Juan Mari Brás

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Juan Mari Brás (born December 2, 1925 in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico) is an independence advocate who founded the Puerto Rican Socialist Party (PSP).

Juan Mari Brás

Mari Bras' father was an active member of the independence movement of Puerto Rico and often took his son to political meetings and rallies. In 1943, when Mari Brás was 15 years old, he founded a pro-independence movement in his high school, along with some of his friends, in Mayagüez. He was also the founder and director of the first pro-independence political radio program "Grito de la Patria".

In 1944, he enrolled in the University of Puerto Rico (Universidad de Puerto Rico) and in 1946 became a founding member of Gilberto Concepción de Gracia's Puerto Rican Independence Party. Mari Brás became the president of the party's "Puerto Rican Independence Youth". In 1948, the university's pro-independence student body invited nationalist leader Pedro Albizu Campos to the Río Piedras campus as a guest speaker. The president of the university, Jaime Benítez, did not permit Albizu access to the campus. As a consequence, the students protested and went on strike. Mari Brás was one of the student leaders who chanted anti-American slogans and who marched with a Puerto Rican flag in his hand. Both of these acts were considered as acts against the Government of the United States, which at that time had a complete control of the government of the island. Mari Brás and those who protested, were expelled from the university.

Mari Brás went to Florida, where he received his Bachelor's Degree, and also studied at Georgetown University. In 1954, he wanted to study at the law at George Washington University Law School but was expelled. He finally obtained his law degree from the American University.

In 1959, Mari Brás founded the "Pro-Independence Movement" and the political newspaper Claridad which had a "leftist" point of view and which he directed for three decades. In 1971, the "Pro-Independence Movement" was renamed and became the Puerto Rican Socialist Party (PSP). In 1973, he spoke before the United Nations about Puerto Rico being a "colony" of the United States and demanded the decolonization of the island. He was the first Puerto Rican to raise this issue.

On March 1976, Santiago Mari Pesquera, Mari Brás' son, was murdered while he was away on the road campaigning. His murder has never been solved.

On July 11, 1994, Mari Brás started a judicial controversy when he renounced his United States citizenship at the American Embassy in Caracas, Venezuela. He was taken to court on the allegation that if he had renounced his American citizenship, then he also had renounced his right to vote in the local Puerto Rican elections. The courts ruled in his favor twice. This action continues to be a popular subject of debate.

Juan Mari Brás, retired from active politics and no longer the president of the defunct "Puerto Rican Socialist Party", does however, make appearances at pro-independence activities and continues to teach law at the Eugenio María de Hostos School of Law which he cofounded in his native Mayagüez over a decade ago.

On October 25, 2006, he became the first person to receive a Puerto Rican citizen certificate from the Puerto Rico State Department, an action which has been since questioned by the United States Department of States. After attempting to renounce his American citizenship, renunciation which was revoked by the United States Department of State, and over 10 years of litigation claming he was a citizen of Puerto Rico, the State Department of Puerto Rico granted him the certification, becoming the first one to hold it. Former Puerto Rico Supreme Court Associate Justice and former Secretary of State Baltasar Corrada questioned the legality of the certification, citing a law passed in 1997 and authored by current Senate president Kenneth McClintock which establishes United States citizenship and nationality as a prerequisite for Puerto Rican citizenship. Mari Bras' efforts have generated vigorous public debate regarding the citizenship issue.