Rafael Cancel Miranda
Encyclopedia
Rafael Cancel Miranda political activist, is a member of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party
and an advocate of Puerto Rican independence. On March 1, 1954, Cancel Miranda together with fellow Nationalists Lolita Lebron
, Andres Figueroa Cordero, and Irving Flores Rodriguez entered the United States Capitol building armed with automatic pistols and fired 30 shots. Five congressmen
were hit, however all the representatives survived and Cancel Miranda, along with the other three members of his group were immediately arrested. Cancel Miranda was the only Nationalist out of the four to have been jailed in Alcatraz
, a Federal Bureau of Prisons
federal prison.
, located in the western coast of Puerto Rico. His father, Rafael Cancel Rodríguez, was president of the Mayagüez chapter of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party and his mother was a member of the Daughters of Freedom, a non-partisan women's organization which was the women's branch of the Nationalist Party. His father, a businessman and owner of a furniture store, had been imprisoned because of his political beliefs.
to participate in a march organized by the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. The march, which was scheduled for March 30 (Palm Sunday
), was organized to commemorate the ending of slavery in Puerto Rico by the governing Spanish National Assembly in 1873, and to protest the incarceration by the U.S. Government of Nationalist leader Pedro Albizu Campos
on sedition
charges.
Upon learning of the planned protest, however, the colonial Governor of Puerto Rico
at the time, General Blanton Winship, who had been appointed by US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, demanded the immediate withdrawal of the permits. They were withdrawn a short time before the march was scheduled to begin. As "La Borinqueña
", Puerto Rico's national song, was being played, the demonstrators began to march. They were then fired upon for over 15 minutes by the police from their four positions. About 235 people were wounded and nineteen were killed. Among the dead were 17 unarmed civilians at the hands of the Insular Police, in addition 235 civilians were wounded, including women and children. Ultimately, responsibility for the massacre fell on Governor Winship, and he is considered to have, in effect, ordered the massacre. Many were chased by the police and shot or clubbed at the entrance of their houses as they tried to escape. Others were taken from their hiding places and killed. Leopold Tormes, a member of the Puerto Rico legislature, told reporters how a policeman murdered a nationalist with his bare hands. Dr. Jose N. Gandara
, one of the physicians who assisted the wounded, testified that wounded people running away were shot, and that many were again wounded by the clubs and bare fists of the police. No arms were found in the hands of the civilians wounded, nor on the dead ones. About 150 of the demonstrators were arrested immediately afterward; they were later released on bail. The incident is known as the Ponce Massacre
.
The white nurse's uniform of Cancel Miranda's mother was soaked with blood as she crawled over bodies in search of her husband. Miraculously, they both managed to return home unharmed. After the family returned home, Cancel Miranda committed his first political act in his first grade class in school when he refused to salute the American flag which at the time was mandatory.
as the main language of instruction in Puerto Rico's schools. Cancel Miranda was among those who participated in a school strike to this respect, two months before his graduation and was expelled. from school. He then went to San Juan to finish high school.
Puerto Ricans became U.S. citizens as a result of the 1917 Jones-Shafroth Act and those who were eligible, with the exception of women, were expected to serve in the military, either voluntarily or as a result of the military draft (conscription
). In 1948, Cancel Miranda, then eighteen and in high school, refused to be drafted into the military. One day, he was walking to school in San Juan with other students, and there was a car with four FBI agents at the corner of his house. He handed his books to the other students to take them to the place where he was living. The men arrested him and charged him with refusing the U.S. draft. The U.S. Federal Court
in Puerto Rico sentenced him to two years and one day and he was sent to a prison in Tallahassee, Florida
, where he remained from 1949 to 1951. During his stay in prison he confronted a prison guard because of the racist segregation inside prison walls. Under Jim Crow legislation at the time, the prison dormitories were segregated.
. Believing that he was to be drafted by the US Military and that he would once again face a prison term for refusing, Cancel Miranda followed the advice of his wife and his sister Zoraida and went into a self exile in Cuba
. Cancel Miranda arrived in the city of Santiago using a different identity, Rafael Rodríguez. Cuba at that time was governed by Carlos Prio Socarras
. He moved to Havana
where, with the help of Albizu Campos' son, Pedro Albizu Campos Meneses, he found a job with the Public Works Department. After a while, he went to work for the Raymond Concrete Pipe Co. which was building the Línea Street Tunnel, which connects the two banks of the Almendares River.
