The Sugar Cane Syndrome – Don Pedro Albizu by L.E. Vega

On Facebook, I read a current melancholic posting describing the languid state of mind of Venezuelans. If the slumping spirits were only characteristic of Venezuela, it would be much simpler. I am not happy about the situation in Venezuela, on the contrary. The exasperation and the outrage has been a pattern that has been surmounting not just in Venezuela, but in Puerto Rico, in the U.S. Mainland and around the globe as well over the decades, turning into a habitual social malady that is very much the norm, perhaps treated at times as acceptable.

While I attended college, I worked as a student for an Anthropology Professor who needed a translator for his research on the sugar cane industry in Mexico. I did not realize at the time that the valuable information which I translated would help me understand where so much dissension that I have experienced, as if coming out of left field, originated from. In this blog, I do not make excuses for Don Pedro’s choice to lead a movement to harm President Truman. I will, however, lay out that greedy players in the sugar industry were very responsible for much of the suffering that Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos experienced.

The subject of the sugar industry seemed to come back to bite me at all stages in my life. Both of my grandmas were diabetics, so consequently, I adopted my grandfather’s health food tendencies. Throughout my life, I tried to be health-conscious, and retain will power to keep sweets at bay. My grandfather, a well-known politician and musician, a declared socialist, was a vegetarian and fruit lover, although he did eat fish. I still retain a picture of him in my mind chewing raw sugar cane. He was used to it apparently, having been a sugar cane cutter as a young boy in the island of Puerto Rico.

Oh, and by the way, I decided that since I have not been in Puerto Rico for a long time, that I cannot say which political ideology is best for Puerto Rico, and that only Puerto Ricans who live there should have a say in the matter. If in 2014, there is a financial crisis in the United States which may politically force Puerto Rico to reassign a status, I hope that Puerto Rico will take advantage of the shift in a peaceful way, and in a way that is most beneficial for Puerto Rico, making an objective decision free of particular interests.

When Don Pedro studied law at Harvard University, he belonged to a group from India that followed Mahatma Gandhi’s teachings. He was very likable and involved in student affairs. Some events took place that kept him from graduating at the time that he planned. Don Pedro attributed the bumps on the road to racism, since Don Pedro was swarthy. Personally, I believe that it was not about racism, but about some players in the sugar industry who felt threatened because Don Pedro defended the islanders from the corruption of the sugar cane refineries in Puerto Rico.

The Gag Law came into play, and in my opinion, became a social “behavior”. In Puerto Rico, the then Governor Luis Muňoz Marín, in the name of the Gag Law (La Ley de La Mordaza), allowed civil rights atrocities to be committed to Puerto Ricans who simply peacefully displayed a Puerto Rican flag in their homes. Even members of the pro-Statehood party at the time asked to reverse the violations of the constitutional rights that Puerto Ricans, as United States citizens from birth, have. Thus, many Puerto Ricans were divided, a social practice that sprouted as a reaction to the hatred that the Gag Law germinated. Due to the division that expanded in Venezuela, in the United States, and around the globe, hatred is rising, as if the hatred applied by The Gag Law is now applied not by law, but as a kind of “social front”.

Coming back to the subject of sugar, when I learned that Geronimo, the Native American Apache Chief, tried to persuade American settlers to avoid sugar consumption, warning them that it was unhealthy, the new “Americans” who knew very well that Geronimo was right, nevertheless went along with deception. Nowadays, the sugar cane players are having a feast at the expense of too many sugar addicted Americans, and many other greedy players are hopping into the pool in order to purposely profit from programs supposedly designed to help “cure” the health damages caused by sugar consumption, ranging from obesity to diabetes and memory loss, and even the big “C”, health problems that are preventable to begin with.

Speaking of the big “C”, Don Pedro was subjected to cancer experiments on humans when he was in prison. In my opinion, it had neither to do with Don Pedro being at the head of the attempt against President Truman’s life nor with Don Pedro’s political cause. Don Pedro used to throw towels on himself while in prison in a desperate attempt to protect himself from the constant radiation aimed at him. Some wicked federal prison employees vindictively crowned Don Pedro as “El Rey de las Toallas”. In my opinion, greedy sugar cane players had too much at stake in Puerto Rico, and if the island were to gain its independence, they would lose their racket. Again, in my opinion, the greedy sugar cane players abused their power to the extent that when bills were written in Washington to grant The Philippines and Puerto Rico their independence, the then Governor Luis Muňoz Marín apparently succumbed to greedy pressure, participating only in letting The Philippines have their freedom.

