José E Velázquez Papers

José Emiliano Velázquez Luyanda was an active member of several organizations that advocated for Puerto Rican independence and other revolutionary struggles. Most notably, his organizing work with the United States branch of the Partido Socialista Puertorriqueño throughout the 1970s contributed to the growth of the party as a recognized player in national, racial and class liberation efforts until it dissolved due to differing visions, priorities and politics in the mid-1980s.

He was born June 13, 1952 in Santurce, Puerto Rico to Marcelino Velázquez and Providencia Luyanda, both from Humacao. As many other Puerto Ricans of the time, he migrated to New York City with his family.

In his late teens, he became involved with a performance theater group and revolutionary collective known as the Third World Revelationists. In addition to presenting performances on themes and issues that reflected their own Black and Puerto Rican communities’ experiences and challenges, the members lived as a collective for a brief period between 1970 and 1972. To this effect, they cohabitated a space in the East Harlem (El Barrio) neighborhood of New York City, shared household expenses such as food and clothing, pooled income, and set aside days for collective meetings and political education. However, the organization often lacked organizational structure and ideological clarity which made it difficult for many members to feel committed to and engaged with it. Velázquez ended up leaving the group at the end of 1971, a move made by several others soon after that led to its complete disbandment. In his termination letter, he stated his wish to devote more of himself to his nascent work with the Partido Socialista Puertorriqueño (PSP).

After leaving the Third World Revelationists, Velázquez fully immersed himself in the PSP. In the PSP, he felt he had at last found the vehicle to express his revolutionary political ideology encompassing Puerto Rican nationalism as well as the rights of immigrants, workers, students and others marginalized by the governing parties’ policies and practices.

In 1972, he helped to establish and manage Claridad Bilingüe, the English-language supplement to Claridad. That same year, Velásquez was arrested by special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) after twice refusing to submit to induction into the U.S. Armed Forces. In motions to dismiss the indictment, his attorney claimed that the drafting of Puerto Ricans violated international law, that the charges against him violated the Geneva Convention article that bars prosecution of civilians in times of war and that discrimination in the selection and drafting of Puerto Ricans and Blacks in the Armed Forces denied them equal protection under the law, among other technical, legal and political rationales for throwing the case out of court. In September 1973, a district court judge dismissed the case on a technical legal issue but a circuit court reversed the lower court’s decision in early 1974. Velázquez appealed to the U.S Supreme Court that same year but, in 1975, that petition was denied. After four years of legal wrangling, Velázquez was convicted of the lesser charge of failing to submit to an Armed Forces physical examination and given a suspended sentence with two years of probation.

Through the mid to late 1970s, he held numerous positions in PSP leadership committees including Secretary of Student Affairs and Secretary of the Comité Seccional in addition to serving as a member of the Comité Central, organizing university students and writing and managing Claridad. Velázquez had to scale back some of his political work after returning to college, getting married and starting a family. Despite new demands on his time and competing priorities, he remained active in PSP activities until July 1982, when he officially resigned as a member of the Comité Seccional of the PSP to focus on his family and his studies.

Although the PSP is no longer formally organized, Velázquez and many of its former members continue to be active in the Puerto Rican community. For his part, Velázquez continues to write for Claridad, including the obituary for fellow PSP member Denis Berger. He also organized a May 2007 conference at Hostos Community College in the Bronx, New York titled “Desde las entrañas, 30 Years Later: Implications for the Independence Movement.”