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Blanca CanalesBlanca Canales (1906 – 1996) born in Jayuya, Puerto Rico, was a Puerto Rican nationalist who led the Jayuya Revolt. Blanca was born into a politically active family. She was the younger sister of Nemesio Canales and her father was a member the the "Unionist Party" of Puerto Rico which believed in the independence cause of the island. Her mother was a strong willed woman who encouraged her daughter to think for herself. As a child Blanca read many books and stories about other nations and their heros. She went with her father to political meetings and became impressed with the speeches and flag waving. She finished her primary and secondary education in Jayuya. In 1924, her father passed away and her mother moved to Ponce. She graduated from Ponce High School and then enrolled in the University of Puerto Rico. On May 1930 she earned her Bachelors Degree in Liberal Arts. Before graduating, she attended a conference given by the President of The Puerto Rican Nationalist Party Pedro Albizu Campos, and was very impressed. Blanca returned to the university that same year and took a course in social work. Blanca returned to Jayuya and worked in her profession at a local rural school. In 1931, she joined the Nationalist Party and was active organizing the women's branch of that party. A series of events between the United States appointed government and the nationalists took place in the 1930s. In 1936, Albizu Campos was arrested and on March 31, 1937 the Ponce Massacre took place. During the 1940s, Blanca's active participation in the party consisted in making collections because her job kept her busy traveling from San Juan to Ponce. However, all that changed when Albizu Campos was released from jail in 1947. In 1949, the Nationalist Party under Campos leadership planned a revolution which was supposed to take place in 1952 when the United States Congress was to approve the concept of "Estado Libre Associado". The leaders of Jayuya included Blanca, Elio Torresola (Griselio Torresola's brother) and the Irizarry brothers. Weapons for the revolution were stored in Blanca's house. On October 26, 1950, Albizu Campos held a political meeting in Fajardo. After the meeting Albizu Campos received word that he was going to be arrested and that his house in San Juan was surrounded by the police. The nationalists decided to go on with their planned revolution and instructed their members to raid the police stations in the island. On October 30, 1950, Blanca and her group entered the town with Puerto Rican Flags (which were outlawed) and took over the police and telephone stations. She led the group to the town's plaza where she raised the Puerto Rican Flag and declared Puerto Rico to be a Republic. Blanca went to the town's hospital and attended the wounds of Carlos Irizarry. Jayuya was under the nationalists' control for three days until it was bombed by the planes and the artillery of the United States National Guard. The nationalists surrendered on November 1, 1950. Blanca was arrested and accused of killing a police officer and wounding three others. She was also accused of burning down the local post office. Blanca was sentenced to life imprisonment plus sixty years of jail. On June 1951, she was sent to the Federal Industrial Institution for Women in Alderson, West Virginia, the same prison in which Lolita Lebron would be sent to in 1954. In 1956, Blanca was transferred to the Womens Jail in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico. In 1967, Blanca was given a full pardon by Puerto Rican Governor Roberto Sanchez Vilella. She continued to be an active independence advocate until the day she died. Blanca Canales died in 1996 in Jayuya, Puerto Rico. The house in which Blanca was born and raised was turned into a museum by the City of Jayuya. Canales, Blanca Canales, Blanca
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