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Puerto Rican patriot Juan Mari Bras died Friday morning. Mari Bras was the founder of the Pro-Independence Movement (MPI) in 1959 and its central leader as it became the Puerto Rican Socialist Party (PSP) in the 1970's. Even after that party entered into a crisis and he withdrew from it he continued as a fighter for the rights of the Puerto Rican nation and for independence. Such is the admiration among Puerto Ricans for this towering figure of the Independence Movement of the last half of the 20th Century than even the current governor, the pitiyanqui annexationist Luis Fortuño, considered it wise to praise him as "a legendary leader who fought for his ideals." This is the Prensa Latina article on the reaction to his death on the island: <http://www.prensa-latina.cu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=219534&Itemid=1> There are many other articles about him that can be found via google news. Something that is worth noting in addition to what may be in the press is that for decades he was a steadfast friend and defender of the Cuban Revolution. It was in comments he made defending Cuba many decades ago that I first heard of Lola Rodriguez de Tío, author of Puerto Rico's national anthem and also of these lines about the relation between Cuba and Puerto Rico: Cuba y Puerto Rico son De un pájaro las dos alas, Reciben flores y balas Sobre el mismo corazón... ¡Qué mucho si en la ilusión Qué mil tintes arrebola, Sueña la musa de Lola Con ferviente fantasía, ¡De esta tierra y la mía, Hacer una patria sola! Perhaps more than any other Puerto Rican leader of our times, Juan Mari helped keep this dream alive. Joaquín ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: [email protected] Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
