Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Women, Gender, and the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Gendering Nationalism

Abstract

This chapter explores how Puerto Rican women members of the Nationalist Party conceived their roles in the struggle against US colonial rule from the 1930s through the 1950s. It examines how these women understood nationalism, why they sought to secure national sovereignty, and what actions they engaged in. Far from considering nationalism a male endeavor, they enthusiastically entered and even led the struggle for national independence. Most literature on nationalism draws on men’s words and visions of the nation and, as a result, overlooks women’s participation in national liberation struggles or relegates them to a secondary position, at best. This chapter explores Nationalist Party women’s words, thoughts, and actions to determine their perspective on their roles in the struggle for Puerto Rican independence.

I gratefully thank Jill Vickers for her help in editing and shortening this chapter.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    A New York City-based unit of the Nationalist Party attacked the US Congress to alert the world that Puerto Rico was a US colony. They timed the assault to coincide with the OAS meeting in Caracas, Venezuela. Power, interview with Lebrón, Chicago, September 9, 2004.

  2. 2.

    Ibid. Capitol police arrested the four, who were found guilty of various charges. After serving 25 years in US prisons, President Jimmy Carter released them in 1979.

  3. 3.

    I focus on prominent women Nationalists because there are sources available about them and I interviewed three of them.

  4. 4.

    I have found no records of the number or gender of people in the party. But newspaper accounts and photos of the party’s activities mention or show their presence.

  5. 5.

    “Los actos nacionalistas de Vieques y Naguabo,” El Mundo, November 15, 1930.

  6. 6.

    “Pareceres,” El Mundo, November 1930.

  7. 7.

    “Adhesión nacionalista,” El Mundo, June 1, 1931.

  8. 8.

    “Una Junta Nacionalista de Damas,” El Mundo, September 19, 1931; “Una sección femenina de la junta nacionalista,” El Mundo, October 3, 1931; “Grandioso Mítin Nacionalista en Rio Piedras,” La Nación, December 30, 1932. I have been unable to determine how many women’s sections existed or how many women belonged to them.

  9. 9.

    I thank Luis Ferrao who shared his list of municipal officers between 1931 and 1934. For the names of women activists, see “Los Nacionalistas de Barranquitas,” El Mundo, May, 20, 1932; “Candidaturas del Partido Nacionalista,” El Mundo, September 20, 1932; “Candidaturas del Partido Nacionalista,” El Mundo, September 22, 1932; “Lares, Puerto Rico, 23 de Septiembre,” El Mundo, September 28, 1934.

  10. 10.

    Ferrao , Pedro Albizu Campos, p. 129. For a history of the Cadetes, see José Manuel Dávila Marichal, “Atención, firmes, de frente, marchen! Historia del Ejército Libertador del Partido Nacionalista de Puerto Rico,” Master’s thesis, University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, 2011.

  11. 11.

    Angelina Torresola, interview with author and Janine Santiago, Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, October 26, 2013.

  12. 12.

    No membership lists exist, so I cannot quantify how many people belonged to the Nationalist Party. According to the FBI, however, “3000 people belonged to the party in 1936,” but only “approximately 500” did in 1950. These figures underestimate popular support for the party but reveal the decline in support. FBI Files, “Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico” (NPPR) SJ 100–3 Volume 23, Report made at San Juan, July 31, 1952, 6, 42–44, 120.

  13. 13.

    Candida Cotto, “Entrevista a Blanca Canales,” Claridad, October 30–November 5, 1987, p. 17.

  14. 14.

    Griselio Torresola died in the attack on Blair House and Oscar Collazo spent the next 29 years in prison. El Mundo November 1 and 2, 1950; New York Times November 2, 1950. For a detailed description, see Seijo Bruno, La Insurrección Nacionalista.

  15. 15.

    José Enrique Ayoroa Santaliz, “La Insurrección Nacionalista del año 1950,” unpublished, October 29, 2000, p. 51. Different sources cite different numbers of wounded. See Paralitici, Sentencia Impuesta, pp. 106–07.

  16. 16.

    Canales identified with Joan of Arc because she too was a Catholic woman who fought to free her nation from the Protestant invaders.

  17. 17.

    Ayoroa Santaliz , “La Insurrección Nacionalista,” p. 26.

  18. 18.

    Isabel Rosado, interview with author, Ceiba, Puerto Rico, March 20, 2006.

  19. 19.

    Isabel Rosado, interview with author, Ceiba, Puerto Rico, May 16, 2008.

  20. 20.

    FBI, File Number 105–11898, Section XI, “Pedro Albizu Campos,” p. SJ 3–1.