On October 30, 1950, a Nationalist Party uprising
occurred in Puerto Rico. The uprising was a call for independence against United States Government rule of Puerto Rico. It was also a protest against the approval of the creation of the political status the "Free Associated State of Puerto Rico" or how it is legally known, the "Commonwealth of Puerto Rico" ("Estado Libre Associado") for Puerto Rico which was considered a colonial farce. Numerous Nationalists were arrested, among Cancel Mirandas father. In 1951, he published an article in a Havana paper to commemorate the first anniversary of that uprising. The United States embassy learned about it and demanded that the Prío Socarrás government turn him over along with another Puerto Rican, Reynaldo Trilla, but the Cuban authorities ignored them.
Aracelio Azcuy, a politician of the Civil Damages Office and supporter of Prio Socarras, used to asked Cancel Miranda to campaign for him, to write his speeches. On March 10, 1952, Fulgencio Batista
led a military coup overthrowing Prío Socarrás' government. After the coup, Batista’s police arrested Cancel Miranda and Trilla. They were sent to the Tiscornia prison until August 1952, when they both were expelled from Cuba.
, New York City
, where he joined his wife. He found work in a shoe factory as a press operator. In 1953, he appeared before the Decolonization Committee of the United Nations
. He testified that, despite the United States' assertion that since the formation of the Puerto Rican Commonwealth, Puerto Rico was no longer a colony, its political status was essentially the same. In New York he met fellow Nationalists Lolita Lebrón, a sewing machine operator, Irving Flores Rodriguez, a furniture factory employee and Andrés Figueroa Cordero, who worked in a butcher shop.
. Lebrón intended to call attention to Puerto Rico's independence cause, particularly among the Latin American countries participating in the conference.
The four Nationalists were shipped off to different prisons. Figueroa Cordero was sent to the federal penitentiary in Atlanta; Lebrón to the women's prison in Alderson, West Virginia; and Flores Rodriguez to Leavenworth, Kansas
, where Oscar Collazo
, who in 1950 attacked the Blair House
in a failed attempt to assassinate US President Harry S. Truman
, was incarcerated. Cancel Miranda, considered to be the primary shooter, received a prison sentence of 85 years and was sent to Alcatraz
, in the San Francisco Bay
.
federal prison in August 1934 and was used as such for 29 years. There he worked in the brush factory and served as an altar boy at Catholic services. His closest friends were fellow Puerto Ricans Emerito Vasquez and Hiram Crespo-Crespo. They spoke Spanish and watched out for each other. On the recreation yard he often played chess with Harlem gangster Ellsworth “Bumpy” Johnson
. He also befriended Morton Sobell
, they developed a friendship that lasts to this day.
His family made trips to San Francisco to visit him, however he wasn't allow to see his children. His wife was allowed to talk to him through a glass in the visiting room, using a phone. They were not allowed to speak in Spanish and had to speak in English. Cancel Miranda was a model prisoner and in 1960, after six years on Alcatraz, he was transferred to Leavenworth.
" (the "hole" is a colloquial term for solitary confinement)Note: The "hole" is a punishment
or special form of imprisonment in which a prisoner
is denied contact with any other persons, though often with the exception of members of prison staff. for five months. His wife had worked to save up enough for the long trip to Kansas only to find that he was confined in the "hole." After three days of waiting she was allowed one hour with him. During his imprisonment, in Leavenworth, a photo from a local newspaper reminded him of one of his Cuban experiences, which allowed him to recognize that a genuine revolution was taking place in that country.
, a Federal Bureau of Prisons facility located in Southern Precinct, unincorporated Williamson County, Illinois. By the late 1960s, there were increasing numbers of prisoners engaged in political activity, and Cancel Miranda joined with them.
