In 1941, the US Congress approved a series of laws authorizing the US Navy to establish a military facility in the island of Vieques, an island that is part of the archipelago of Puerto Rico. Between 1941 and 1950, the US Navy acquired 25,353 acres…
Ismael Guadalupe shows a letter from June 25, 1942 in which Celestina Pérez requested a piece of land to the US Navy, after being evicted from her home.
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…
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…
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…
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."
"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.
