Juan Mari Bras (born December 2, 1925 in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico) is a Puerto Rican independence advocate who founded the "Puerto Rican Socialist Party".
Mari Bras' father was an active member of the independence movement of Puerto Rico and often took his son to political meetings and rallies. In 1943, when Mari Bras was 15 years old, he founded a pro-independence movement in his high school, along with some of his friends, in Mayaguez. He was also the founder and director of the first pro-independence political radio program "Grito de la Patria".
In 1944, he enrolled in the University of Puerto Rico (Universidad de Puerto Rico) and in 1946 became a founding member of Gilberto Concepcion de Gracia's "Puerto Rican Independence Party". Mari Bras became the president of the party's "Puerto Rican Independence Youth". In 1948, the unversitie's pro-independence student body invited nationalist leader Pedro Albizu Campos to the Rio Piedras campus as a guest speaker. The president of the university, Jaime Benitez, did not permit Campos access to the campus. As a consequence, the students protested and went on strike. Mari Bras was one of the student leaders who chanted anti-american slogans and who marched with a Puerto Rican flag in his hand. Both of these acts were considered as acts against the Government of the United States, which at that time had a complete control of the government of the island. Mari Bras and those who protested, were expelled from the university.
Mari Bras went to Florida, where he received his Bachelors Degree, and also studied in the University of Georgetown . In 1954, he wanted to study at the Washington Law School but was expelled due to what is known as the McCarthyism era. He finally obtained his law degree from the American University.
In 1959, Mari Bras founded the "Pro-Independence Movement" and the political newspaper "Claridad" which had a "leftest" point of view and which he directed for three decades. In 1971, the "Pro-Independence Movement" was renamed and became the "Puerto Rican Socialist Party". In 1973, he spoke before the United Nations about Puerto Rico being a "colony" of the United States and demanded the discolonization of the island. He was the first Puerto Rican to raise this issue.
On March 1976, Santiago Mari Pesquera, Mari Bras' son, was murdered while was away on the road campaigning. His murder has never been solved.
On July 11, 1994, Mari Bras started a judicial controversy when he renounced his American citizenship at the American Embassy of Caracas, Venezuela. He was taken to court on the allegation that if he had renounced his American citizenship, then he also had renounced his right to vote in the local Puerto Rican elections. The courts ruled in his favor twice. This action continues to be a popular subject of debate.
Juan Mari Bras, retired from active politics and is no longer the president of the "Puerto Rican Socialist Party", he does however, make appearances in pro-independence activities.
See also
