Juan Mari Brás (12/2/1925 - 9/10/2010)

It was in July of 1994 when Juan Mari Brás committed an act that inspired many Puerto Rican independistas. It was then that Mari Brás renounced his U.S. citizenship while claiming the right to live in the country of his birth, Puerto Rico.

Born on December 2, 1925 in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, Juan Mari Brás became involved in politics at an early age. His father, active in the independence movement, took him along to political events frequently.  It was during his time at the University of Puerto Rico that Mari Brás marched, during a student strike, with a Puerto Rican flag in protest against the Universities refusal to allow Pedro Albizu Campos to visit. Albizu Campos had been invited as a guest speaker by the university's pro-independence student body.  Mari Brás was expelled for his actions.

Mari Brás was an exemplary model of the Puerto Rican independista. In 1946, he became one of the founding members of the Puerto Rican Independence Party along with Gilberto Concepción de Gracia.  He served as the president of the party's "Puerto Rican Independence Youth". In 1959, he founded the "Pro-Independence Movement" and he also founded the newspaper Claridad, along César Andreu Iglesias. In 1973, he spoke before the United Nations becoming the first Puerto Rican to raise the issue of Puerto Rico's colonial dilemma.

Juan Mari Brás never so much as gave an inch when it it came to unending devotion to his patria...Puerto Rico. May he rest in peace.

Juan Mari Brás (12/2/1925 - 9/10/2010)

"Only through a great unified movement looking beyond political and ideological differences, can the prevalent fears of hunger and persecution be overcome for the eventual liberation of Puerto Rico, breaking through domination by the greatest imperialist power of our age." -Mari Brás




Biografía de Juan Mari Brás

Producer/Director... Michael Torres

Last year I posted a short bio, with a link, of producer and director Michael Torres. I have recently had the pleasure of communicating with him and he has provided me with his full bio. Michael is currently working on his first documentary film, Albizu.

Born in and inspired by The Bronx. Michael began his filmmaking journey in 1998 at a local public access station. Inspired by Robert Rodriguez’ Rebel Without a Crew, he saved his pennies for 2 years so he could buy a Mac and a DV camera to learn filmmaking first hand and tell his stories. Mike worked as a production assistant on dozens of student films, independent features, and television shows and was an intern at socially conscious networks Paper Tiger TV and Deep Dish TV. In 2000 Michael was accepted into Third World Newsreels film and television production workshop. It was there he shot, directed and edited his first 2 shorts Apollo Kids (2000) a social commentary on systematic racism and it effects on our youth and Super Jesus (2001) a dark comedy revolving around gangs and a homeless superhero.

In 2002 Michael headed west to Los Angeles to pursue his filmmaking aspirations while working full time as an editor. Presently he works as a documentary editor at The Halo Group where he is editing Cradle of Rock a documentary chronicling the Asbury Park music scene and the race riots that destroyed a thriving community.

Mike was a participant in Film Independents Project;Involve, a mentorship program that brings young filmmakers of color together with industry professionals. Michael is fortunate enough to have an accomplished documentary filmmaker and former IDA president Lisa Leeman as his mentor. Lisa is also serving as a consultant on the documentary film Albizu.

Currently Michael is in production on his first documentary film, Albizu, which received development grants from Latino Public Broadcasting and ITVS. Albizu is a historical biography on Puerto Rican revolutionary Pedro Albizu Campos, and the strange and violent relationship between the United States and Puerto Rico between 1898 and 1965.and a brief history of the project.

Michael Torres

Oscar López-Rivera

Oscar López-Rivera was born in San Sebastian, Puerto Rico on January 6, 1943. His family moved to Chicago when he was twelve years old. In later years he beacame a respected community activist and one of the founding members of the Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos High School (formerly Rafael Cancel Miranda High School) and the Juan Antonio Corretjer Puerto Rican Cultural Center.

Oscar was very active in many community struggles in Chicago and a Puerto Rican independence leader. Arrested in 1981, he was charged with seditious conspiracy and various other charges. 'Described' as a leader of the Armed Forces of National Liberation (Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional-FALN). Oscar was eventually convicted on the charge of seditious conspiracy, armed robbery and some lesser offenses.

Seditious conspiracy can be defined as overt conduct towards an established order. In this case the established order being the U.S. The conduct can be either written, via speech or organizational. The act in this case was of attempting to overthrow the U.S. government from Puerto Rico, which the U.S. invaded in 1898.

For the charge of seditious conspiracy, armed robbery and some lesser offenses, Oscar was given a sentence of 55 years. A sentence that is out of proportion when compared to other crimes committed during the same time period. Some of the conditions under which he has spent his prison term were found to be in violation of the U.N. Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners. (ref.)

The National Boricua Human Rights Network's (NBHRN) new campaign to ask for parole for Oscar Lopez Rivera is well under way, ProLibertad has started an online petition to get President Barack Obama to give Oscar parole or to commute his sentence.

In the words of Congressman Vito Marcantonio, U.S. Congressman, in a speech given by him on August 5, 1939 before Congress titled 'Five Years of Tyranny.' (Recorded in the Congressional Record, August 14, 1939)  "There is no place in America for political prisoners...When we ask ourselves, 'Can it happen here?' the Puerto Rican people can answer, 'It has happened in Puerto Rico.' as he spoke about the treatment of Puerto Rican Nationalist and U.S. prisoner Pedro Albizu Campos.

Click on the image above to sign the petition