When I lived in Chicago, I walked by this mural everyday. It dates back to 1971, and is the oldest exterior Puerto Rican mural in Chicago. Don Pedro Albizu Campos was a Harvard educated lawyer who fought for P.R.’s independence. The U.S. Federal Court in San Juan arrested him in 1936 for “seditious conspiracy to overthrow the U.S. Government in Puerto Rico.” While in jail his health deteriorated. Burns covered his body and he died. In 1994, the United States Department of Energy disclosed that human radiation experiments had been conducted without consent on prisoners. A condo developer planned to build over the mural. The neighborhood and friends protected this piece of political art from being destroyed. Reposting the mural here is my contribution to its permanence.
Nice mural, 3rdarm