Carlos Torres Morales, a photo journalist for the newspaper El Imparcial was covering the march and snapped this now famous picture of when the shooting started.

The Ponce massacre is a violent chapter in the history of Puerto Rico. On March 21, 1937 (Palm Sunday) a march was organized in the southern city of Ponce, Puerto Rico by the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. The march was organized to protest the incarceration of nationalist leader Pedro Albizu Campos and to demand Puerto Rico's independence from the United States. This is a famous historical picture taken of the Ponce Massacre - Public Domain This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... This is a famous historical picture taken of the Ponce Massacre - Public Domain This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... March 21 is the 80th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (81st in leap years). ... 1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... Palm Sunday is a moveable feast in the church calendar observed by Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant Christians. ... Ponce, the second largest city in Puerto Rico outside of the San Juan metropolitan area is named after the Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León. ... The Puerto Rican Nationalist Party was first organized on September 17, 1922. ... Pedro Albizu Campos Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos (September 12, 1891 – April 21, 1965) born in Tenerías Village in Ponce, Puerto Rico was the son of Alejandro Albizu and Juana Campos. ...

Chronology of events

Days before, the march organizers applied for and received permits for a peaceful protest with the municipality of Ponce, under Jose Tormos Diego. Upon learning of the protests, however, the colonial governor of Puerto Rico at the time, General Blanton Winship demanded the immediate withdrawal of the permits. They were withdrawn a short time before the protest was scheduled to begin. Seal of the Governor of Puerto Rico The Governor of Puerto Rico is the Head of Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. ... Major General Blanton C. Winship (1869—1947) was a military lawyer and veteran of both the Spanish-American war and World War I. During his long career, he served both as Judge Advocate General of the United States Army and as the Governor of Puerto Rico. ...

Governor Winship went out of San Juan. Colonel Orbeta went to Ponce and concentrated there a police forces from across the island, among which he included all the machine gunners. For many days, the Government had planned to restrict the activities of Nationalist partisans and their leader, Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos. Pedro Albizu Campos Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos (September 12, 1891 – April 21, 1965) born in Tenerías Village in Ponce, Puerto Rico was the son of Alejandro Albizu and Juana Campos. ...

Chief of Police Guillermo Soldevilla, with 14 policemen, placed himself in front of the marchers; Chief Perez Segarra and Sgt. Rafael Molina, commanding 9 men, armed with Thompson machine guns and tear gas bombs, stood in the back; Chief of Police Antonio Bernardi, heading 11 policemen, armed with machine guns, stood in the east; and another police group of 12 men, armed with rifles, placed itself in the west.

The demonstrators, at the order of their leader, and while La Borinqueña, the national song, was being played, began to march. Immediately they were fired upon for more than 15 minutes by the police from the four flanks. The victims fell down without an opportunity to defend themselves (the marchers and bystanders were all unarmed). Even after the street was covered with dead bodies policemen continued firing. More than 200 were wounded; nineteen were killed. Men, women, and children, Nationalists, demonstrators, and people passing by, as well as the people who ran away, were shot. They were chased by the police and shot or clubbed at the entrance of the houses. Others were taken from their hiding places and killed. Leopold Tormes, a member of the legislature, told reporters how a policeman murdered a Nationalist in cold blood after the shooting, with his bare hands.

A 7-year-old girl, Georgina Maldonado, while running to a nearby church, was shot through the back. She later died in the street floor. A woman, Maria Hernandez, was also killed. Carmen Fernandez, aged 33, was severely wounded. After she fell down a policeman struck her with his rifle, saying, "Take this; be a Nationalist." Marie Hernandez, a member of the Republican Party, was clubbed on her head by a policeman while running away. Dr. Jose N. Gandara, one of the physicians who assisted the wounded, testified that wounded people running away were shot, and that many were again wounded through the back with clubs and bare fist by the police.

Don Luis Sanchez Frasquieri, former president of the Rotary Club in Ponce, said that he had witnessed the most horrible slaughter made by police on defenseless youth. No arms were found in the hands of the civilians wounded, nor on the dead ones.One of the dying protesters scribbled in a wall with his own blood "Viva la República. Abajo los asesinos." About 150 of the demonstrators were arrested immediately afterward, many of them women. All the Nationalist leaders were also arrested. They were a released on bail.

The men, women and children who were killed in the Ponce Massacre:

 - Cotal Nieves, Juan Delgado - Hernandez del Rosario, Maria - Jimenez Morales, Luis - Loyola Perez, Ceferino - Maldonado, Georgina (7-year-old) - Marquez Telechea, Bolivar - Ortiz Toro, Ramon - Perea, Ulpiano - Pietrantoni, Juan Antonio - Reyes Rivera, Juan - Rivera Lopez, Conrado - Rodriguez Figueras, Ivan G. - Rodriguez Mendez, Jenaro - Rodriguez Rivera, Pedro Juan - Rosario, Obdulio - Sanchez Perez, Eusebio (insular police) - Santos Ortiz, Juan - Torres Gregory, Juan - Velez Torres, Teodoro 

Subsequent investigations of the event reached conflicting opinions on whether the police or the marchers fired the first shots. A government investigation into the incident drew few conclusions. A second, non-gubernmenatal investigatory panel (May 5, 1932) led by Arthur Garfield Hays (organizd by ACLU) and comprised of Fulgencio Pinero, Emilio Belaval, Jose Davila Rice, Antonio Ayuyo Valdivieso, Manuel Diaz Garcia, and Franscisco M. Zeno, could not conclude who incited the events but harshly criticized the repressive tactics and massive civil rights violations by the administration of Governor Blanton Winship, but also disowned the violent incitements of the Nationalist party (see Bolivar Pagan, Historia de Partidos Politicos 1898-1956). Arthur Garfield Hays (1881-1954) was a successful corporate lawyer and counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union who was involved in many of the notable civil liberty cases of his day including the Scopes Trial (1925) in Tennessee and the Sacco-Vanzetti Case. ... Major General Blanton C. Winship (1869—1947) was a military lawyer and veteran of both the Spanish-American war and World War I. During his long career, he served both as Judge Advocate General of the United States Army and as the Governor of Puerto Rico. ...

Ponce Massacre Museum

The Puerto Rican Culture Institute, a state agency, runs "La Casa de la Massacre de Ponce", a museum located in the same intersection (between Marina St. and Aurora St.) where the events took place. It contains photographs and various artifacts from the Ponce Massacre. A section of the museum is dedicated to Pedro Albizu Campos. Pedro Albizu Campos Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos (September 12, 1891 – April 21, 1965) born in Tenerías Village in Ponce, Puerto Rico was the son of Alejandro Albizu and Juana Campos. ...

See also

• List of famous Puerto Ricans
• Grito de Lares
• The Jayuya Uprising

list of famous Puerto Ricans in alphabetical order by last names, where applicable. ... El Grito de Lares (or The Cry of Lares in English) —also referred as the Lares uprising, the Lares revolt, or the Lares rebellion— refers to the revolt against Spanish rule in Puerto Rico which occurred on September 23, 1868, in the town of Lares, Puerto Rico. ... The Jayuya Uprising, also known as the Jayuya Revolt or El Grito de Jayuya, refers to the revolt against the Government of the United States in Puerto Rico which occured on October 30, 1950 in the town of Jayuya, Puerto Rico. ...

External links

• Information on the Ponce Massacre Museum