In prison he read books on sociology and learned to play the guitar. He also became involved in the defense of Corky Gonzales and the "Crusade for Justice". Every September 16, Cancel Miranda would join the Mexican and Chicano prisoners in marking Mexico's independence day with a work stoppage. He was also involved in the Africa-American struggle. Together they produced newspapers like the Chicano prisoners' paper Aztlán and the Militant. In 1972, he was placed in the Control Unit, where he was held for eighteen months, after a big strike in Marion. In the early years there was no campaign for the release of the Nationalist prisoners. An Afro-American prisoner named Ed Johnson, wrote to Michael Deutsch, a lawyer, and invited him to visit the Control Unit. The campaign for the release of the Nationalists began with Michael Deutsch and Mara Siegel from the People's Law Office.
When Cancel Miranda's father died in 1977, his supporters campaigned to allow him to attend the funeral. Cancel was allowed out on a seven hour furlough in Puerto Rico to attend his funeral.
Carlos Romero Barceló
publicly opposed the pardons granted by Carter, stating that it would encourage terrorism and undermine public safety. Cancel Miranda and the other Nationalists received a hero's welcome by the different independence groups upon their return to their motherland.
President Carter also commuted the sentence of fellow nationalist Oscar Collazo, to time served on September 6, 1979, after spending 29 years in jail. Collazo had been eligible for parole since April 1966, and Lebron since July 1969. Both Cancel Miranda and Flores Rodriguez became eligible for parole in July 1979. However, none had applied for parole because of their political beliefs.
A musical production of his poetry, "Por Las Calles de Mi Patria," has been enthusiastically received in Puerto Rico and in the United States. The poems are those he had sent to his father while in prison. He had thought them lost, and was surprised to find them published by his father. The musical production is dedicated to those active in the struggle for freedom.
Oscar López Rivera
founded the Rafael Cancel Miranda High School in Chicago, in his honor. The school is now known as the Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos High School
and the Juan Antonio Corretjer Puerto Rican Cultural Center.
Puerto Rican Nationalist Party
The Puerto Rican Nationalist Party was founded on September 17, 1922. Its main objective is to work for Puerto Rican Independence.In 1919, José Coll y Cuchí, a member of the Union Party of Puerto Rico, felt that the Union Party was not doing enough for the cause of Puerto Rican independence and he...
and an advocate of Puerto Rican independence. On March 1, 1954, Cancel Miranda together with fellow Nationalists Lolita Lebron
Lolita Lebrón
Dolores "Lolita" Lebrón Sotomayor was a Puerto Rican nationalist who wasconvicted of attempted murder and other crimes after leading an assault on the United States House of Representatives in 1954,...
, Andres Figueroa Cordero, and Irving Flores Rodriguez entered the United States Capitol building armed with automatic pistols and fired 30 shots. Five congressmen
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
were hit, however all the representatives survived and Cancel Miranda, along with the other three members of his group were immediately arrested. Cancel Miranda was the only Nationalist out of the four to have been jailed in Alcatraz
Alcatraz Island
Alcatraz Island is an island located in the San Francisco Bay, offshore from San Francisco, California, United States. Often referred to as "The Rock" or simply "Traz", the small island was developed with facilities for a lighthouse, a military fortification, a military prison, and a Federal...
, a Federal Bureau of Prisons
Federal Bureau of Prisons
The Federal Bureau of Prisons is a federal law enforcement agency subdivision of the United States Department of Justice and is responsible for the administration of the federal prison system. The system also handles prisoners who committed acts considered felonies under the District of Columbia's...
federal prison.
Early years
Cancel Miranda was born in the City of MayagüezMayagüez, Puerto Rico
Mayagüez is the eighth-largest municipality of Puerto Rico. Originally founded as "Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria" it is also known as "La Sultana del Oeste" , "Ciudad de las Aguas Puras" , or "Ciudad del Mangó"...
, located in the western coast of Puerto Rico. His father, Rafael Cancel Rodríguez, was president of the Mayagüez chapter of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party and his mother was a member of the Daughters of Freedom, a non-partisan women's organization which was the women's branch of the Nationalist Party. His father, a businessman and owner of a furniture store, had been imprisoned because of his political beliefs.
