The Ponce Massacre

El Partido Nacionalista de Puerto Rico, Junta de Nueva
York

The New York City Junta of the Puerto Rican
Nationalist Party

les invita a
Invites you to

una conmemoración de:
A commemotation of:

La Masacre de Ponce
The Ponce Massacre

el día 21 de Marzo del 2002
on March 21st of 2002

en Galería MIXTA
1706 de Lexington Ave. (esquina con la calle 107)

7:30 pm

"Misa Popular" oficiada por el Padre Luis Barrios
"dando espacio a la espiritualidad política
Nacionalista"

Monólogo por Alma Villegas, "Testimonio de Doña
Dominga"

"La Patria es Valor y Sacrificio"
Don Pedro Albizu Campos
___________________________________
¡Viva la República!
¡Abajo los asesinos!

Long Live the Republic!
Down with the assassins!

This is what Bolívar Márquez, a young Puerto Rican
Nationalist wrote with his own blood on the pavement
as he laid dying on Palm Sunday, March 21st of 1937, a
day which will be remembered in our history as the
date of the cruelest act committed by the US invaders
in Puerto Rico. Bolívar Márquez passed onto eternity
along with over 20 other Puerto Rican patriots who
were assassinated in the southern town of Ponce during
a peaceful demonstration organized by the Nationalist
Party in the city of Ponce where the Cadets of the
Republic (Cadetes de la República) and the Daughters
of Liberty (Hijas de la Libertad) gathered to march.

Once more the local police force served as the murder
weapon of the colonial oppressor. The police
indiscriminately opened fire on a group of
Nationalists who were about to begin the peaceful
march demanding the release of Puerto Rican political
prisoners, including Albizu Campos. This tragic act is
known as La Masacre de Ponce (the Ponce Massacre).
Alongside the fallen martyrs, 150 men, women, and
children were injured by machinegun fire.

"La independencia requiere, como todo supremo bien, el
sacrificio de todo lo más sabio, noble y puro de la
nacionalidad."

"Independence requires, as does every supreme good,
the sacrifice of all that is most wise, noble and pure
of nationality."

Don Pedro Albizu Campos

During that ten minute shooting at the Ponce Massacre,
the flag-bearer of the Cadets of the Republic was
killed. Carmen Fernández then tried to take the flag
herself when she saw the flag-bearer fall, she was
shot and gravely injured. At that point, Dominga Cruz
Bacerril, a lady from Mayagüez who had already taken
cover, saw the flag fall on the pavement. She ran up
to the flag, picked it up, waved it and then ran with
it towards a close by hospital without being harmed.
When asked why she exposed herself to such danger, she
calmly answered: "El Maestro has told us that the flag
must always be raised up high." "The Teacher" she
referred to was Don Pedro Albizu Campos.

As it is evident in the photographs taken by a
journalist, the members of the Nationalist Party and
the Cadets of the Republic ("black shirts") were
unarmed and trapped by the police who shot them at
close range. This crime was committed under direct
orders of General Winship, the colonial governor of
the island at the time. After this act of terrorism by
the colonial government, the imprisoned Nationalist
leaders were transferred to Atlanta.

A year later Winship was executed by a team of
Nationalists when  he returned to Ponce to celebrate
another anniversary of the US invasion.  Angel Esteban
Antongiorgi one of the members of the commando, fired
his weapon until he ran out of bullets before being
killed by a police officer.




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