"Voices for Independence:
In the Spirit of Valor and Sacrifice"

Portraits of Notable Individuals in the 
Struggle for Puerto Rican Independence

by Jean Zwickel

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White Star Press

Pittsburg, California, U.S.
E-mail: WhiteStar@PeaceHost.net

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Printing history:

First printing (English) 1988
Second printing (Spanish) 1991
Third printing (English) 1993
Electronic publication (English & Spanish) March, 1998

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photo-copying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the publisher.

ISBN 0-9620448-0-6

Typesetting, printing & binding by DanielGraphics/LegalEagle

Webpage constructed and typeset by Daniel Beck Zwickel-Wicks

Copyright 1988, 1993, 1998 by White Star Press

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This WebPage is a work-in-progress. It's very time-consuming, so I appreciate your patience.
Last update:  Thursday, November 7, 2002

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Consider this shareware. You may download it and copy and distribute it as you wish. Please remember, however, that a great deal of money went into publishing this book. If you wish to read it, please send a contribution ($5.00 (U.S.) suggested, check made out to Jean Zwickel) to: White Star Press at: 2150 Goff Avenue, Pittsburg, California 94565 U.S. Thank you - Daniel

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If you care to, you may listen to Astol Felix’s “La Borinqueña” (RealPlayer- enabled) while you browse, courtesy of Music of Puerto Rico.

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Areas Controlled by the United States

 

1. Communications 2. Banking 3. Port 4. the Environment  5. Currency 6. Social Security 7. Immigration 8. Travel

9. Internal security 10. Emigration 11. Military service 12. Postal system 13. Judicial system 14. Transportation 15. Foreign relations

—Ecumenical Committee for the Future of Puerto Rico

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Voices from the Past...

When a long train of abuses and usurpations threaten to bring that people under Absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty to throw off such a government.

—Declaration of Independence

If it were possible to open the heart of every Puerto Rican and if it were possible to see the collective soul of the million human beings who inhabit this forgotten rock, we would see there written in indelible letters the word "independence".

—Luis Muñoz Marín
first elected govenor of Puerto Rico

Only Anglo-Saxons can govern themselves.... It is the Anglo-Saxon manifest destiny to go forth as a world conqueror. He will take possession of the islands of the sea.... This is what fate holds for the chosen people.

—William Allen White, Emporia Gazette

God Himself never made a race of people so low in the scales of civilization that it welcomes a foreign master.

—William Jennings Bryan

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable.

—Thomas Jefferson

...and from the Present...

[Apologies—I haven't gotten a chance to translate this yet;
thanks for your patience.

—the Editor]

"... su maravilloso libro está haciendo furor entre nosotros como conocimiento de las raices profundas de la lucha, dignidad e Independencia de Puerto Rico, porque muchas veces se cree en nuestro medio que Puerto Rico está totalmente absorbido por el Imperio Norteamericano. Pero nosotros que vivimos en esa bella isla de Borinquen sabemos que no es así. Por eso su libro es un texto pedagógico y una cartilla de enseñanza y motivación de la grandeza y la lucha del indómito Pueblo Puertorriqueño."

—The Right Rev. Tito Mora, Bishop
Episcopal Church of Columbia

This book is a refreshing addition to the growing number of voices calling for peace, justice and independence.

— Matt Meyer, National Chairperson, War Resisters League

Voices for Independence is a fine collection of biographical sketches of a wide range of proponents of Puerto Rican independence. The author seems to have captured in good fashion the spirit, shape and substance of the independence movement through these portraits of representative figures of that movement.
The book reflects her long interest in and commitment to the cause of the independentistas, but the passion of the convinced is expressed in reasoned, restrained and persuasive fashion.
Voices for Independence is a vital and valuable introduction to an important movement and a crucial issue.

—Richard Chartier, Baptist minister,
former United Methodist missionary to Argentina,
and editor Fellowship magazine

The Peacemaker newsletter, beginning with its inception in the late forties, has been sympathetic from its nonviolent perspective to the anti-colonial struggle of the Puerto Rican independence movement. Fortunately, the newsletter has benefited over the years from the regular reports of Jean Zwickel, a close observer of and participant in the Puerto Rican scene who shares The Peacemaker's nonviolent orientation. I look forward to her Voices as a book to be trusted to give us the human side of a much misunderstood political movement.

