21 DE MARZO DE 1937: LA MASACRE DE PONCE
Today marks the 86th anniversary of the Ponce Massacre is a violent chapter in the history of Puerto Rico that took place on March 21, 1937 (Festival of Domingo de Ramos), when the American colonial police opened fire on a civilian demonstration organized by the Party Puerto Rican nationalist commemorating the abolition of slavery on the island by the Courts of Spain (1873) and protesting the illegal detention of Pedro Albizu Campos. There were 19 dead (2 of them police) and 235 injured.
The investigation led by the U.S. Civil Rights Commission held U.S. Colonial Governor Blanton Winship directly responsible, and pressure from Congressional led to President Franklin D. Roosevelt to finally fire Winship in March 1939, nearly two years after the murder. Yet neither he nor any of his subordinates were ever prosecuted for the crime, or even reprimanded.
Carlos Torres Morales, photojournalist of El Imparcial was covering the protest, and took this photo at the beginning of the killing.
Days earlier, the organizers of the march requested and received permission from the mayor of Ponce, Jose Tormos Diego. However, at the parade, the Governor of Puerto Rico, General Blanton Winship, demanded the immediate removal of the permits, moments before the parade began.
On March 21 and during the days leading up to the massacre, a significant gathering of police forces took place in Ponce that included mobilized expert shooters from all police headquarters on the island.
Police Chief Guillermo Soldevilla, with 14 policemen, stood in front of the protesters. Rafael Molina, commander of nine men who were armed with Thompson machine guns and tear gas bombs, were in the back. Police Chief Antonio Bernardi, along with 11 policemen armed with machine guns, was in the east and another group of 12 policemen, armed with rifles, was stationed in the west.
Around 3:15, Republic Cadets formed a row of three in the bottom, ready to begin the parade. Behind them was the Corps of Nurses. When the band started playing La Borinqueña (national anthem) protesters started marching.
There are reports that police shot them for more than 15 minutes from their four positions.
Nearly 100 people were injured and nineteen were killed. The dead include 17 men, a woman and a seven-year-old boy. Some were simply passers-by. One of them was a member of the National Guard returning from exercise. The driver of a public car passing through Aurora Street was also killed. A Mayagüez businessman and one of his children were shot while standing in the entrance of a shoe store next to the Junta. And finally, two cops were killed by the crossfire of their own teammates' guns.
No weapons were reportedly found in the hands of the injured civilians, nor of the dead. Around 150 protesters were immediately arrested and later released on bail.
The people killed in the Ponce Massacre:
Snow White, Juan Delgado
Hernandez of the Rosary, Mary Jimenez Morales, Luis Loyola Perez, Ceferino (Police) Maldonado, Georgina (she was 12 years old) Marquez Telechea, Bolivar Ortiz Toro, Ramon Perea, Ulpiano Pietrantoni, Juan Antonio King Rivera, John Rivera Lopez, Conrado Rodriguez Figueras, Ivan G. Rodriguez Mendez, Jenaro Rodriguez Rivera, Pedro Juan Rosary, Obdulius Sanchez Perez, Eusebio (Police) Saint Ortiz, John Gregory Towers, John See Torres, Teodo
The United States Civil Rights Commission organized a committee chaired by Arthur Hays, a member of the American Union for Civil Liberties. The rest of the Commission members were prominent Puerto Ricans. The commission found that police surrounded the cadets, locking them in from all four sides. That the police left no room for the crowd to disperse. And lastly, the cadets were not carrying weapons. There is no evidence to claim that what happened on March 21, 1937 was a conspiracy between the police and the then-governor, Blanton Winship. But President Franklin D. Roosevelt of the United States removed him from office in May 1939 thanks to complaints from Congressman Vito Marcantonio.
The Puerto Rican Institute of Culture manages the "House of the Massacre of Ponce", a museum located at the same intersection (between Calle Marina and Calle Aurora) where the events took place. Contains photographs and various artifacts from the Ponce Massacre. An area is dedicated to the leader of the nationalist movement Don Pedro Albizu Campos. This historic chapter was important for Puerto Rico.
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