Santa María Magdalena de Pazzis Cemetery is a colonial-era cemetery located in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico.
It is the final resting place of many of Puerto Rico’s most prominent natives and residents.
(Notice one of them: Félix Benítez Rexach)
Construction began in 1863 under the auspices of Ignacio Mascaro.
The cemetery is located outside the walls of Fort San Felipe del Morro fortress, one of the island’s most famous landmarks. The average height of the wall is 40 feet and the width ranges from 15 to 20 feet.
It was named in honor of Saint Maria Magdalena de Pazzi.
For some ‘unknown reason’, this fact reminds me of what is happening in Palestine (David) as Israel (Goliath) continues their invasion and encroachment in Palestine ‘native land’.
In the United States, Cinco de Mayo is seen as THE day to celebrate Mexican food, culture, and traditions
As time has passed, the historical context of ‘Cinco de Mayo‘ started to be forgotten.
History of Cinco de Mayo in the US
In 1862, at the time the Battle of Puebla took place, the United States was engaged in its Civil War. The French presence in Mexico was a strategic move:
by gaining a toehold in Mexico, the French could then support the Confederate Army.
The defeat of the French at the Battle of Puebla was not definitive, but it helped to stave off the French while the U.S. Union forces made advances.
Thus Cinco de Mayo can be seen as a turning point in the US Civil War.
Cinco de Mayo was first celebrated in the United States in Southern California in 1863 as a show of solidarity with Mexico against French rule.
It seems that a lot of effort has been placed in the celebration of our planet, Mother Earth.
In the United States, the ‘Environmental Protection Agency‘ was created to assure that norms and regulations were put in place to do this country’s part in the worldwide effort to protect this planet.
At the time of this writing, it looks like all those efforts are in the process of dismantling by the current EPA top official in association with the Executive branch of the current government.
That cannot be allowed. Grassroot efforts must be undertaken once again to assure that Mother Earth is protected.
“We need the tonic of wildness – to wade sometimes in marshes where the bittern and the meadow-hen lurk, and hear the booming of the snipe; to smell the whispering sedge where only some wilder and more solitary fowl builds her nest, and the mink crawls with its belly close to the ground. At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be infinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature.”
Memorial Honoring Lynching Victims Being Built In Alabama
“Architecture that’s built to heal”
The Memorial to Peace and Justice, informally known as the National Lynching Memorial, is a national memorial planned to commemorate the victims of lynching in America, and is expected to open in Montgomery, Alabama in April 2018. The memorial is to be built in the downtown area of the state capital by the Equal Justice Initiative, a non-profit based in Montgomery. Also planned is a museum, From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration, to be built near the Montgomery site where slaves were auctioned at market.
The monument “will consist of hundreds of floating concrete columns that will represent each county in the United States and contain the names of more than 4,000 lynching victims”.
It is designed by MASS Design Group from Boston, and will be built on six acres purchased by EJI. According to the EJI, there were over 4000 documented lynchings of black victims between 1877 and 1950; the purpose of the monument is to name and thereby honor them.
Outside of the structure in the surrounding field is another set of columns identical to the ones hanging in the Memorial. These columns, however, are not meant to stay at the Memorial. The outside pillars are intended to be temporary because The Equal Justice Initiative is asking each of the counties which these columns represent to come and claim their monument. They hope that with the claiming of the pillars, there will be a way to see which counties have representatives willing to confront the horrors of their past, and to strive to move forward, and which do not.
~Wikipedia~
~Memorial Honoring Lynching Victims Being Built In Alabama~
Equal Justice Initiative Lynching Museum, Montgomery Alabama Opens in 2018
NowThis Politics
This memorial honors the thousands of African Americans who were lynched between 1877 to 1950
Wes Johnson was about 18 years old when he was murdered in a cotton field in southern Alabama. It was 1937, and according to newspaper reports at the time, a mob of men had dragged him from his jail cell before he could stand trial for the charge against him: assaulting a white woman. Today, only one photograph is known to exist of Johnson, a single picture to preserve his image for posterity – his lifeless body hanging from a tree.
