Nelson A. Denis is a the kind of
renaissance man that significantly shapes the perceptions of his
generation. In the tradition of New York reform politician Vito Marcantonio, he is an attorney, former editorial director of El Diario, former New York State
Assemblyman (D. 1997-2001), and the author, most recently, of War Against All Puerto Ricans!—a hybrid
text, equal parts history, biography, social critique, and political statement.
Denis, using declassified F.B.I. files (carpetas)
and other primary source materials, mines what is hidden at the heart of the
“commonwealth” relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States. Over a
century of clandestine operations implemented by the U.S. to maintain colonial
control over the island nation are uncovered in great depth and with a
sensitivity only an experienced writer could wield. I came away from the text
feeling that I understood a new definition of Orwellian horror and its
actualization. Puerto Ricans do not exist in the continental imagination. As
the colonized exists only in the imagination of its colonizer as a beast of
burden, a subaltern. That being said, I came away from this interview hopeful
for the possibility of a future. Hopeful for the future of a people struggling
to be free from the shadow of a world superpower in decline.
This interview was conducted via
email over the course of a few weeks. I reached out to Nelson Denis, who, in
campaigning for the book, made himself very available to the public. He kindly
agreed to converse with the Broome Street Review regarding the writing of his
book, the hidden history of Puerto Rico, and the recent events of the debt
crisis.
TBSR
How
did you come to write “War Against All Puerto Ricans!”? What inspired this
radical text and what was your process like while writing and researching it?
Finally, how did you manage to find publication for such a controversial title?
NELSON DENIS
I didn't
originally set out to write a book. For the past 40 years, I have been
interviewing family members in Puerto Rico, and people whom they introduced me
to — especially early members of the Nationalist party, who had been active in
the 1930s through 1950s.
I heard
astounding stories and kept notes on them. I followed up with several of these
stories, and cross-interviewed many people to verify and particularize the
facts.
Just before
graduating from Harvard undergrad, I published a well-researched article on the
constitution of Puerto Rico, and the referendum process which preceded it, by
way of "legitimizing" the E.L.A. before the U.N. Decolonization
Committee. The article became the cover story of the Winter 1977 Harvard
Political Review, and it is included in the appendix of my book.
By the way, I
find it fascinating that the principal draftsman, architect and lobbyist for
the "constitution," Chief Judge of the Puerto Rico Supreme Court José
Trias Monge, later REPUDIATED the entire "E.L.A." (Estado Libre Asociado – Free Associated
State or Commonwealth) process as a
cheap colonial veneer in his book Puerto Rico: Trials of the Oldest Colony
in the World (Yale University Press).
I still wasn't
writing a book.
Then in 2000,
Congressman José Serrano got the "carpetas" de-classified. Many
thousands of secret F.B.I. files suddenly became available. I read a few dozen
of these carpetas and became enraged with what I saw — how lives, careers, and
families had been destroyed, all over the island, for six decades.
That is when I
decided to write this book. To get the record straight — on how the U.S.
government, the F.B.I., and economic hit men systematically destroyed the
fabric of Puerto Rican society, to ensure a continuity of revenue. The
legacy of all this, is what we have on the island today — a ruined economy, a
corrupt political class, a cancerous relationship with the U.S.
TBSR
WAAPR is now an Amazon bestseller.
It would seem people have been waiting for a comprehensive document, a timely
Jeremiad, chronicling the excessive injustices perpetrated by the U.S. in Latin
America. Specifically within Puerto Rico. In your Harvard Review article “The
Curious Constitution of Puerto Rico”, you call it “friendly paternalism”. WAAPR
clearly illustrates the various ways in which the U.S. has used P.R. not only
as a colonial vessel and mercantile battery, but as a test site—a repository
for military weapons testing, political farce and extortion, gerrymandering,
surveillance (carpetas), police brutality, torture. The list of abuses
goes on and on. What you’ve managed to uncover is all at once eye-opening,
grotesque, unsurprising, and exciting. As well, it’s affirming that you tell
the stories the remain untold. For those of us in the diaspora there’s so
little available on the revolutionary life of Don Pedro Albizu Campos. And I
was glad to read about Juan Emilio Viguié—a figure not often brought up. I was
surprised to learn that he’d spent time working in Presidio, TX with a certain
Mexican revolutionary…
All
my lauds aside: The passing of the Jones-Shafroth act in 1917 makes Puerto
Ricans U.S. citizens. It becomes clear to critics that the act is flawed in
four obvious ways: “(1) the US Congress could ignore any Puerto Rican bill of
rights, (2) it could override any ‘laws' passed by the Puerto Rican
legislature, (3) the resident commissioner had no vote in the US Congress, and
(4) US ‘citizenship' was a vehicle for drafting Puerto Rican men into the US
military.” (p195) This sets the tone for what César Ayala and Rafael Bernabe
refer to as the “American Century”. On top of that we have a long history of
unfair cabotage policy (Jones Act) since the twenties which reminds me of 17th
century Mercantilism. While I do not agree that Puerto Rico is the
world’s last colony—I do know, for a fact, that Puerto Rico is
the world’s most notable (and notably ignored) colony because of its proximity
to the U.S. Now in the 21st century, where are we? Has anything changed?
