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Hi. Everyone. Do they say that weird? No, but you
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didn't say this is Carmen. Oh sorry, I'm like what? Oh?
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Thank god? I'm like, are you gonna finish that? Hi? Everyone,
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This is Carmen. I'm Christina and this is Estodia's Unknown,
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a podcast where we talk about Latin American history. Sometimes
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it's horrible and deals with heavy topics like racism, corruption,
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and genocide. But more than that, it's also our resistance,
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power and community. And I'm sorry if you can hear
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my children in the background, it's okay, it's okay. We're
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used to it. At least it should be by now true,
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especially they listen to all of our podcasts. Yeah, they
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are in They're part of the Christina Cinematic Universe. Yeah.
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Didn't we have another name for it or the Christina Verse? Yeah? Yeah. Okay.
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So we've talked about, or you've told us me and
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the listeners about Viecues before I have. But did you
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know that Viees was inspired by another island in Puerto Rico. No,
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I had no idea, but I'm not surprised that the
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United States would have another military based on Puerto Rico,
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where they were I don't know bombing people. Yes, that
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is correct. So we're talking about Culebra Island today and
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when they kicked the navy out, which we love. I
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love it. Yeah, yeah, how did this happen? I was
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listening to Behind the Bastards. I'm hell behind on their episodes,
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so I was listening. It's not the most recent ones,
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and I already forgot what the title was, but it's
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about an island that the British Empire basically ruined. They
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took over it and they kicked all the people out.
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And I don't remember what the island is called, so
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you know, don't ask me that, but as you yeah,
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but in I don't remember if it was part one
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or part two, but they mentioned Culebra Island and how
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the people from Culebra kicked the navy out, and that's
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when the alarm bells rang. You're like, Gulebra Island, I
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must know now, and you just started timping away. Yeah,
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that's how that happened. As we know, and we've talked
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about there's a long, long, long history of colonization in
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Puerto Rico, and I feel like you touched on that
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a little bit, probably in the Vicas episode or maybe
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in another one, yeah, in the Vicas episode and then
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also a little bit in our Dusty Rhodes episode, right right,
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So yeah, I mentioned that Culebra Island has a similar
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history to Vics, only kind of like a predecessor, as
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in they were the first ones to kick out the Navy,
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so it happened before. Yeah. So the United States first
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lated greed little eyes on Culebra Island in eighteen sixty
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seven when they tried to unsuccessfully buy the island from Spain.
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But soon that didn't matter because in eighteen ninety eight,
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I don't know it was, I saw eighteen ninety eight
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and nineteen oh one, and anyway, that was a Spanish
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American war, and so the US, you know, won that
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war and took possession of Puerto Rico. And after that,
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Roosevelt allocated all of the public land in Culebra to
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the Navy, and soon the residents of Culebra or Gulevents
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began experiencing daily bombings because the Navy used the island
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to train for test landings, ground maneuvers, and bombing practice,
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and this led to many culibrentas being physically harmed, losing limbs,
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and as well as losing access to previously public places
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like the now popular and also then popular Flamenco Beach.
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It's just a really beautiful beach and they had, you know,
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just access to the speech before and now they didn't
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because of the Navy. Yeah. I wonder, and maybe you'll
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get into it, but if it affected also their livelihood,
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because I know Vicus, Oh yeah, yeah, yeah it did. Okay.
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I don't really get too much into it because then
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all the science was like bogging down my brain. But
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you know, when there's bombing, chemicals seep into everything, the environment,
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the ocean, the reefs, killing the fish, harming the environment.
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So yeah, this did harm the livelihood and how they
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sustained themselves, which is largely through fishing. Okay, so yeah,
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same like Vicus. Yeah. In nineteen thirty five, fifteen year
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old Alberto Beenya Garcia was killed from a grenade while
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playing on the beach. Oh my god, I know. And
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then the following year, in nineteen thirty six, Vincento Romero
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lost an arm from a grenade left on the beach
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after military training. Wow, oh my god. And I'm sure
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there was more, but these are just the ones I
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saw from my research. Right at some point before the
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nineteen forties, It was not clear to me what year
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the Marines moved their training exclusively to Veeks while the
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Navy remained in Kulebra. Oh yeah. After nineteen forty one,
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Culibrens experienced even more bombings to to Roosevelt claiming exclusive
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airspace around the island and the development of jet Oh
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I forgot to look up how to pronounce it. It's
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either straffing or strafing. Oh, I don't know what's a mean.
