The Making of a Martyr

Standing in the middle of the crowd at 26 Federal Plaza with pleneros invoking a kind of independentista nirvana, I'm reflecting on Filiberto Ojeda-Rios. He had an eerie resemblance to some uncles on my mother's side of the family, and definitely that fierce resistance thing going. I interviewed him in 1990 at the Manhattan Correctional Center, an experience I remembered mostly because I got to see Larry Davis as they led him out of the interview room. Ojeda told me about being chained to his bed after heart surgery in prison, about his kids being in school in Cuba (something which led me to believe he had been there, not in Hormigueros, for the last 15 years), and that he had once been a musician. A couple of years later I ran into his family demonstrating in Viejo San Juan during the period of his captivity and trial, then the next thing I knew he was on the lam. They say that he cut his bracelet off and left it in the plaza de Lares with a message.
What magic is this culture, pa' (y ma')?
So there was this tremendous nationalism going on, would have made Albizu proud etc. And you had the grand old folks, the heart of the inde tribe at the end, Frank and Esperanza, calling for the unity that Filiberto did, and someone, (was it Panama?) called for the formation of an ejercito del pueblo, which maybe Papoleto was down with, or maybe not. It was clear he was not down with the U.S.A. One of these days I want to have something to say at one of these things, but I think most would agree I don't really have much to say. That visceral reality we call nationalism is never in question--even the estadistas are p.o.'d about the FBI's behavior. But there are too many unknown facts for me to feel comfortable with making a comment. What exactly was Ojeda doing in his capacity as Juan the Gardener? How long did the FBI know of his whereabouts? What exactly was the message they were trying to send? Why this big show? Did it have anything to do with Hugo Chavez's recent overtures to sell Puerto Rico oil? And of course, the big one?
Is the U.S. purposefully trying to instigate the people of Puerto Rico in the hopes that they become angry enough to secede from the union on their own? Thereby cutting federal expenses by a substantial sum, easing the trade deficit with China and the federal deficit (now that Katrina and Rita are sucking up big cash outlays)? Either way, it's disgusting. That's what I'd say. The whole thing since friggin' Teddy Roosevelt has been a pile of shit. That's why even the statehooders are miffed. They won't even cover us in the mainstream press, leaving it to Laura Rivera Melendez (who once wrote a profile on me for El Nuevo Dia) to file her AP reports from Hato Rey.
But the people have made their choice. Filiberto, rarely thought of by anybody outside the militant independentista and nationalist movements, has become our latest martyr. Even my mom is indignant. It's amazing the common sense of people who are outraged by a simple violation of sovereignty, a sad trampling of our dignity.