Although
Puerto Ricans were granted US citizenship in 1917, the United States
continued to exploit, oppress and eventually launch a "war" on the
people of Puerto Rico in order to gain land and resources. The book War Against All Puerto Ricans
is a vivid, detailed account of the brutal treatment of a people
"liberated" from Spain only to be subjugated by the US. Click here to
order the book now with a contribution to Truthout!
The following excerpt is from chapter two, "Four Hundred Years of Solitude," in the War Against All Puerto Ricans:
The King of the Towels [Pedro Albizu Campos, president of the Puerto
Rican Nationalist Party] was in jail for a serious reason. He was trying
to reverse four hundred years of history.
In the sun-splashed paradise of Puerto Rico, you can lie on a beach
in the morning, hike through a rain forest during the day, and spend the
evening exploring the ancient walls of a colonial city. The white
coastal sands glitter like sugar. The water is so pristine that, from an
airplane, you'll see several shades of turquoise between the shore and
the deep blue of the ocean. Through the middle of the island, the
Cordillera Mountains form a series of misty ridges draped in thick
sierra palm and pine forest, whose foothills taper gracefully into the
Caribbean. Over a thousand silver streams and rivulets gush down the
mountains and rush headlong into the sea.