Ponce Massacre
In March 1937, when Cancel Miranda was seven years old, he and his family traveled to the City of PoncePonce, Puerto Rico
Ponce is both a city and a municipality in the southern part of Puerto Rico. The city is the seat of the municipal government.The city of Ponce, the fourth most populated in Puerto Rico, and the most populated outside of the San Juan metropolitan area, is named for Juan Ponce de León y Loayza, the...
to participate in a march organized by the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. The march, which was scheduled for March 30 (Palm Sunday
Palm Sunday
Palm Sunday is a Christian moveable feast that falls on the Sunday before Easter. The feast commemorates Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, an event mentioned in all four Canonical Gospels. ....
), was organized to commemorate the ending of slavery in Puerto Rico by the governing Spanish National Assembly in 1873, and to protest the incarceration by the U.S. Government of Nationalist leader Pedro Albizu Campos
Pedro Albizu Campos
Don Pedro Albizu Campos was a Puerto Rican politician and one of the leading figures in the Puerto Rican independence movement. He was the leader and president of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party from 1930 until his death...
on sedition
Sedition
In law, sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that is deemed by the legal authority to tend toward insurrection against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent to lawful authority. Sedition may include any...
charges.
Upon learning of the planned protest, however, the colonial Governor of Puerto Rico
Governor of Puerto Rico
The Governor of Puerto Rico is the Head of Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Since 1948, the Governor has been elected by the people of Puerto Rico...
at the time, General Blanton Winship, who had been appointed by US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, demanded the immediate withdrawal of the permits. They were withdrawn a short time before the march was scheduled to begin. As "La Borinqueña
La Borinqueña
La Borinqueña is the official anthem of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. After Puerto Rico became the "The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico" in 1952, the first elected governor, Luis Muñoz Marín, signed law #2 of July 24, 1952 that stated that the musical composition known as "La Borinqueña" was to...
", Puerto Rico's national song, was being played, the demonstrators began to march. They were then fired upon for over 15 minutes by the police from their four positions. About 235 people were wounded and nineteen were killed. Among the dead were 17 unarmed civilians at the hands of the Insular Police, in addition 235 civilians were wounded, including women and children. Ultimately, responsibility for the massacre fell on Governor Winship, and he is considered to have, in effect, ordered the massacre. Many were chased by the police and shot or clubbed at the entrance of their houses as they tried to escape. Others were taken from their hiding places and killed. Leopold Tormes, a member of the Puerto Rico legislature, told reporters how a policeman murdered a nationalist with his bare hands. Dr. Jose N. Gandara
José N. Gándara
Dr. José Narciso Gándara Cartagena was a Puerto Rican physician. He is best remembered for having led teams of doctors in the medical care necessary to threat the hundreds of wounded of the infamous Ponce Massacre that occurred on Palm Sunday, 1937, in Ponce, Puerto Rico, at the hands of the...
, one of the physicians who assisted the wounded, testified that wounded people running away were shot, and that many were again wounded by the clubs and bare fists of the police. No arms were found in the hands of the civilians wounded, nor on the dead ones. About 150 of the demonstrators were arrested immediately afterward; they were later released on bail. The incident is known as the Ponce Massacre
Ponce massacre
The Ponce massacre occurred on 21 March 1937 when a peaceful march in Ponce, Puerto Rico, by the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party commemorating the ending of slavery in Puerto Rico by the governing Spanish National Assembly in 1873, and coinciding with a protest against the incarceration by the...
.
The white nurse's uniform of Cancel Miranda's mother was soaked with blood as she crawled over bodies in search of her husband. Miraculously, they both managed to return home unharmed. After the family returned home, Cancel Miranda committed his first political act in his first grade class in school when he refused to salute the American flag which at the time was mandatory.
Political activist
Cancel Miranda joined the "Cadets of the Republic", the youth organization of the Nationalist Party, and organized nationalist youth committees in different towns. His group had a radio program and a small newspaper. As a cadet, Cancel Miranda went to welcome Albizu Campos in December 1947, when the Nationalist Party leader returned from the United States after serving out a ten-year prison sentence - first in the U.S. penitentiary in Atlanta, then in New York - on charges of conspiracy to overthrow the U.S. government and "inciting rebellion" against it. Following World War II, there was widespread resistance to Washington's attempt to impose EnglishEnglish language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
as the main language of instruction in Puerto Rico's schools. Cancel Miranda was among those who participated in a school strike to this respect, two months before his graduation and was expelled. from school. He then went to San Juan to finish high school.
