. Penguin Books. ISBN 0143119281. 
Puerto Rican Independence Movement

Coordinates: 18°0′33.53″N 66°36′48.71″W / 18.0093139°N 66.6135306°W / 18.0093139; -66.6135306

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