And
perhaps a more relevant question: If we’ve been set up for the catastrophe of
our present by ELA status (among many other things), what recourse do we have
for recovery? Will Puerto Rico be vacated by mid-century?
DENIS
This is a very
involved question, but here are the basic components as I see them:
#1
Jones Act
Reform
Ending the
Jones Act in Puerto Rico could mean the shift of 50,000 jobs from Jacksonville
FL to Puerto Rico. It would also end artificial price support for U.S.
products, which has forced Puerto Ricans to pay 15-25% higher prices than on
the U.S. mainland, for every product they consume.
#2
International
Trading Rights
Puerto Rico
does not have the authority to create trade relations with any country on
earth. This must end a.s.a.p. The economic benefits are obvious and
enormous.
#3
Corporate
Re-Patriation of Profits
There should
be no corporate tax abatement scheme (particularly for U.S. and foreign
corporations) without a mandatory re-investment of a stipulated percentage of
profits into Puerto Rican industrial development and local infrastructure.
#4
End of Plenary
Jurisdiction
The U.S.
Congress has plenary jurisdiction (absolute veto power) over any law
passed by the Puerto Rico legislature. In other words, Puerto Rico’s
legislature is treated like a child, and all of their laws are subject to arbitrary
annulment. This also must end a.s.a.p.
#5
Tariffs,
Import/Export Fees and Regulations
Puerto Rico
needs to set her own import/export tariffs, and keep the money in her
treasury. Currently it all goes to the U.S.
Statehood is
not an option: the U.S. Congress, Wall Street, the Jacksonville unions, and the
Jones Act carrier companies will all fiercely oppose it.
That leaves
independence...but we need a phased independence, during which the above five
(and several more) measures are put into place...so that Puerto Rico can become
self-sufficient, de facto independent, and create its
international relationships in a deliberate, optimal manner, not out of
desperation. After
a 10 or 15 year period...complete and irreversible independence. It is
both doable and necessary.
TBSR
I’m glad you mentioned
the idea of a phased independence. In the book you discuss the Tydings Bill. It
struck me as strange, too strange, that the amended Tydings Independence Bill
(which did propose a phased independence for Puerto Rico in the
forties) was turned down—despite its general support from all of Puerto Rico.
It would seem strange that its only vocal opposition was from the first
Governor of the island, Luis Muñoz Marín. Come to find out he was blackmailed
by the F.B.I...
 |
| "Described by reliable informants as having a bad case of 'Puerto Rican inferiority complex,' which results in anti-American tendencies." |
What incentive does J.
Edgar Hoover have to blackmail Luis Muñoz Marín with character defamation while
the Tydings bill (which proposed a 4 then 20 year plan for gradual
independence) is on the table in the U.S.? Do you think this was manufactured
to create the illusion that Puerto Ricans (via their first elected Governor)
did not approve of or desire independence?
If so, it would seem
these illusions of democracy on the island are still being manufactured
today—with questionable referenda…Now here we are…On August 1st the island was allowed to
default on some 72 billion dollars in debt which accrued probably from the late
sixties onward (correct me if I’m wrong). This economic crash was inevitable.
What does default look like in a Puerto Rico which is well below the poverty
line and already pressed with absurd austerity measures?
DENIS
Luis Muñoz Marín opposed every member of his own party...ALL of the PPD (Partido Popular Democratico, Popular
Democratic Party) legislators supported the Tydings Bill except for LMM...but he was the
800-pound gorilla.
J. Edgar
Hoover blackmailed LMM because it behooved the U.S. to keep Puerto Rico as a
territory. They make more money that way. Also J. Edgar Hoover was not about to
expose P.R. to the "red menace" of Communism, which he was convinced
would occur in virtually every country that the US did not dominate. It
was a very self-serving neurosis.
The Estado Libre
Asociado was a farce engineered to demonstrate to the U.N. Decolonization
Committee that P.R. was no longer a colony. That was the only
purpose of the whole charade. The best research on this is a book written by
the Attorney General and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico,
José Trías Monge, who was the principal draftsman and lobbyist for ELA status
at the U.N. The book he finally wrote was Puerto Rico: Trials of the Oldest
Colony in the World (Yale University Press).
Default on the
$73 billion debt is necessary and ultimately constructive. UNTIL
significant reforms are structured into the debt negotiation — things like
Jones Act Reform, Chapter 9 powers, international trading rights — PR should
not pay this debt. Once they pay the debt, they lose all leverage.
Remember what
Don Pedro said: "The only way to deal with the United States, is to
become a very big problem for them."
•••
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