Bryan Stevenson wants to honor the legacy of Johnson, and thousands like him, with a new memorial for victims of lynching in America. Stevenson is a lawyer and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, a non-profit organization that investigates the lynchings of African Americans. To commemorate the victims whose cases they’ve examined, the organization recently bought six acres of land in Montgomery, Alabama and constructed a memorial.
Last night, April 8, 2018, on 60 Minutes, Oprah Winfrey gets an early look at the memorial, which will open to the public on April 26. The memorial contains 805 steel markers, one for each county where lynchings occurred for more than 70 years following the Civil War.
The markers are suspended in air to evoke the horror of being hanged.
~~EJI Memorial~~
~~Published on Aug 15, 2016~~
The Equal Justice Initiative plans to build a national memorial to victims of lynching in Montgomery, Alabama, which is expected to open in 2018.
~Equal Justice Initiative~
To tell that story on 60 Minutes, Winfrey and a team of producers felt it was important to show historical photos of lynchings, images that are likely to disturb many viewers. In an interview with 60 Minutes Overtime, Denise Schrier Cetta, the producer of the story, and Jeff Fager, the executive producer of the broadcast, explain their decision to air such upsetting photographs.
Martin Luther King Jr., an American clergyman and civil rights leader, was shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968.
He was rushed to St. Joseph’s Hospital, and was pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m. CST. He was a prominent leader of the Civil Rights Movement and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who was known for his use of nonviolence and civil disobedience.
Martin Luther King Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist who became the most visible spokesperson and leader in the civil rights movement from 1954 through 1968.
He is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights by using the tactics of nonviolence and civil disobedience based on his Christian beliefs and inspired by the nonviolent activism of Mahatma Gandhi.
King led the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott and in 1957 became the first president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). With the SCLC, he led an unsuccessful 1962 struggle against segregation in Albany, Georgia, and helped organize the nonviolent 1963 protests in Birmingham, Alabama.
He also helped organize the 1963 March on Washington, where he delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.
I feel this is important information about what is happening in the Republican Administration lead by Drumpf and what we need to be aware of. Keith Olbermann series called “The Resistance” continues.
He has posted installment #146.
The video speaks for itself.
If this resonates with you, good.
If it doesn’t, just scroll away to the next blog.
Thank you!
DISCLAIMER
I do not own these images.
No intention of taking credit.
If anyone knows the owner of any, please advise and it will be corrected immediately.
A duty or obligation to satisfactorily perform or complete a task (assigned by someone, or created by one’s own promise or circumstances) that one must fulfill, and which has a consequent penalty for failure.
Puerto Rico was on its way to become a free nation
In 1897, the Spanish prime minister signed the ‘Charter of Autonomy’ which granted Puerto Rico the right to its own legislature, constitution, tariffs, monetary system, treasury, judiciary and international borders. After 400 years of colonial rule, the charter created the free Republic of Puerto Rico. Elections were held in March 1989 and the new government was scheduled for installation in May.
On May 12, the invasion of San Juan by US forces began.
~SOURCE~
Nelson A. Denis
“War Against All Puerto Ricans”
For Puerto Ricans, July 25th 1898 represents the fateful day when the United States invaded the island. At the time, the goal was to become independent from Spain. However, the island’s political and economic infrastructure was broken and drained of resources. Country folks had no idea who the newcomers were. As most of us know, the 19th century became a turning point in history as many countries in Latin America and the Caribbean gained their independence from Spain and Portugal except for Puerto Rico, Cuba, Guam and the Philippines.
A dear friend of mine shared the following information with me. It’s very precise, educational and to the point. Remember, it’s only a concise summary. There is so much more!
I deeply thank my friend and the source who wrote what was shared.
Caroll A. G.
With all due respect, educate yourself before forging an opinion on Puerto Rico.
Karen Jordan wrote Love history lessons!
“When United States Navy warship “Gloucester” pulled into Guánica Bay in the early morning hours of July 25, 1898, Puerto Rico became our responsibility. When the disembarking sailors lowered the Spanish flag from the port flagpole and hoisted the American flag, Puerto Rico became our responsibility.
