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.