Puerto Ricans became U.S. citizens as a result of the 1917 Jones-Shafroth Act and those who were eligible, with the exception of women, were expected to serve in the military, either voluntarily or as a result of the military draft (conscription
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...
). In 1948, Cancel Miranda, then eighteen and in high school, refused to be drafted into the military. One day, he was walking to school in San Juan with other students, and there was a car with four FBI agents at the corner of his house. He handed his books to the other students to take them to the place where he was living. The men arrested him and charged him with refusing the U.S. draft. The U.S. Federal Court
United States federal courts
The United States federal courts make up the judiciary branch of federal government of the United States organized under the United States Constitution and laws of the federal government.-Categories:...
in Puerto Rico sentenced him to two years and one day and he was sent to a prison in Tallahassee, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, where he remained from 1949 to 1951. During his stay in prison he confronted a prison guard because of the racist segregation inside prison walls. Under Jim Crow legislation at the time, the prison dormitories were segregated.
Self exile in Cuba
In the 1950s, the United States entered the Korean WarKorean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
. Believing that he was to be drafted by the US Military and that he would once again face a prison term for refusing, Cancel Miranda followed the advice of his wife and his sister Zoraida and went into a self exile in Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
. Cancel Miranda arrived in the city of Santiago using a different identity, Rafael Rodríguez. Cuba at that time was governed by Carlos Prio Socarras
Carlos Prío Socarrás
Carlos Prío Socarrás was the President of Cuba from 1948 until he was deposed by a military coup led by Fulgencio Batista on March 10, 1952, three months before new elections were to be held.- Governance :...
. He moved to Havana
Havana
Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
where, with the help of Albizu Campos' son, Pedro Albizu Campos Meneses, he found a job with the Public Works Department. After a while, he went to work for the Raymond Concrete Pipe Co. which was building the Línea Street Tunnel, which connects the two banks of the Almendares River.
On October 30, 1950, a Nationalist Party uprising
Puerto Rican Nationalist Party Revolts of the 1950s
The Puerto Rican Nationalist Party Revolts of the 1950s was a call for independence and uprising by the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party against United States Government rule of Puerto Rico and against the approval of the creation of the political status "Free Associated State" for Puerto Rico which...
occurred in Puerto Rico. The uprising was a call for independence against United States Government rule of Puerto Rico. It was also a protest against the approval of the creation of the political status the "Free Associated State of Puerto Rico" or how it is legally known, the "Commonwealth of Puerto Rico" ("Estado Libre Associado") for Puerto Rico which was considered a colonial farce. Numerous Nationalists were arrested, among Cancel Mirandas father. In 1951, he published an article in a Havana paper to commemorate the first anniversary of that uprising. The United States embassy learned about it and demanded that the Prío Socarrás government turn him over along with another Puerto Rican, Reynaldo Trilla, but the Cuban authorities ignored them.
Aracelio Azcuy, a politician of the Civil Damages Office and supporter of Prio Socarras, used to asked Cancel Miranda to campaign for him, to write his speeches. On March 10, 1952, Fulgencio Batista
Fulgencio Batista
Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar was the United States-aligned Cuban President, dictator and military leader who served as the leader of Cuba from 1933 to 1944 and from 1952 to 1959, before being overthrown as a result of the Cuban Revolution....
led a military coup overthrowing Prío Socarrás' government. After the coup, Batista’s police arrested Cancel Miranda and Trilla. They were sent to the Tiscornia prison until August 1952, when they both were expelled from Cuba.
Assault on the House of Representatives
Cancel Miranda migrated to BrooklynBrooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, where he joined his wife. He found work in a shoe factory as a press operator. In 1953, he appeared before the Decolonization Committee of the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
. He testified that, despite the United States' assertion that since the formation of the Puerto Rican Commonwealth, Puerto Rico was no longer a colony, its political status was essentially the same. In New York he met fellow Nationalists Lolita Lebrón, a sewing machine operator, Irving Flores Rodriguez, a furniture factory employee and Andrés Figueroa Cordero, who worked in a butcher shop.
