Regardless of this necessary historical past being hidden, I used to be pleasantly stunned to see this temporary protection of an annual group occasion honoring the victims, held in New York Metropolis.
On the anniversary, I requested my Twitter followers in the event that they’d studied the Ponce Bloodbath in class. Nearly nobody who responded—apart from those that had kin concerned—had ever heard of it. Granted, my Twitter account is not a scientific survey, however typically, the oldsters I interact with are educated, politically lively, considering historical past, and comply with my each day tweets about Puerto Rico.
One key cause why studying Puerto Rican historical past is necessary is that we can not perceive the present politics of Puerto Rico—a U.S. colony whose political events are shaped primarily across the statehood standing difficulty—if we don’t know the historical past of the independence motion and its brutal suppression.
One respondent who taught themself concerning the Bloodbath responded:
Nope. Did not be taught Puerto Rico was a colony of the US in class both. I needed to discover this stuff out for myself as an individual who beloved geography and historical past.
One other by no means heard of the Bloodbath, however was ready to learn:
By no means discovered about it, and I went to a wonderful public college district on Lengthy Island, with very “woke” historical past lecturers. By woke I imply that they taught our historical past in a manner that we discovered that America had finished heinous issues up to now, but additionally improved. I’ll watch it!
Yet another admitted their restricted publicity to Puerto Rico:
I went to high school in West Virginia within the 60s. I discovered about Puerto Rico from West Aspect Story.
There’s this contrast from a Ponce native:
I am from Ponce. My historical past instructor would clarify the why, how, who, and for what yearly in elementary college. He took us to the museum too. Sadly, as soon as in highschool by no means had a point out of it, even when introduced up in school
This response struck me within the intestine:
My mother, she was there and it terrified her for the remainder of life
We aren’t speaking about historical historical past, to be clear. The Ponce Bloodbath occurred simply 85 years in the past. A lot of these affected instantly, in addition to their descendants, are nonetheless alive, as are those that suffered oppression within the years since.
The march that occurred on that fateful day was to commemorate the sixty fourth anniversary of the abolition of slavery in Puerto Rico, in addition to to protest the jailing of nationalist leaders.
The Zinn Education Project has this temporary description:
The Ponce massacre occurred on March 21, 1937, when a peaceable march in Ponce, Puerto Rico was attacked by police who shot and killed 19 Puerto Ricans and wounded over 200 others.
The march had been organized by the Puerto Rican Nationalist Social gathering to commemorate the ending of slavery in Puerto Rico and to protest the imprisonment, by the U.S. authorities, of Nationalist chief Pedro Albizu Campos on alleged sedition prices.
This 2002 documentary The 1937 Ponce Massacre was directed by Jaime Hamilton-Márquez and funded by the Puerto Rican Basis for the Humanities. The movie is in Spanish with no subtitles, however it consists of footage from that horrible day.
The Visions of Puerto Rico YouTube channel offers this description of the movie:
The Ponce Bloodbath, which occurred on March 21, 1937, was one of the violent episodes within the historical past of the 20th century in Puerto Rico. It was known as a bloodbath by the very fee that studied the information. On that date, the Partido Nacionalista (Nationalist Social gathering) organized a march within the streets of the Metropolis of Ponce to protest the jailing of its leaders. The exercise was introduced in El Mundo newspaper on March 19, indicating that the assembly of the Nationalists in Ponce and adjoining areas can be at 2 pm in entrance of the Nationalist Social gathering Headquarters in Ponce.
That morning, Colonel Orbeta, the chief of police, traveled to Ponce with the intention of prohibiting the Nationalist exercise. He interviewed attorneys Parra Capó and Parra Toro, the navy assistant to Governor Blanton Winship, and Captain Felipe Blanco, the top of the Police Drive in Ponce, to whom he gave orders to cease the march. These preparations made, on his return to San Juan Colonel Orbeta met with the governor and Mr. José Ramón Quiñones, an assistant to the governor, at Fortaleza (the Governor’s mansion), the place they determined that the parade was navy in character and due to this fact unlawful.