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That means the military practice of attacking around targets from
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a low flying aircraft using aircraft mounted automatic weapons. So
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basically mew techlogi achnology where they could shoot from I
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don't know, weapons mounted onto the plane. Yeah, right right
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onto ground. So by the nineteen fifties, the civilian population
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of the island had reduced from four thousand and nineteen
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hundred to only five hundred eighty in the fifties. Okay, wow,
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that's a huge, huge drop. Yeah. Part of this had
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to do with coulabrentes losing their houses because of eminent domain,
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which we have talked about before. Oh my god, imminent
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not this bitch showing up again. Imminent domain. This fucking
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bitch Eminent Domain. Seriously, you know, I really I really
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need to make that bingo card. Oh, because we needed
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one for like US military. We need another one a
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little slot for eminent Domain as well. Yeah yeah, because
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it has come up and so many episodes already. Yeah.
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So yeah. Basically through Eminent Domain, the Navy took control
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and had control of a third of the island and
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of all of the coastline. So wow. Colibdent has lost
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their homes or were displaced, I guess from their homes.
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For years, residents of kulebra knew no peace. They were
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bombed relentlessly. In nineteen sixty nine, coulibrentes were bombed two
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hundred and twenty eight out of two hundred and sixty
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five days of the year. Oh my god, that's almost
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every day. Yeah, and sometimes they were bombed multiple times
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in one day. Oh my god. Yeah. I mean, like
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you said, there's no peace at that point. Yeah, Like
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that's like your background noise is just bombs out, their
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bombs and yeah, sure you know they're not being aimed
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at you, but you don't know if you're going to
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get hurt by what or not. There's already so many
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well exactly. Yeah, so, like besides being laced, being hurt
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you know, physically by the bombs, So it didn't happen
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that often, but it happened enough. Yeah. Yeah. Their homes
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were damaged obviously from the bombing, so their windows often broke.
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The cattle that they had, if they had cattle, were scared,
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so they ran terrified stampedes of cattle, and they tore
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down fences, damaged property, and the Navy refused to compensate
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for any damages. I was gonna say, and I imagine
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the Navy is not paying for any of this. Yeah,
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those broke bitches, no, not broke pitches, stingy bitches. Yeah, yeah,
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stingy because they still refused to pay for cleaning the
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mess they made in Vehicus. Yeah, and so yeah, the
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Culabrenses way of life was completely disturbed. They could no
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longer fish for their foods, and slabster traps and fishing
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nets were destroyed and dead fish washed ashore, and they
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could even go swimming without needing approval from the Naval
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Observation Post or they would face a five thousand dollars
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fine or jail time. Wow. By nineteen seventy Gulabrentes had
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had enough, especially when the navy tried to evacuate the
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entire population. They tried to kick everyone off the island. Yeah,
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they tried to kick everybody off the island. And that
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was actually the second time they tried doing that. Second
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time they tried kicking everyone out of the island. And
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that's what So in the episode I listened to behind
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the Bastards, that's what the British did to this island.
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The island you don't remember the name of, Yeah, I
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want to say it started with an M or where
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it was? Maybe should find it, you know, like a
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region in the world where this island was. Nar Was
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it okay? I don't nar Was it a Latin American country?
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Nod Eastern? I don't know where the island was. Oh,
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here it is, okay. See, that's the last time I
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listened to, Oh the Chagos Islands. Okay. So it says
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how the British The title of the episode, it's the
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last time I listened to so and it's from June.
