On April 14, 1989, US Marshalls tried to execute an eviction order from Federal Judge Lafitte against Carmelo, María and their family in their home at Villa Borinquen. Carmelo first tried to resist the eviction with the power of media, by having a…
As a consequence of the evictions conducted by the US Navy in Vieques, María Velázquez's family had to emigrate to Saint Croix. She explains that she was born not in Vieques but instead in Saint Croix, and she later grew up in New York. She narrates…
In 1965, María and Carmelo took their machetes and began cleaning a piece of land to establish their home in the area of Pueblo Nuevo, which became known as Bravos de Boston, one of the first rescues of federal land in Vieques. María narrates the…
"I had the last one in Fajardo:" María discusses the birth of her last child, who was not born in Vieques but instead in Fajardo, and links the birth of his child to the US Navy's attempt of trying to control Vieques's population rate.
María explains that the activists involved in the land rescue of Villa Borinquen embraced the slogan "Haciendo a Vieques Más Grande," or "Making Vieques larger."
In the 1950s, the US Navy intensified its military activities in Vieques. Sometimes the US Navy would leave dangerous explosive artifacts in areas that had not been restricted and were still accessed by civilians. As a consequence, some Viequenses…
Carlos Zenón explains that the Vieques Struggle did not begin with the fishermen protest of 1978, but with the expropriation of Vieques’s lands and homes by the US Navy in the 1940s. At the age of four, Zenón witnessed the arrival of the US Navy and…
Ismael Guadalupe discusses the political and cultural battles that have given shape to the historical conflicts between the US Navy and the people of Vieques. He describes the small victories of the people of Vieques in spite of the many attempts of…