Furthermore, it is my opinion that the racial tensions between Mexicans and Puerto Ricans, the kind of tensions that really hurt Freddie Prinze, Sr., were not about race, but about greed. I believe that if Mexicans and Puerto Ricans compared notes on what the greedy sugar cane players did, taking advantage of their natural resources in a way that polluted the environment, for example, the sugar cane players would have felt more isolated. Instead, greed in general isolated countries like Mexico, Puerto Rico, Venezuela and the United States.

There are Puerto Ricans and many Hispanics who to this day think that various unfortunate events are about race. The first impulse is to give way to anger. I sincerely believe that if Don Pedro had stayed on the peaceful Mahatma Gandhi trace, Puerto Rico today would be a stable and independent nation. Anger has not proven effective. It does not work, and in the process, too many children, elderly groups, and innocent people get hurt unnecessarily.

Before closing my blog, I opted to say something daring that I believe is true. I truly believe that corrupted sources brainwashed Don Pedro to take the lead in coordinating an assassination attempt against President Truman. It is not to make excuses for Don Pedro. His act of violence was not only wrong, but was a waste of energy, ineffective in liberating Puerto Rico as if he had taken the Mahatma Gandhi approach.

Don Pedro, prior to his imprisonment in La Princesa, I believe that he was subjected to "human experimentation" that very likely put him in a violent trance. Not to make excuses for Lolita Lebrὁn, either, but I think that she was possibly brainwashed to commit an act of terrorism. Think about it, Lolita and her two partners in crime, three Puerto Ricans, four years after after Leslie Coffelt died protecting President Truman, are allowed to enter the Capitol Building without being searched. I cannot buy it. There are certain sources in the U.S. and the world with certain obscure agendas who brainwash and manipulate to stir up revolts to harm the human race, and it is not about helping mankind, but once more, it is about greed.

Incidentally, in the digital painting that I prepared of Don Pedro for this blog, I chose not to paint a pose using his fist, for a fist may be more associated with aggression, and I wanted to give the digital painting a kind twist, to let Don Pedro's kindness shine through.

In his discourse dedicated to Betances in Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico in 1950, Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos talks with peaceful devotion, urging to loving and praying for the intelligence and the light in the heart of Puerto Ricans. From the point of view that Puerto Ricans have no authority under the United States, he refers to the presence of the United States as boring, and is not awakening anger. Don Pedro proceeds to refer to people from the United States as “muňecos”, pretty people whom he believes to superficially emphasize the exterior.

In my novel, “Ms. Quixote Goes Country – Raised on the Marxist Frontier”, I sympathetically compare Americans to David Osment, the little robot in the movie “Artificial Intelligence”. If you really think about how many Americans, like little handsome Davids, trusted people in power and pushed Geronimo under the bus, only to be disappointed when in general, people in power have let down the lost little Davids. When I make the comparison between Americans and David Osment, I do it with love and not at all to insult.

Earlier, I mentioned dissension coming out of left field, which I elaborate further in my novel. In great part, I have endured dissension stemming from a certain political disapproval of my healthy eating habits. I have worked in the fields of health care and education, generally very corrupted. Hence, I am viewed as a healthy threat that may shake up the greedy status quo, and I witness incidents that depict hatred and division. Therefore, I have been extremely harassed, subjected to hateful social Gag Law patterns, hatred treated as a form of entertainment, a new hostile trend, and not limited to the workplace only, but to every social setting imaginable.

In conclusion, Don Pedro only charged his clients if they had the money. If they could not afford his legal services, he accepted hens or plantains. He helped everyone. Whether or not we agree with Don Pedro Albizu Campos, one aspect is certain: we need to shed the little Davids shell. We are not little Davids. All of us have our individuality. Let’s acknowledge that the herd mentality is a redundant obstacle. Next, let’s shed the herd mentality, and constructively create our own recipe for sweetness inside our hearts.

Mr. Albizu Campos, from La Princesa Federal Prison in Puerto Rico,

humorously and vividly describes the metaprogramming imposed on him.

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