When the Puerto Rican House of Delegates voted unanimously in 1914 to be free of US rule and the US Congress refused to recognize their independence, Puerto Rico became our responsibility.
When the US Congress passed the Jones-Shafroth Act on March 2, 1917 declaring all Puerto Ricans born after April 10, 1899 to be full-fledged US citizens, Puerto Rico became our responsibility.
Did you catch that?
In 1917, the year the law was passed, people born in 1899 would be turning 18 – legal draft age. The law was passed on March 2, 1917. The US entered WWI on April 6, 1917. When we gave this grant of citizenship in 1917 over the UNANIMOUS objection of all representatives in the Puerto Rican House of Delegates who believed the grant of citizenship was primarily for the purpose of drafting Puerto Rican men into military service, Puerto Rico became our responsibility.
On July 25, 1898, during the Spanish–American War, Puerto Rico was invaded by the United States. As an outcome of the war, Jones-Shafroth Act granted all the inhabitants of Puerto Rico U.S. citizenship in The U.S. granted Puerto Ricans the right to democratically elect their own governor in 1948.
When Section 1402 of Title 8 of the U.S. Code was amended in 1952 to declare that all Puerto Ricans born after January 13, 1941 are NATURAL BORN American citizens, Puerto Rico became our responsibility.
When the Republican Congress passed – and Bill Clinton signed – legislation in 1996 beginning a ten-year phase-out of FDR New Deal tax incentives for US corporations to create tax-free earnings through subsidiaries operating in Puerto Rico, the failure of the economy of Puerto Rico became our responsibility. When the consequent ten-year mass exodus of US companies and jobs was complete in 2005 and the economy of Puerto Rico began contracting, the financial plight of Puerto Rico became our responsibility.
When the US Congress made all interest on municipal bonds issued by Puerto Rico free of federal, state, and local taxes, causing Wall Street fund managers to pour loaned-money into the Puerto Rican government like water pouring over the broken levees of Lake Pontchartrain, the debt of Puerto Rico became our responsibility.
If I wanted to go to Alabama – and I don’t because Alabama just elected an evangelical theocrat, the Christian equivalent of an Islamic ISIS leader – all I would have to do is … go. There are no gates; no way stations; no checkpoints.
There is no requirement for a visa or a passport. Alabama authorities can’t require me to be interviewed or vetted. They can’t require me to speak with a rural Appalachian dialect, although I do.
The 3.5 million NATURAL-BORN US CITIZENS of Puerto Rico are as free to flood into Florida and Georgia as I am to drive into Alabama.
The rich asshole waited too long to start talking about Puerto Rico. He spent his time railing on black men earning more than him and refusing to shut up and dance for the entertainment of white-folk. He didn’t dispatch the military’s floating hospital, Comfort, until Hillary publicly told him we had one. He belatedly sent 5,000 troops for the entire island even though Lt. General Honoré was in command of 40,000 troops just for New Orleans. He hasn’t dispatched a swarm of helicopters to drop pallets of meals-ready-to-eat and potable water.
NATURAL-BORN US CITIZENS are dying and the rich asshole is going golfing.
I agree with Lt. General Honoré … we need to conduct a MASS EVACUATION. Send in ships and make arrangements with airlines to utilize wide-body planes.
Go get all 3.5 million brown-skin Spanish-speaking NATURAL-BORN US CITIZENS and bring them here to the US mainland and hug them and feed them and clothe them and put shoes on their feet and provide them with vouchers for housing and food.
If we can’t take care of our brothers and sisters down there – and we can’t, due to the abject lack of empathy and the shocking incompetence and ineptitude of the rich asshole – we need to bring ALL of them up here and collectively take care of them.
It’s our moral imperative and civic duty.”
~~GRAPHICS SOURCE~~
Google Images
DISCLAIMER
No intention of taking credit.
If anyone knows the owner of any, please advise and it will be corrected immediately.
It Is What It Is 