  21. 21.

    For more on Law #53, see Ivonne Acosta 1987.

  22. 22.

    Mildred Rivera Marrero, “Un siglo de lucidez,” El Nuevo Día, January 30, 2007.

  23. 23.

    According to FBI reports, Rosado had delivered Albizu Campos’ message to Lolita Lebrón and two other US-based Nationalists that the party should attack the US Congress, Jiménez de Wagenheim, Nationalist Heroines, p. 173; 174–175.

  24. 24.

    José E. Ayoroa Santaliz, “Doña Isabel Rosado Morales,” Claridad, August 6–12, 1993, pp. 24–25.

  25. 25.

    Her brother, Elio, led the 1950 uprising in Jayuya and another brother, Griselio, attacked Blair House. See Seijo Bruno, La insurrección nacionalista, pp. 121; 207–209.

  26. 26.

    FBI, File Number 105–11898, Section XI, “Pedro Albizu Campos,” p. SJ 3–1; “La Secretaría de Albizu en Hospital Municipal,” El Mundo, November 1, 1950.

  27. 27.

    Paralitici, Sentencia Impuesta, p. 129.

  28. 28.

    YouTube, “Lolita Lebrón ataca el Congreso 1954,” www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pom5iJlVLrk, accessed August 3, 2016.

  29. 29.

    Isabel Rosado, interview, March 20, 2006.

  30. 30.

    Another possibility is that some were not heterosexual and had no desire to marry or live with men.

References

  • Acosta, Ivonne. 1987. La Mordaza: Puerto Rico 1948–1957. Río Piedras: Editorial Edil.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, Benedict. 1983. Imagined Communities. Reflections on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ayala, César J., and Rafael Bernabe. 2007. Puerto Rico in the American Century. A History Since 1898. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bosque-Pérez, Ramón. 2006. Political Persecution Against Puerto Rican Anti-Colonial Activists in the Twentieth Century. In Puerto Rico Under Colonial Rule. Political Persecution and the Quest for Human Rights, ed. Ramón Bosque-Pérez and José Javier Colón Morera, 13–48. Albany: State University of New York Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Briggs, Laura. 2002. Reproducing Empire. Race, Sex, Science, and U.S. Imperialism in Puerto Rico. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Campos, Albizu. 1930. La mujer libertadora. El Mundo, May 4.

    Google Scholar 

  • Canales, Blanca. 1997. La Constitución es la Revolución. San Juan: Congreso Nacional Hostosiano.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chaterjee, Partha. 1993. The Nation and Its Fragments. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ferrao, Luis Angel. 1990. Pedro Albizu Campos y el Nacionalismo Puertorriqueño. San Juan: Editorial Cultural.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jiménez de Wagenheim, Olga. 2016. Nationalist Heroines. Puerto Rican Women History Forgot, 1930s–1950s. Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Connor, Erin E. 2014. Mothers Making Latin America. Gender, Households, and Politics Since 1825. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paralitici, Che. 2004. Sentencia Impuesta: 100 años de encarcelamientos por la independencia de Puerto Rico. San Juan: Ediciones Puerto.

    Google Scholar 

  • Randall, Margaret. 1979. El pueblo no sólo es testigo. La historia de Dominga. Rio Piedras: Ediciones Huracán.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosado, Marisa. 2006. Pedro Albizu Campos. Las llamas de la aurora. San Juan: Ediciones Puerto.

    Google Scholar 

  • Seijo, Bruno. 1950. La Insurrección Nacionalista en Puerto Rico. Rio Piedras: Editorial Edil.

    Google Scholar 

  • Torres, Benjamín J. 1975. Pedro Albizu Campos. Obras Escogidas, 1923–1936. Vol. 1. San Juan: Editorial Jelofe.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yuval-Davis, Nira, and Floya Anthias, eds. 1989. Woman-Nation-State. New York: St. Martin’s.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zwickel, Jean. 1988. Voices for Independence. Pittsburg: White Star Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Illinois Tech, Department of Humanities, Chicago, IL, USA

    Margaret Power

Authors
  1. Margaret Power
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Health and Social Sciences, University of the West of England, Bristol, United Kingdom

    Jon Mulholland

  2. School of Law, Middlesex University, London, United Kingdom

    Nicola Montagna

  3. School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research, University of Kent, Kent, United Kingdom

    Erin Sanders-McDonagh

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Power, M. (2018). Women, Gender, and the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. In: Mulholland, J., Montagna, N., Sanders-McDonagh, E. (eds) Gendering Nationalism. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76699-7_7

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76699-7_7

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-76698-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-76699-7

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation