We Follow Up With The Last Colony's Director Juan Agustín Márquez

Back in March, we had the chance to chat with award-winning filmmaker
Juan Agustín Márquez regarding his documentary The Last Colony. The
film, which deals with Puerto Rico's long-running sovereignty limbo, got
an enthusiastic reception both in the island and outside of it. The documen-
tary has finally been released on DVD today, after having been available for 
home viewing on Vimeo. We recently caught up with Mr. Márquez and asked 
him about the success of the film, the political situation in Puerto Rico, and 
his present and future projects:

How has the documentary been 
received? Has the reception by the 
public met your expectations?

We could not be happier with
the reception the film has gotten.
The film opened theatrically in
Puerto Rico on April 30, against
none other than The Avengers,
and it did really well. It stayed in
three theaters for six consecutive
weeks. Also, we’ve been fortunate
to have had the film showcased and
screened in many other venues, such
as the Library of Congress, the Fes-
tival Latinoamericano in Helsinki,
the US Congress (where it was
shown to a full house), the Orlando
Film Festival, among many others.


Have you received any major criticisms regarding the film?

Can’t say that we have. Nothing negative. We made sure that we got all the
facts right. Most of the criticism has gone directly to the people that we in-
terviewed, but not to us. All the press was very positive and we get a lot of
comments on our social media sites. Sometimes people have complained that
we did not talk about the debt enough. Those people have to understand that
we finished the film in 2013 and that we wanted to focus on the election of
2012. There is only so much you can fit into a 90 minute film.


Do you feel that The Last Colony has helped jumpstart the conversa-
tion regarding Puerto Rico's status?

Yes. I think there are a combination of forces at play, including the conver-
sation about the $74 billion in debt, and it all came together with the timing
of the film. I think the film has been very helpful in exposing the debate of
Puerto Rico’s status and has helped put in a historical context the conversa-
tion about Puerto Rico’s unpayable debt. We finished the filming in late
2013 and many things have happened since then regarding Puerto Rico’s
situation. I think the most important element we captured and portrayed in
the film is our sad political divisions.

Do you expect the issue of 
Puerto Rico's status to move 
forward any time soon?

Most people are not as optimistic
as I am. I think, in my lifetime,
we will see the end of colonial
rule over Puerto Rico. I am not
100% sure that statehood will
happen or that full independen-
ce will happen, but I am sure
that decolonization will happen.
There is a saying in Puerto Rico
that goes “no hay mal que dure 
100 años ni cuerpo que lo agu-
ante” which roughly translates
to “this can’t go on for 100 years”.
I think we are about to witness
a tipping point in Puerto Rico’s
colonial history.


What do you think about the general political and economic 
situation on the island right now?

I think Puerto Rico needs a real leader and I don’t think any of the
current candidates have the ability to unite the island. I think we need
someone who can inspire Puerto Ricans to come together. We need a
great communicator. We need someone that we can all trust. We need
a non-politician to rise up.  Someone we can all follow. Someone who
has credibility, intelligence and a clean record. I don’t think that leader
has emerged yet. But, like with all revolutions, a leader will rise. I don’t
think we know who that person is and I don’t think any of the current
players are that person. In terms of the economy, I wish I had some ans-
wers but when you are in a $74 billion hole, I’m not even sure if there
is an answer.


Where do you go from here in your film making? Do you have 
any new projects in the works? 

I have a TV show called Té Para Tres and we focus on rising musicians
from all of Latin America. We just got nominated for an EMMY and
the third season will start airing on October 24, 2015. I’m really exci-
ted about this show. I started the show about the same time I started The
Last Colony. I’ve been working on both at the same time. It has been
amazing to see it grow into a national show sponsored by a huge brand
like Lexus.

In terms of film making, I am seriously considering doing a sequel to
The Last Colony. But like my friend and mentor Noel Quiñones told
me repeatedly, “Financing is the foundation of everything.”

We Follow Up With The Last Colony's Director Juan Agustín Márquez

Back in March, we had the chance to chat with award-winning filmmaker
Juan Agustín Márquez regarding his documentary The Last Colony. The
film, which deals with Puerto Rico's long-running sovereignty limbo, got
an enthusiastic reception both in the island and outside of it. The documen-
tary is slated for a DVD release on November 24, after having been availa-
ble for home viewing on Vimeo. We recently caught up with Mr. Márquez
and asked him about the success of the film, the political situation in Puerto
Rico, and his present and future projects:

How has the documentary been 
received? Has the reception by the 
public met your expectations?

We could not be happier with
the reception the film has gotten.
The film opened theatrically in
Puerto Rico on April 30, against
none other than The Avengers,
and it did really well. It stayed in
three theaters for six consecutive
weeks. Also, we’ve been fortunate
to have had the film showcased and
screened in many other venues, such
as the Library of Congress, the Fes-
tival Latinoamericano in Helsinki,
the US Congress (where it was
shown to a full house), the Orlando
Film Festival, among many others.


Have you received any major criticisms regarding the film?

Can’t say that we have. Nothing negative. We made sure that we got all the
facts right. Most of the criticism has gone directly to the people that we in-
terviewed, but not to us. All the press was very positive and we get a lot of
comments on our social media sites. Sometimes people have complained that
we did not talk about the debt enough. Those people have to understand that
we finished the film in 2013 and that we wanted to focus on the election of
2012. There is only so much you can fit into a 90 minute film.


Do you feel that The Last Colony has helped jumpstart the conversa-
tion regarding Puerto Rico's status?

Yes. I think there are a combination of forces at play, including the conver-
sation about the $74 billion in debt, and it all came together with the timing
of the film. I think the film has been very helpful in exposing the debate of
Puerto Rico’s status and has helped put in a historical context the conversa-
tion about Puerto Rico’s unpayable debt. We finished the filming in late
2013 and many things have happened since then regarding Puerto Rico’s
situation. I think the most important element we captured and portrayed in
the film is our sad political divisions.

Do you expect the issue of 
Puerto Rico's status to move 
forward any time soon?

Most people are not as optimistic
as I am. I think, in my lifetime,
we will see the end of colonial
rule over Puerto Rico. I am not
100% sure that statehood will
happen or that full independen-
ce will happen, but I am sure
that decolonization will happen.
There is a saying in Puerto Rico
that goes “no hay mal que dure 
100 años ni cuerpo que lo agu-
ante” which roughly translates
to “this can’t go on for 100 years”.
I think we are about to witness
a tipping point in Puerto Rico’s
colonial history.


What do you think about the general political and economic 
situation on the island right now?

I think Puerto Rico needs a real leader and I don’t think any of the
current candidates have the ability to unite the island. I think we need
someone who can inspire Puerto Ricans to come together. We need a
great communicator. We need someone that we can all trust. We need
a non-politician to rise up.  Someone we can all follow. Someone who
has credibility, intelligence and a clean record. I don’t think that leader
has emerged yet. But, like with all revolutions, a leader will rise. I don’t
think we know who that person is and I don’t think any of the current
players are that person. In terms of the economy, I wish I had some ans-
wers but when you are in a $74 billion hole, I’m not even sure if there
is an answer.


Where do you go from here in your film making? Do you have 
any new projects in the works? 

I have a TV show called Té Para Tres and we focus on rising musicians
from all of Latin America. We just got nominated for an EMMY and
the third season will start airing on October 24, 2015. I’m really exci-
ted about this show. I started the show about the same time I started The
Last Colony. I’ve been working on both at the same time. It has been
amazing to see it grow into a national show sponsored by a huge brand
like Lexus.

In terms of film making, I am seriously considering doing a sequel to
The Last Colony. But like my friend and mentor Noel Quiñones told
me repeatedly, “Financing is the foundation of everything.”

Puerto Rico, The Colony, Part 2: Puerto Ricans Resist

Feature

Worker's World

Berta Joubert-Ceci

Puerto Rico has been selling itself off since the 1990s, when the telephone
company was privatized under Gov. Pedro Rosello. Since then, all Puerto
Rico’s governments have been privatizing all public property, including the
airports, health services, roads, the valuable pineapple industry, etc. The slo-
gan of the progressive independence movement since then has been, “Puerto
Rico is not for sale.”

The “reconfiguration” of schools is actually another attempt to privatize edu-
cation. The few agencies that remain under public control do so thanks to the
ceaseless struggle of their workers. The class-conscious union UTIER, for
example, has defended the nationalized Electric Power Authority tooth and
nail.

Apart from the sell-off, the government wanted to pay the debt by applying
tax measures that the working class would have to pay. While transnational
giants and megastores like Walmart take in billions in profits while paying
minimal taxes, if any, the government loaded a tax on sales and services of
11.5 percent — the IVU — with the possibility of imposing a Value Added
Tax later. In fact, the 16 percent VAT that García Padilla wanted to impose
was rejected by the legislature in mid-May due to the population’s massive
rejection of this tax...[CONTINUE READING]

Puerto Rico, The Colony, Part 1: The ‘Miracle’ of Indebtedness

Feature

Worker's World


In the late 1940s, the United States baptized Puerto Rico the “Showcase of
the Caribbean.” It was to be a role model for countries in the Caribbean and
Latin America. This would supposedly be the outcome of the miracle of in-
dustrialization that the giant capitalist benefactor from the North carried out
in a poor, colonized, underdeveloped small island.

It was a false miracle.

Colonial economy

After destroying Puerto Rico’s agriculture, Washington encouraged foreign
investment — that is, U.S. investment — which initiated a model that first
set up light industries such as textiles, then imposed pharmaceutical and pe-
trochemical companies, and later biotechnology and electronic firms.

Beside causing enormous environmental destruction, this process contrib-
uted nothing at all to the real development of the island. It did generate in-
creased revenue for one sector of the working class — those in industries
based on foreign capital that are export-oriented. They don’t produce what
is needed on the island nor do the products of their labor benefit the econo-
my of Puerto Rico — only Wall Street....[CONTINUE READING]

Pedro Albizu Campos: At Least He Had Guts

By Bill Alvarez

A young Albizu Campos.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

(Note: this column was originally written in 2002)

I've found that, among Puerto Ricans, it is almost impossible to find an objective opinion of nationalist leader Pedro Albizu Campos. Those who hate him, hate him with a passion usually reserved for mass murderers or pedophiles. Those who love him often deify him, to the point of considering him some sort of demi-god (I've even seen a painting of Albizu crucified, looking very much like Jesus Christ; I'm not a Christian, and even I was appalled at the implication). While doing research for this column, I found it amazingly difficult to find clear, unbiased information about one of the best known Puerto Rican political leaders in history. In this column, I will actually attempt to look at Campos in something resembling a neutral, detached manner. I say attempt, because this was a man about which it seems to be very hard to be objective, so please forgive me if any bias seeps through my writing.

Pedro Albizu Campos was born in 1891 (although that date has been debated) in Ponce, Puerto Rico-- black and in poverty. He was given a scholarship to study engineering at the University of Vermont, and later went on to Harvard. He joined the U.S. military in 1917, apparently for reasons known only to him. In seven years, Campos became a chemist, a lawyer, an expert in history and politics and came to master seven languages. There was little doubt among those who knew him that he was practically a genius. What's more, he was a true leader of men; the kind of man that the island doesn't seem to produce much of anymore.

At the beginning of the 1930's, Albizu took over the leadership of the fledgling Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. His style was decidedly anti-American, and he made no reservations about the fact that he supported the use of violence in order to end the American administration in Puerto Rico. From the 1930's to the 1950's, Campos was accused by the government of orchestrating or supporting various violent actions against the U.S. government, among them the murder of insular Police Chief Riggs, the Nationalist Uprisings of 1950 and the assassination attempt against President Truman in that same year. The Federal Government kept him in jail, both in Puerto Rico and in the continent, during much of that period. He has, so far, been the only independentista leader to cause the United States some genuine trouble. During this time, his following was small (but committed) and the Nationalist Party did pathetically in electoral contests, when it chose to participate.

