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Our first trip to Puerto Rico was on the spur of the moment. We were visiting Abe's sister in Miami, so very close to Puerto Rico! We arrived with only a slip of paper giving the address of the Nationalist Party. Because of our friendship with Pedro Albizu Campos, we were most likely to be well received by members of his party. And so we were. The president of the party, Jacinto Rivera Pérez, came to the office and took us to the tomb of Don Pedro for moments of reflection. From there we drove to the fabulous rain forest, El Yunque, and had lunch in the forest. Knowing him to be an agronomist, we plied him with questions. We were mildly chided for not giving him more advance notice so that he could arrange more for us in our brief four-day stay there. Jacinto Rivera Pérez
Don Jacinto's political awareness began as early as the third grade, when he refused to say the pledge of allegiance. He had learned from his father that the United States flag was not his flag. His loyalty was to be only to Puerto Rico.
In the eighth grade he led his class in scholarship. The speech he prepared on independence was banned. He gave it, nonetheless, and the Puerto Rican flag was hung in front of the American flag, hiding it from view during the graduation. The police were called in, but there was nothing they could do.
In high school he joined the C.M.T.C., a United States National Guard in Puerto Rico. While studying at the Agricultural and Mechanics College of the University of Puerto Rico, he joined the R.O.T.C. For about ten years he offered military training to the cadets of the Nationalist Party.
He graduated from the College of Agriculture in 1939, and began the difficult task of job hunting. He was finally offered a job, despite a letter from U.S. government shown to him by the boss of the U.S. Soil Conservation Services giving instructions not to employ him. He was then able to marry his sweetheart, Elida Negrón Cintrón, with whom he has since raised two daughters.
He worked for the Soil Conservation Services for a couple of years, and then for the U.S.D.A. Agricultural Experiment Station, where he experimented in growing vanilla and essential oil plants. At the same time he developed a farm for milk production. In 1944 he decided to go to the Agriculture and Mechanics College of Texas, from which he received his Master's Degree in plant breeding.
Aware of ecological problems in Puerto Rico, he was appalled by the deliberate destruction of areas in El Yunque, where Agent Orange was tested. He knew also of the bacterial testing lab near the Capitol at San Juan during World War II. In Texas he had observed hormones being used in animals to increase their weight. This practice was being brought to Puerto Rico. He deplored the chemicals being used in Puerto Rico, the practice of digging plastic into the soil, and failure to improve and maintain proper conditions of the soil. Chief violator was an Israeli corporation farming a vast area of land in southern Puerto Rico.
Don Jacinto's entree into the Nationalist Party came following the 1937 Ponce Massacre. He had been suspicious of the possible involvement of Governor Winship in the massacre in his determination to rid the country of Albizu Campos and the Nationalists. (An unarmed Palm Sunday procession of Nationalists was fired upon by the police. Twenty-one people were killed and over a hundred were wounded.)
Don Jacinto found in Albizu a man respected by everybody, a devout Catholic, a revolutionary. He was not, as are many independentistas, a Marxist-Leninist. Once independence is achieved, he maintained, the people could then make a political decision.
When Albizu Campos returned from jail on December 15, 1947, Don Jacinto was named vice-president of the Nationalist Party. In 1950 he was commissioned to go to Venezuela to seek help for a revolution. He remained there until 1963.
In 1980 he appeared before the Decolonization Committee of the United Nations. He reminded the committee that the Nationalist Julio Pinto Gandía had presented a paper at the inaugural of the United Nations in San Francisco. The Nationalist Party held official observer status until the 1950 repression of the Party. He denounced the U.S. Navy occupation of Vieques, compulsory military service, U.S. refusal to explain the "assassination" of Albizu, the mysterious disappearance of Pinto Gandía, the fortifying of an atomic base in Puerto Rico, the assassination of two young independentistas at Cerro Maravilla, and the holding of political "prisoners of war" because of their fight for independence. He declared that the Treaty of Paris ending the Spanish- American War ceding Puerto Rico to the United States was illegal.
Don Jacinto now serves as president of the Nationalist Party. Well-informed in political and economic events, he serves as a valuable source of information at the Nationalist meetings, and helps to keep alive the goals and the fervor of Albizu Campos.