Attack preparations
Albizu Campos had been corresponding with 34-year-old Lolita Lebrón from prison and chose a group of nationalists who included Cancel Miranda, Irving Flores Rodriguez and Andrés Figueroa Cordero to attack locations in Washington, D.C. Upon receiving the order she communicated it to the leadership of the Nationalist party in New York and, although two members unexpectedly disagreed, the plan continued. Lebrón decided to lead the group, even though Albizu Campos did not order her to directly take part in the assault. She studied the plan, determining the possible weaknesses, concluding that a single attack on the House of Representatives would be more effective. The date for the attack on the House of Representatives was to be March 1, 1954. This date was chosen because it coincided with the inauguration of the Conferencia Interamericana (Interamerican Conference) in CaracasCaracas
Caracas , officially Santiago de León de Caracas, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela; natives or residents are known as Caraquenians in English . It is located in the northern part of the country, following the contours of the narrow Caracas Valley on the Venezuelan coastal mountain range...
. Lebrón intended to call attention to Puerto Rico's independence cause, particularly among the Latin American countries participating in the conference.
Trial and imprisonment
Cancel Miranda and his comrades were charged with attempted murder and other crimes. The trial began on June 4, 1954, with judge Alexander Holtzoff presiding over the case, under strict security measures. A jury composed of seven men and five women was assembled, their identities were kept secret by the media. The prosecution was led by Leo A. Rover, as part of this process 33 witnesses testified. Cancel Miranda and the other members of the group were the only defense witnesses, as part of Lebrón's testimony she reaffirmed that they "came to die for the liberty of her homeland". On June 16, 1954, the jury declared the four guilty. Rover pursued death penalty, but Holtzoff decided to implement the maximum imprisonment penalties. On July 13, 1954, the four nationalists were taken to New York, where they declared themselves not guilty on the charges of "trying to overthrow the government of the United States". Among the prosecution's witnesses was Gonzalo Lebrón Jr., who testified against his sister. On October 26, 1954, judge Lawrence E. Walsh found all of the accused guilty of conspiracy, sentencing them to six additional years in prison.The four Nationalists were shipped off to different prisons. Figueroa Cordero was sent to the federal penitentiary in Atlanta; Lebrón to the women's prison in Alderson, West Virginia; and Flores Rodriguez to Leavenworth, Kansas
Leavenworth, Kansas
Leavenworth is the largest city and county seat of Leavenworth County, in the U.S. state of Kansas and within the Kansas City, Missouri Metropolitan Area. Located in the northeast portion of the state, it is on the west bank of the Missouri River. As of the 2010 census, the city population was...
, where Oscar Collazo
Oscar Collazo
Oscar Collazo , was one of two Puerto Ricans who attempted to assassinate U.S. President Harry S. Truman.-Early life:...
, who in 1950 attacked the Blair House
Blair House
Blair House is the official state guest house for the President of the United States. It is located at 1651-1653 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., opposite the Old Executive Office Building of the White House, off the corner of Lafayette Park....
in a failed attempt to assassinate US President Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...
, was incarcerated. Cancel Miranda, considered to be the primary shooter, received a prison sentence of 85 years and was sent to Alcatraz
Alcatraz Island
Alcatraz Island is an island located in the San Francisco Bay, offshore from San Francisco, California, United States. Often referred to as "The Rock" or simply "Traz", the small island was developed with facilities for a lighthouse, a military fortification, a military prison, and a Federal...
, in the San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
.
Alcatraz
In July 1954, Cancel Miranda, inmate number 1163, was sent to Alcatraz where he served six years of his sentence. Alcatraz island became a Federal Bureau of PrisonsFederal Bureau of Prisons
The Federal Bureau of Prisons is a federal law enforcement agency subdivision of the United States Department of Justice and is responsible for the administration of the federal prison system. The system also handles prisoners who committed acts considered felonies under the District of Columbia's...
federal prison in August 1934 and was used as such for 29 years. There he worked in the brush factory and served as an altar boy at Catholic services. His closest friends were fellow Puerto Ricans Emerito Vasquez and Hiram Crespo-Crespo. They spoke Spanish and watched out for each other. On the recreation yard he often played chess with Harlem gangster Ellsworth “Bumpy” Johnson
Ellsworth Johnson
Ellsworth Raymond "Bumpy" Johnson was an African-American mob boss and bookmaker in New York City's Harlem neighborhood. The main Harlem associate of the Genovese crime family, Johnson's criminal career has inspired films and television.-Early life:Johnson was born in Charleston, South Carolina on...
