THE NATIONALIST PARTY OF PUERTO RICO

The Nationalist Party born in 1922 “aspires to make of Puerto Rico a free republic, sovereign and independent, in accordance with the principles of nationalities.” In 1930, Pedro Albizu Campos, a Harvard-educated lawyer, is elected President. Under his leadership, the Party takes an anti-imperialist position and outlines an economic platform that includes organizing workers, revoking U.S. limitations on Puerto Rican trade, and organizing all aspects of the Island’s commerce, banking, and agriculture in Puerto Rican hands. The Party declares resistance to the U.S. regime and proclaims the need for armed struggle to achieve independence.

The U.S. government moves against the nationalists. In 1935, the police kill four nationalists and wound forty people in an encounter outside the University of Rio Piedras. Several months later, two young nationalists