For the first time in decades, the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP), the National Hostos Congress, and other groups organized the event as a joint activity. The keynote speaker was PIP president Rubén Berríos.

Others who spoke or were on stage included independence fighters Lolita Lebrón, Juan Mari Brás, Noel Colón Martínez, Hector Pesquera of the National Hostos Congress, Julio Muriente of the New Puerto Rican Independence Movement, Jorge Faranacci of the Socialist Front, and Carlos Gallisa. Many of the independentistas, some who abstained from voting four years ago, are calling for a vote for the PIP in the November elections.

The struggle to remove the U.S. Navy from Vieques was at the center of the activities. Every reference made in speeches to the struggle around Vieques drew applause. Anti-Navy slogans could be found on banners, T-shirts, hats, belts, and umbrellas. Nilda Medina from the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques invited people to attend a march planned for Vieques October 1.  
 
Vieques struggle a classroom
"This past year in Vieques," said Berríos, "has shown the maturity of the nationalist movement. Vieques had been an educational classroom for all Puerto Ricans because now they know that they can go up against anyone, even [one] more powerful. We can all look the world in the eyes because we know what this land is worth."

Glendalith Acevedo, 21, is a student at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) in Mayagüez. In Puerto Rico, the science and engineering campus at Mayagüez has a reputation for being more conservative than the liberal arts school at Río Piedras. She said the discussions among students are "a little more open, but the changes were not large." Her father, Edwin Acevedo, said that in 1996 he did not vote for the PIP but for Neftali García, an environmentalist who ran an independent campaign for a seat in the legislature. This year, he said, he will "vote for independence. I am not a member of the PIP but it is a symbol of independence."

José Soto, 19, is also a student at the University of Puerto Rico in Mayagüez. He said that both pro-statehood and pro-independence student groups are active on the campus. Political positions that had formerly been held only by independentistas are now more widespread. "Many people from other parties are against the Navy," he said. "It is not just the independentistas."

For several generations everyone in the family of Ivonne García, 17, has been active in the Nationalist Party or more recently the PIP. She said that she supports independence because it will lead to more economic development for the island.  
 
 
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