During Campo's last stint in prison, which ended shortly before he died in 1965, it is believed that the Federal Government regularly exposed him to radiation in his prison cell, which ultimately led to his death by cancer. This claim has credibility; the evidence and the photos of Albizu's horribly burnt and seemingly irradiated body are there for everyone to see, and stand as an example of a terrible crime which marked a shameful period in both Puerto Rican and American history. Surely the "crime" of sedition could have been punished in a more humane manner.

The legend of Pedro Albizu Campos continues to grow with the passage of time. He has even achieved a kind of legitimacy nobody could have dreamed of during his day; there are now streets and schools named after him, and not too long ago, the New York Puerto Rican Day Parade was dedicated to him. Every sector of the Puerto Rican independence movement wants to claim "El Maestro" (The Teacher, as they call him) as their own, be they left-wing or right-wing. But what really were Albizu's politics, aside from his nationalism? The left wing has laughably claimed he was sympathetic to socialism, and cite as an exaple his support of the 1934 sugarcane worker's strike, depsite the fact that his support smelled more of populism than socialism. Albizu was also a devoted Catholic and socially he seemed to be somewhat conservative, which may be why right-wing independence groups (like the Falange Boricua) also attempt to claim him as one of their own. This is all complicated by a lack of good documentation, or even reliable anecdotal evidence, that clearly outlines Albizu's political positions.

Some have said that Albizu was an out-and-out fascist; not an altogether unreasonable claim given the world political situation in the 1930s, when Albizu was the most active. The Nationalist Party's paramilitary wing, The Cadets of the Republic, marched through streets wearing black shirts and white pants, much like Mussolini's fascisti. He seemes to have viewed liberal American values as suspect at best and tools of oppression, at worst. However, I wouldn't qualify Pedro Albizu Campos as a fascist; his Catholicism perhaps would have put him ideologically closer to pseudo-fascists like Francisco Franco or Portugal's Antonio Salazar. I doubt he was very fond of Hitler. He was probably not a big fan of Stalin's, either.

When writing about a man as controversial as Albizu, it's important to remember that his actions and his ideological positions can't be looked at in black and white; there are things about "El Maestro" that both damn him and redeem him and his characteristics should all be looked at separately, taking into account the circumstances of his life and the times he lived in. Personally, I don't agree with his politics or his methods--although, I can't blame him for having been so radical; the U.S. Government of that time treated Puerto Rico with a frightening degree of scorn and brutality. I also think that an independent Puerto Rico with Albizu as its leader would probably not have been a very pleasant place to live in, not just for me, but for many others who value things like true liberty and progress, and whose thinking goes beyond crude collectivist notions of "La Patria".

However, there are things about the man that I genuinely admire; his passion for ideas and his willingness to put his life on the line for them. You don't see much of that anymore in Puerto Rico. He was a ridiculously intelligent and well-educated man; he could've had any career he wanted. He could have been a respected statesman or a multi-millionaire, or both. But he chose to follow his ideals. That's not to say he was completely selfless. It's reasonable to think that a lot of what drove him was a desire for some kind of power. Maybe he was just crazy; an average man he definitely wasn't. But, you still have to respect the fact that he was willing to risk, and eventually lose, his life fighting the enormous apparatus that was the United States government, and its servant insular government here in the island, all in a struggle which--and I'm sure many times he was tempted to think so--was hopeless.

Unlike many of his compatriots then and now, he had guts. And that's got to count for something.

In the fight for Puerto Rican statehood, is San Juan the new Selma?

Feature

Quartz

Leave it to a British comic to school us all on the least talked-about
race problem in America—well, except the millions of Americans
living in Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, the Northern  Mariana
Islands, and American Samoa.

John Oliver’s recent viral video about the Insular Cases, and their
role in this country’s ugly racial past entertained and shocked a lot
of Americans, just hours after President Obama told a crowd
gathered in Selma that “our work is never done.”

Oliver’s wit, framed around Obama’s words, created a perfect storm
of discovery. Though, you would think, in 2015, this wouldn't seem
so surprising—yes, the American government was blatantly racist
toward peoples conquered as spoils of...[CONTINUE READING]