Blanca Canales Torresola (February 17, 1906 - July 25, 1996) was a Puerto Rican nationalist leader. Canales may possibly have been the first woman to have led a revolt against the United States when she led the The Jayuya Uprising.

Early years

Blanca Canales Torresola was born in Jayuya, Puerto Rico, into a politically active family. She was the younger sister of writer and politician Nemesio R. Canales Torresola. Their father was an active member of the "Unionist Party" of Puerto Rico which, notwithstanding its name, lobbied for the independence of the island. Their mother was a strong willed woman who encouraged her children to think for themselves. As a child Canales read many books and stories about other nations and their heroes. She would often go with her father to political meetings where she became impressed with the speeches and enjoyed the patriotic nature of the flag waving in the meetings. She finished her primary and secondary education in Jayuya.

In 1924, her father died and her mother moved to Ponce. She graduated from Ponce High School and then enrolled in the University of Puerto Rico. In May 1930 she earned her Bachelor's Degree in Liberal Arts. Before graduating, she attended a conference given by the President of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, Pedro Albizu Campos, and was impressed. Canales returned to the university that same year to take a course in social work.

Nationalist Party

Canales returned to Jayuya and worked at a local rural school. In 1931, she joined the Nationalist Party and was active organizing the women's branch of that party. A series of events between the United States appointed government and the nationalists took place in the 1930s. In 1936, Albizu Campos was arrested and on March 31, 1937 the infamous Ponce Massacre took place.

During the 1940s, Canales' active political participation was limited to making monetary collections because her job kept her constantly traveling from San Juan to Ponce. In 1947, Albizu Campos was released from jail.

Uprising

On June 11, 1948, the United States appointed Governor of Puerto Rico, Jesús T. Piñero, signed the infamous "Ley de la Mordaza" (Gag Law) or Law 53 as it was officially known, passed by the Puerto Rican legislature which made it illegal to display the Puerto Rican flag, sing a patriotic song, talk about independence or fight for the liberation of the island. It resembled the anti-communist Smith Law passed in the United States. In 1949, the Nationalist Party under Albizu Campos' leadership planned a revolution in Puerto Rico which was supposed to take place in 1952 when the United States Congress was to approve the concept of "Estado Libre Associado". The nationalist leaders of Jayuya included Canales, Elio Torresola (Griselio Torresola's brother) and the Irizarry brothers. Weapons for the planned revolution were stored at Canales' house.

On October 26, 1950, Albizu Campos held a political meeting in Fajardo. After the meeting Albizu Campos received word that he was going to be arrested and that his house in San Juan was surrounded by the police. He escaped from Fajardo and ordered the revolution to start. On October 27, the police in the town of Peñuelas, intercepted and fired upon a caravan of nationalists, killing four. On October 30, the nationalists were ordered to stage uprisings in the towns of Ponce, Mayagüez, Naranjito, Arecibo, Utuado (Utuado Uprising), Nationalist attack of San Juan and Jayuya. The first battle of the nationalist uprisings occurred during the early hours of the day of October 29, in the barrio Macaná in the town of Peñuelas. The police surrounded the house of the mother of Melitón Muñiz the president of the Peñuelas Nationalist Party, under the pretext that he was storing weapons for the Nationalist Revolt. Without warning, the police fired upon the nationlists and a firefight between both factions ensued, which resulted with the death of two nationalists and six police officers wounded. On October 30, 1950, Canales and her group entered the town of Jayuya using a bus and a car, the men attacked the police station after making a left turn in the car, Canales made a right turn to the end of the main street were the telephone station was located and cut the phone lines. She led the group to the town's plaza where she raised the Puerto Rican Flag (which was outlawed at the time) and declared Puerto Rico a Free Republic in a speech she gave from a balcony of a building around the town's plaza. Canales went to the town's hospital, after being notified by a fellow nacionalist of the town (whom she did not know but to whom she gave her revolver), that Carlos Irizarry was wounded. There she found Irizarry leaning against a light post after being wounded in the police station's armed confrontation, she took him to Utuado's (neighboring town) hospital because Jayuya's was closed. Jayuya was under the nationalists' control for three days until it was bombed by the planes and the artillery of the United States National Guard. The nationalists surrendered on November 1, 1950.

Canales was arrested and accused of killing a police officer and wounding three others. She was also accused of burning down the local post office; she was sentenced to life imprisonment plus sixty years of jail. In June 1951, she was sent to the Alderson Federal Prison Camp in Alderson, West Virginia, the same prison to which Lolita Lebrón would be sent in 1954.

Later years

In 1956, Canales was transferred to the Women's Jail in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico. In 1967, Canales was given a full pardon by Puerto Rican Governor Roberto Sanchez Vilella. She continued to be an active independence advocate until the day she died. Canales died in 1996 in Jayuya. The house in which Blanca and Nemesio Canales were born and raised was turned into a museum by the City of Jayuya.

See also

• Puerto Rican Nationalist Party Revolts of the 1950s
• Puerto Rican Nationalist Party
• Ponce Massacre
• Río Piedras massacre
• Jayuya Uprising
• Utuado Uprising
• Nationalist attack of San Juan
• Truman assassination attempt
• Puerto Rican Independence Party
• Grito de Lares
• List of famous Puerto Ricans

References

1. Blanca Canales
2. Remember the 1950 Uprising of October 30: Puerto Rico
3. Puerto Rican History
4. Puerto Rico history
5. El ataque Nacionalista a La Fortaleza; by Pedro Aponte Vázquez; Page 7; Publisher: Publicaciones RENÉ; ISBN 978-1-931702-01-0

External links

• Blanca Canales
• Further photos of the revolt