Grito de Lares

Grito de Lares (23-24 September 1868), Puerto Rico's first armed uprising against Spanish colonial rule. Organized by the physician Ramón Emeterio Betances, the lawyer Segundo Ruíz Belvis, and a dozen coffee planters from western Puerto Rico, the conspiracy sought to liberate the island from Spain, free the slaves, and end the peonage that kept free laborers in virtual servitude. Although parts of the plan were carried out the night of 23 September, following the rebels' occupation of Lares the movement was summarily crushed by the Spanish troops on the island. More than 500 of the suspected conspirators were sent to prison, where eighty of them died of disease. The rest were freed by an amnesty decree issued in January 1869 by a revolutionary government that had just deposed Queen Isabella II in Madrid. The revolt is believed to have pushed Spain to implement social and political reforms, among them the abolition of slavery and the creation of political parties in Puerto Rico.

See alsoBetances y Alacán, Ramón Emeterio; Grito de Asencio; Grito de Baire; Grito de Yara; Puerto Rico.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A thorough account of the Grito de Lares is in Olga Jiménez De Wagenheim, Puerto Rico's Revolt for Independence: El Grito de Lares (1985, 1993). Brief accounts are also found in most general histories of Puerto Rico.

Additional Bibliography

Fernández Méndez, Antonio. El significado histórico del Grito de Lares. San Juan, Puerto Rico: s.n., 1998.

Frambes-Buxedoa, A., and Marisa Rosado. Arte y carteles puertorriqueños sobre el grito de Lares. San Juan, Puerto Rico: Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico, 2006.

Moscoso, Francisco. Clase, revolución y libertad: Estudios sobre el Grito de Lares de 1868. Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico: Editorial Edil, Inc.: 2006.

                              Olga JimÉnez de Wagenheim