It was then that Colonel Orbeta determined to order reinforcements to Ponce from totally different cities across the island.
Right here’s a short English rationalization.
Probably the most detailed posts in English that I’ve discovered on-line was written by Christopher Saunders, for The Avocado blog.
At round 3:00 pm, Mayor Jose Tormos Diego and Insular Police Captain Guillermo Soldevilla interceded, blocking the parade and ordering the group to disperse. Behind them stood over 2 hundred closely armed Insular Police, carrying jodhpurs and Sam Brown Belts, many carrying Thompson submachine weapons fitted with hundred spherical drum magazines. Their intentions clearly weren’t peaceable.
A short try to barter between city officers and the nationalists became a shouting match on the street. Lopez de Victoria broke the deadlock by ordering his band to play nationalist anthems, intentionally upsetting the officers. The gang started to sing alongside, and the march started once more…till somebody fired a shot. To today, as appears inevitable in confrontations like this, nobody is certain who fired the primary gunshot; what resulted, nonetheless, was indisputably a bloodbath.
After a couple of extra pictures rang out, the police fired into the group with Tommy weapons, semi-automatic rifles, shotguns and tear gasoline. They ruthlessly mowed down Nationalists, marchers and onlookers alike. The primary fatality was Cadet Ivan Rodrigues Figures, shot by means of the throat; as he fell, his blood sprayed a number of bystanders. Different pictures discovered prepared marks within the intently packed crowd, some victims actually torn to items by computerized gunfire. The gang’s panic, the policemen’s advance and the dispersal of tear gasoline made the scenario unbearably chaotic.
Saunders references Nelson Denis’ e book, War Against All Puerto Ricans: Revolution and Terror in America’s Colony. Denis presents a concise abstract of the Ponce Massacre on his website of the same name:
A Cadet of the Republic, Bolivar Márquez Telechea, dragged himself to a wall. Simply earlier than dying, along with his personal blood, he managed to jot down “Lengthy stay the Republic, Down with the Murderers,” and signed it with three crucifixes.
Just a few moments later, Bolivar Márquez Telechea stopped transferring perpetually.
The police shot for 13 minutes. By the point they completed seventeen males, one girl and a 7-year previous woman had been useless, dozens had been maimed for all times, and over 2 hundred extra had been gravely wounded – moaning, crawling, bleeding, begging for mercy on the street.
The air seethed with gun smoke, as everybody moved in a fog of disbelief. The policemen swaggered about. Blood lined your entire scene. When the smoke lastly cleared over Aurora and Marina streets, the next lay useless:
- Ivan G. Rodriguez Figueras
- Juan Torres Gregory
- Conrado Rivera Lopez
- Georgina Maldonado (7-year-old woman)
- Jenaro Rodriguez Mendez
- Luis Jimenez Morales
- Juan Delgado Cotal Nieves
- Juan Santos Ortiz
- Ulpiano Perea
- Ceferino Loyola Pérez (insular police)
- Eusebio Sánchez Pérez (insular police)
- Juan Antonio Pietrantoni
- Juan Reyes Rivera
- Pedro Juan Rodriguez Rivera
- Obdulio Rosario
- Maria Hernandez del Rosario
- Bolivar Márquez Telechea
- Ramon Ortiz Toro
- Teodoro Velez Torres
I did see fairly quite a lot of Twitter posts referencing the anniversary; one of the detailed was from the Paseo Podcast. Take a look at your entire thread.
One other thread detailed the involvement of the U.S., together with that of Puerto Rico Gov. Blanton Winship, appointed by Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
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In Ponce, the museum devoted to the historical past of the occasions that occurred is closed after struggling injury in the course of the 2020 earthquakes. This video from that time notes that “Iconic Museum of the Ponce Bloodbath is virtually destroyed after this morning’s tremor.”
I actually remorse that on my final go to to Ponce in 2010, I didn’t get to go to the museum.
Please Be part of me within the feedback for extra on the Ponce Bloodbath, and for the weekly Caribbean Information Roundup.