—Paul Encimer, editor The Peacemaker

Jean Zwickel has performed a valuable service by chronicling the many and varied voices for liberation in Puerto Rico. These are the voices all too seldom heard by those of us on the mainland—those of us who forget that the United States, just as much as the states of Europe, has a history of colonial oppression.

—Rev. Dr. David Sammons,
Mt. Diablo Unitarian Universlaist Church,
Walnut Creek, California

These well-written essays help the reader enter into the complexities and premises of the liberation struggle in Puerto Rico, and to dwar lessons from those encounters that should be useful eslewhere.

—Rev. Robert McAfee Brown,
Pacific School of Religion,
Berkeley, California

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And the esteemed Columbian poet, Sicomoro Zon wrote the following homage to "Grandmother Jean":

[Apologies, again—I've just got this in Spanish.
Wait 'til I get a good translation & thanks again for your patience.

—the Editor]

Dedicado a la Abuela Jean Suenan las campanas vuelven a sonar, todas las mañanas para ir a rezar... La Abuelita anciana marcha hacia el altar, porque buena y sana quiere a Dios llegar. Ya la marcha es lenta porque por la edad no puede avanzar, mas la nieta atenta, buena de verdad, la ayuda a llegar... Sicomoro Zon (Colombia)

The bells are tolling they toll again every single morning calling to prayer The elderly grandma walks toward the altar for good and healthy she wants to meet God Her march is slow because of age her advance is impeded but her attentive granddaughter truly kind helps her arrive… (English translation by Hector Lugo)

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Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples

General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960

The General Assembly,

Mindful of the determination proclaimed by the peoples of the world in the Charter of the United Nations to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small and to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

Conscious of the need for the creation of conditions of stability and well-being and peaceful and friendly relations based on respect for the principles of equal rights and self-determination of all peoples, and of universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion,

Recognizing the passionate yearning for freedom in all dependent peoples and the decisive role of such peoples in the attainment of their independence,

Aware of the increasing conflicts resulting from the denial of or impediments in the way of the freedom of such peoples, which constitute a serious threat to world peace,

Considering the important role of the United Nations in assisting the movement for independence in Trust and Non-Self-Governing Territories,

Recognizing that the peoples of the world ardently desire the end of colonialism in all its manifestations,

Convinced that the continued existence of colonialism prevents the development of international economic co-operation, impedes the social, cultural and economic development of dependent peoples and militates against the United Nations ideal of universal peace,

Affirming that peoples may, for their own ends, freely dispose of their natural wealth and resources without prejudice to any obligations arising out of international economic co-operation, based upon the principle of mutual benefit, and international law,

Believing that the process of liberation is irresistible and irreversible and that, in order to avoid serious crises, an end must be put to colonialism and all practices of segregation and discrimination associated therewith,

Welcoming the emergence in recent years of a large number of dependent territories into freedom and independence, and recognizing the increasingly powerful trends towards freedom in such territories which have not yet attained independence,

Convinced that all peoples have an inalienable right to complete freedom, the exercise of their sovereignty and the integrity of their national territory,

Solemnly proclaims the necessity of bringing to a speedy and unconditional end colonialism in all its forms and manifestations;

And to this end

Declares that:

1. The subjection of peoples to alien subjugation, domination and exploitation constitutes a denial of fundamental human rights, is contrary to the Charter of the United Nations and is an impediment to the promotion of world peace and co-operation.
2. All peoples have the right to self-determination; by virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.
3. Inadequacy of political, economic, social or educational preparedness should never serve as a pretext for delaying independence.
4. All armed action or repressive measures of all kinds directed against dependent peoples shall cease in order to enable them to exercise peacefully and freely their right to complete independence, and the integrity of their national territory shall be respected.
5. Immediate steps shall be taken, in Trust and Non-Self-Governing Territories or all other territories which have not yet attained independence, to transfer all powers to the peoples of those territories, without any conditions or reservations, in accordance with their freely expressed will and desire, without any distinction as to race, creed or colour, in order to enable them to enjoy complete independence and freedom.
6. Any attempt aimed at the partial or total disruption of the national unity and the territorial integrity of a country is incompatible with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations.
7. All States shall observe faithfully and strictly the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the present Declaration on the basis of equality, non-interference in the internal affairs of all States, and respect for the sovereign rights of all peoples and their territorial integrity.