. He also befriended Morton Sobell
Morton Sobell
Morton Sobell is a former spy for the Soviet Union. Sobell was an American engineer working for General Electric and Reeves Electronics on military and government contracts. He was found guilty of spying for the Soviets , and sentenced to 30 years in prison...
, they developed a friendship that lasts to this day.
His family made trips to San Francisco to visit him, however he wasn't allow to see his children. His wife was allowed to talk to him through a glass in the visiting room, using a phone. They were not allowed to speak in Spanish and had to speak in English. Cancel Miranda was a model prisoner and in 1960, after six years on Alcatraz, he was transferred to Leavenworth.
Leavenworth
Cancel Miranda spent 10 years in Leavenworth. In 1970, together with fellow Nationalists Andres Figueroa Cordero (he was transferred from the federal penitentiary in Atlanta), Irving Flores Rodriguez and Oscar Collazo, he started a strike and stopped working because of the abuses by some of the guards against them. He was charged with organizing the strike and was sent to the "holeSolitary confinement
Solitary confinement is a special form of imprisonment in which a prisoner is isolated from any human contact, though often with the exception of members of prison staff. It is sometimes employed as a form of punishment beyond incarceration for a prisoner, and has been cited as an additional...
" (the "hole" is a colloquial term for solitary confinement)Note: The "hole" is a punishment
Punishment
Punishment is the authoritative imposition of something negative or unpleasant on a person or animal in response to behavior deemed wrong by an individual or group....
or special form of imprisonment in which a prisoner
Incarceration
Incarceration is the detention of a person in prison, typically as punishment for a crime .People are most commonly incarcerated upon suspicion or conviction of committing a crime, and different jurisdictions have differing laws governing the function of incarceration within a larger system of...
is denied contact with any other persons, though often with the exception of members of prison staff. for five months. His wife had worked to save up enough for the long trip to Kansas only to find that he was confined in the "hole." After three days of waiting she was allowed one hour with him. During his imprisonment, in Leavenworth, a photo from a local newspaper reminded him of one of his Cuban experiences, which allowed him to recognize that a genuine revolution was taking place in that country.
Marion
Cancel Miranda was transferred to the Marion PenitentiaryUnited States Penitentiary, Marion
The United States Penitentiary is a Federal Bureau of Prisons facility located in Southern Precinct, unincorporated Williamson County, Illinois. The facility is located south of Marion, from St. Louis, and from Chicago. It was built in 1963 to replace the Alcatraz prison in San Francisco, which...
, a Federal Bureau of Prisons facility located in Southern Precinct, unincorporated Williamson County, Illinois. By the late 1960s, there were increasing numbers of prisoners engaged in political activity, and Cancel Miranda joined with them.
In prison he read books on sociology and learned to play the guitar. He also became involved in the defense of Corky Gonzales and the "Crusade for Justice". Every September 16, Cancel Miranda would join the Mexican and Chicano prisoners in marking Mexico's independence day with a work stoppage. He was also involved in the Africa-American struggle. Together they produced newspapers like the Chicano prisoners' paper Aztlán and the Militant. In 1972, he was placed in the Control Unit, where he was held for eighteen months, after a big strike in Marion. In the early years there was no campaign for the release of the Nationalist prisoners. An Afro-American prisoner named Ed Johnson, wrote to Michael Deutsch, a lawyer, and invited him to visit the Control Unit. The campaign for the release of the Nationalists began with Michael Deutsch and Mara Siegel from the People's Law Office.
When Cancel Miranda's father died in 1977, his supporters campaigned to allow him to attend the funeral. Cancel was allowed out on a seven hour furlough in Puerto Rico to attend his funeral.
Released from prison
In 1979, President Jimmy Carter pardoned Cancel Miranda, Lolita Lebrón and Irving Flores Rodriguez after they had served 25 years in prison. Andrés Figueroa Cordero was released from prison earlier because of ill health. Governor of Puerto RicoGovernor of Puerto Rico
The Governor of Puerto Rico is the Head of Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Since 1948, the Governor has been elected by the people of Puerto Rico...
