Mayagüez, July 19 (RHC)-- A group of independence fighters on Saturday exalted the figure of nationalist fighter Rafael Cancel-Miranda, on his 90th birthday, at the Vivaldi Cemetery in Mayagüez, where his remains have been laid to rest since March 8th.
Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP) leader Julio Muriente Perez lamented that due to his irredeemable death, on July 18th he could not be shared with thousands of his fellow countrymen in his native Mayaguez, in western Puerto Rico, "where his immortal remains now rest."
The former president of the Movimiento Independentista Nacional Hostosiano (MINH) said that perhaps the meeting would have been at the grave of the combative nationalist leader Pedro Albizu Campos, in the cemetery of Old San Juan, where Cancel-Miranda first went after stepping on Puerto Rican soil after his release from prison in September 1979, after spending 25 years in U.S. prisons.
Muriente Pérez said that on this occasion "we would have liked to sing to him, recite his poems, remember his anecdotes, laugh at his great sense of humor, re-charge his batteries with his immeasurable desire to live and serve his people and humanity, evoke his admirable perseverance and firmness of principle."
Likewise, he said, we would have remembered, with similar respect to his colleagues Oscar Collazo, Lolita Lebron, Irving Flores and Andres Figueroa Cordero, that "like Rafaelito they are our National Heroes."
Born on July 18, 1930 in Mayagüez, he dedicated his life to the independence of Puerto Rico under the inspiration of Pedro Albizu Campos, whom as a Cadet of the Republic, a youth organization of the Nationalist Party, he welcomed in December 1947 upon his return from serving a 10-year sentence in Atlanta and New York charged with conspiracy to overthrow the United States government.
Cancel-Miranda, a deep admirer of historic Comandante Fidel Castro, also experienced the cruelty of U.S. prisons against Puerto Rican fighters, first for two years for refusing to serve the invading army, as he described it, and then for another 25 years for being part of the commando that, under the leadership of Lolita Lebrón, attacked the federal Congress on March 1, 1954.
In that action, in addition to Lebron and Cancel Miranda, Irving Flores and Andres Figueroa Cordero participated, who shouted "Long live free Puerto Rico" and unfurled the Puerto Rican national flag and shot at the U.S. House of Representatives, injuring five congressmen, including Alvin Bentley (Michigan), who was seriously shot in the chest, although none of them died.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was impossible for Rafael Cancel-Miranda's 90th birthday to be celebrated in a big way, as had been planned by various sectors since the end of last year, in what would be a political-cultural day.