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So that's why I said I was behind anyway. So
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it's a two part episodes and it's titled how the
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British Empire and oh, I forgot the US was also
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involved anyway, but of course they were right. They're always
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in cahoods, these two. So it's called how the British
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Empire and US Department of Defense murdered an island paradise
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And yeah, so it's about the Chagos Island and I
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don't remember where they are, but what I do remember
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is that enslaved Africans ended up on this island. I
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don't remember how, and basically they made this island their
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own and it was this beautiful, beautiful paradise where they
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lived communally. They weren't used to like you know, the
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rest of the world, like capitalism things like that. And
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then the British forced themselves onto this island because there
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was a strategic place for them, I don't know, military wise,
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and so basically they kicked everybody out of the island
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and the people from Chago's ended up in Britain. But
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they didn't even tell the people from Chago's Islands that
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they were entitled to a citizenship, because then they would
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have to tell them that they kicked them out. And like,
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basically these people were laughing nothing wow. And I don't
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remember if it was in part one or part two,
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but they talk about Culebra Island and how they basically
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fought back against this happening to them, because that's like
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the colonizer dream, kicking you off through land and then
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like having nothing to do with them and helping them
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do nothing. Yeah, so of course this is what they
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wanted to do. So Yeah, in the mid nineteen fifties,
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the US Navy proposed to evict all of Kulebra's residents
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in order to expand the military base, but the Puerto
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Rican government resisted, saying that according to US law, a
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popular vote needed to happen to abolish the municipality of Culebra.
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So they're like, you can't just kick us out, like
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we have to agree as the Puerto Rican government to
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get rid of this municipality. And yes, So that was
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the first time, and then the second time they wanted
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to do that again, the people were like, fuck this ship.
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And the second time was nineteen seventy. Yeah, nineteen seventy.
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So the residents of Culebra fought back through civil disobedience.
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I love some civil disabiliens. We love us some civil
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disobedience and more of that, we really do more. Yeah,
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Culibranes held protests on the beaches, and after a court
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upheld the Navy's right to use Culebra as a military base.
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The court, the US Court sided with the US Navy. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
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of course. Okay, So after that, you know, the gulib
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Dances were pissed off, rightfully, so they marched to a
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local command post and threatened in the navy with an
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ultimatum they would use direct action to force the removal
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of the Navy. And they did that. Okay, Like what
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was the ultimatum, leave now or will make you leave?
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They said, leave or we're gonna make your lives hell.
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We're not gonna let you work. Basically, we're going to
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protest and protests and protests and show up here every day. Yeah,
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that was ultimatum. And while the protests were going on,
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at the same time, the Puerto Rican Senate passed a
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resolution asking then President Nixon to reevaluate the Navy's presence
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on the island. So there was like multiple avenues of
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like fighting this right, So throughout the summer and for
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seven months straight, the Colabrentes. In March, they held sit end,
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they created blockades with the goal of ending US Navy
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occupation in June nineteen seventy twenty Colabrentes. They created a
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human chain to block ship to shore missile fire. Then
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a three day long encampment was held, which attracted two
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hundred people. Wow. And the encampment was organized by the
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Puerto Rican Independence Party, which was led by Ruben Berrios Martinez.
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And so yeah, I mean they held protests. After protests,
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they blocked ships basically, right, Yeah, And like a lot
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of the any type of training that has to do
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with life, gunfire you cannot start if someone is in
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the range. And so they're blocking this training by standing
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where the gunfire is supposed to be happening. And I
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love that. And then yeah, they hold that encampment basically
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just being in the way, which is what you need
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to do. So then the Navy tried to make a
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deal with the Puerto Rican Independence Party like okay, like
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stop doing all this and we'll let you guys have
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thirty five jobs, Like we'll take over the island still
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and you guys, thirty five of you can work here.
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What a shit deal? That was their deal? Like, no,
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take that deal and show it up your asks exactly exactly.
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So yeah, of course, the Perdekins were like, no, thank you,
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and in response they picketed at a proposed demolition site.
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So yeah, like, protests continued, and the following year, in
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nineteen seventy one, the Pretty Rican Independence Party organized our
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march to the entrance of the Navy base and then
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another action with the help of Rescue Culebra Committee, the
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Clergy Committee to Rescue Culebra and a Quaker action group.
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And honestly, Quakers are always always like doing this kind
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of stuff, which I love. They're always showing up. Yeah,
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Like whenever you hear a movement, it's surprising Quakers if
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the Quakers are not involved, right, right, even in like
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the US and the anti abolitionist movements, the Quakers were
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one of the first to hop on that. Yeah yeah.