Carlos Romero Barceló
Carlos Romero Barceló
Carlos Antonio Romero Barceló is a Puerto Rican politician who served as the fifth Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the second governor to be elected from the New Progressive Party and also Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico from 1993 to 2001, making him one of the more successful...
publicly opposed the pardons granted by Carter, stating that it would encourage terrorism and undermine public safety. Cancel Miranda and the other Nationalists received a hero's welcome by the different independence groups upon their return to their motherland.
President Carter also commuted the sentence of fellow nationalist Oscar Collazo, to time served on September 6, 1979, after spending 29 years in jail. Collazo had been eligible for parole since April 1966, and Lebron since July 1969. Both Cancel Miranda and Flores Rodriguez became eligible for parole in July 1979. However, none had applied for parole because of their political beliefs.
Later years
Cancel Miranda authored seven books and remains active in the struggle for Puerto Rican independence. He continues to carry the cause of freedom to other countries, and returns occasionally to the United States on speaking tours in behalf of Puerto Rican political prisoners. In 2006, he was awarded the Jose Marti Order by the Cuban government for his work. It is the highest honor Cuba accords to non-Cubans. In 1979. at the International Conference in Support of Independence for Puerto Rico, held in Mexico City, Cancel Miranda. Irvin Flores Rodriguez, Lolita Lebrón and Oscar Collazo before representatives of some fifty-one countries they were seen as the embodiment of the directive of their teacher Albizu Campos to exercise valor and sacrifice.A musical production of his poetry, "Por Las Calles de Mi Patria," has been enthusiastically received in Puerto Rico and in the United States. The poems are those he had sent to his father while in prison. He had thought them lost, and was surprised to find them published by his father. The musical production is dedicated to those active in the struggle for freedom.
Oscar López Rivera
Oscar López Rivera
Oscar López Rivera is a Puerto Rican Nationalist who was convicted and sentenced to 70 years in prison for seditious conspiracy and various other offenses. He was among the 16 Puerto Rican nationalists offered conditional clemency by U.S. President Bill Clinton in 1999, but he rejected the offer...
founded the Rafael Cancel Miranda High School in Chicago, in his honor. The school is now known as the Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos High School
Pedro Albizu Campos
Don Pedro Albizu Campos was a Puerto Rican politician and one of the leading figures in the Puerto Rican independence movement. He was the leader and president of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party from 1930 until his death...
and the Juan Antonio Corretjer Puerto Rican Cultural Center.
Further reading
- "Puerto Rico: Independence Is a Necessity"; by: Rafael Cancel Miranda (Author); Publisher: Pathfinder Press (NY); Booklet edition (February 1, 2001); ISBN 0873488954; ISBN 978-0873488952
- "Commemorate el grito de Lares with Rafael Cancel Miranda"; by: Puerto Rican socialist party (Author); ASIN: B0041V1C6U
- "Sembrando Patria...Y Verdades"; by: Rafael Cancel Miranda (Author); Publisher: Cuarto Idearo (January 1, 1998); ASIN: B001CK17D6
- "Testimonio: Los indómitos [Paperback]"; by: Antonio Gil de Lamadrid Navarro (Author); Publisher: Editorial Edil, Inc. (1981); ASIN: B004DKPMBA
See also
- Puerto Rican Nationalist Party Revolts of the 1950sPuerto Rican Nationalist Party Revolts of the 1950sThe Puerto Rican Nationalist Party Revolts of the 1950s was a call for independence and uprising by the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party against United States Government rule of Puerto Rico and against the approval of the creation of the political status "Free Associated State" for Puerto Rico which...
- List of famous Puerto Ricans
- Boricua Popular ArmyBoricua Popular ArmyThe Boricua Popular/People's Army — or Ejército Popular Boricua in Spanish — is a clandestine organization based on the island of Puerto Rico, with cells in the United States. They campaign for and support the independence of Puerto Rico from what they characterize as United States colonial rule...
- Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional (Puerto Rico)Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional (Puerto Rico)The Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional was a Puerto Rican clandestine paramilitary organization that, through direct action, advocated complete independence for Puerto Rico. At the time of its dissolution, the FALN was responsible for more than 120 bomb attacks on United States targets between...