Whereas this is in full accord with the commitment of the people of the United States in the Declaration of Independence of 1776 to the principle that all colonial peoples had the inalienable right to self-determination and the right to assume their place as sovereign states among the nations of the world, as well as the mandate of the 13th amendment to the Constitution of the United States that the status of inferiority for any people be forthwith abolished; and

Whereas the practices of the United States with respect to Puerto Rico have been developed in open contradiction to the principles upon which this Nation was founded, as was stated by Mr. Justice Harlan in his dissenting opinion in the Insular Cases, Downes versus Bidwell (1901), "The idea that this country may acquire territories anywhere upon the Earth by conquest or treaty, and hold them as mere colonies or provinces—the people inhabiting them to enjoy only such rights as Congress chooses to accord to them—is wholly inconsistent with the spirit and genius, as well as with the words of the Constitution;" Now therefore, be it

Resolved,...

It is further declared hereby that the United States of America recognizes that Puerto Rico constitutes a full-fledged Latin American nation, that in accordance with the American heritage of respect to the integrity and full sovereignty of all nations, the process of decolonization of Puerto Rico should follow the principles developed by the United Nations after the approval, twenty years ago, of the historic declaration on the granting of independence to colonial countries and peoples.

[UNITED NATIONS] SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON THE SITUATION WITH REGARD TO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE DECLARATION ON THE GRANTING OF INDEPENDENCE TO COLONIAL COUNTRIES AND PEOPLES

Recalling the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples contained in General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960,

Having examined the report of the Rapporteur of the Special Committee on the implementation of the resolutions concerning Puerto Rico,

Recalling the resolutions and decisions of the Special Committee concerning Puerto Rico and, in particular, the resolutions adopted in August of 1984, 1985, and 1986,

Conscious of the growing importance for the peoples and nations of Latin America of affirming their unity and cultural identity,

Recognizing the clearly Latin American character and identity of the people and culture of Puerto Rico,

Noting the widespread concern about the recent revelations, confirmed by judicial decisions and by statements of the current Administration of the Territory, that for decades there has been a systematic practice of discrimination and official persecution directed against tens of thousands of Puerto Ricans who support independence, in flagrant violation of their civil and political rights,

Bearing in mind the declarations concerning Puerto Rico adopted by the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries at their Eighth Conference of Heads of State or Government, held at Harare [Zimbabwe] from 1 to 6 September, 1986 and at their Special Ministerial Meeting of the Coordinating Bureau on Latin America and the Caribbean, held at Georgetown [British Guiana] from 9 to 12 March, 1987,

Having listened to the statements of the representatives of the various trends of Puerto Rican public opinion, of the social and cultural organizations of Puerto Rico and of the representatives of political parties, social organizations and eminent Latin Americans,

1. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the people of Puerto Rico to self-determination and independence, in conformity with General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV) of 14 December, 1960, and the full applicability of the fundamental principles of that resolution with respect to Puerto Rico;
2. Expresses its hope, and that of the international community, that the people of Puerto Rico may exercise without hindrance its right to self-determination, with the express recognition of the people's sovereignty and full political equality, in conformity with paragraph 5 of General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV);
3. Requests the Rapporteur to present a report to the Special Committee on the implementation of its resolutions concerning Puerto Rico;
4. Decides to keep the question of Puerto Rico under continuing review.

Mary Ericsson and Mary Webb, my creative writing teachers, for their instruction and encouragement;

Abe Zwickel, my husband, for his faithful support in the cause of independence;

Daniel Zwickel, my son, for his expertise and long hours at the computer, editing, formatting and proofreading;

Donald White, business associate of Daniel, for his expertise in transferring text from an ancient Commodore CBM 8032 to an IBM XT clone.

And finally, our eleventh-hour savior, Jerome L. Wilski, for, among many other things, retrieving our two and only scrambled data disks from never-never land with ("users" take note:) a Mace Utilities disk (by Paul Mace).