The ACLU and Civil Liberties in Puerto Rico

 

Pablo Navarro-Rivera

 

The April 1948 University of Puerto Rico student strike was a definitive event in 20th-century Puerto Rico, as well as a momentous event in the evolution of a university founded by the United States 45 years earlier, five years after wresting the island from Spain in 1898. In addition to student arrests, “preventive” suspensions, the firing of professors, and other government actions, the university administration prohibited political activities at the university at this time. The administration also initiated a series of measures that culminated with the complete elimination of student involvement in university governance at the University of Puerto Rico and the dismantling of the Student Council.   

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students protesting

Photo: Archivo Central de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, Río Piedras.

 

Student Leaders Arrested during the 1948 Strike at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus. From left to right: Harry García-Domenech, Jorge Luis Landing, José Gil de la Madrid, Juan Mari-Brás, Juan Noriega-Maldonado and José M. Tejada. Photo: Archivo Central de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, Río Piedras.

Photo: Archivo Central de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, Río Piedras.

 

 

 

 

Chancellor Jaime Benítez

Photo: Archivo Central de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, Río Piedras.

 

 

Author bio:
Pablo Navarro-Rivera is Associate Professor at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  This essay is a revised and expanded version of “La huelga del 48 y la campaña del silencio,” a chapter in his book Universidad de Puerto Rico: De control político a crisis permanente 1903-1952, Río Piedras: Ediciones Huracán, 2000.  The translation to English was done by Andy Klatt and Pablo Navarro-Rivera. Professor Navarro can be reached at pnavarro@lesley.edu.

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