Search Help

How does this work?
There are many ways to search the collections of the Freedom Archives. Below is a brief guide that will help you conduct effective searches. Note, anytime you search for anything in the Freedom Archives, the first results that appear will be our digitized items. Information for items that have yet to be scanned or yet to be digitized can still be viewed, but only by clicking on the show link that will display the hidden (non-digitized) items. If you are interested in accessing these non-digitized materials, please email info@freedomarchives.org.
Exploring the Collections without the Search Bar
Under the heading Browse By Collection, you’ll notice most of the Freedom Archives’ major collections. These collections have an image as well as a short description of what you’ll find in that collection. Click on that image to instantly explore that specific collection.
Basic Searching
You can always type what you’re looking for into the search bar. Certain searches may generate hundreds of results, so sometimes it will help to use quotation marks to help narrow down your results. For instance, searching for the phrase Black Liberation will generate all of our holdings that contain the words Black and Liberation, while searching for “Black Liberation” (in quotation marks) will only generate our records that have those two words next to each other.
Advanced Searching
The Freedom Archives search site also understands Boolean search logic. Click on this link for a brief tutorial on how to use Boolean search logic. Our search function also understands “fuzzy searches.” Fuzzy searches utilize the (*) and will find matches even when users misspell words or enter in only partial words for the search. For example, searching for liber* will produce results for liberation/liberate/liberates/etc.
Keyword Searches
You’ll notice that under the heading KEYWORDS, there are a number of words, phrases or names that describe content. Sometimes these are also called “tags.” Clicking on these words is essentially the same as conducting a basic search.

Free Puerto Rican POWs and Political Prisoners

The National Committee to Free Puerto Rican POWs and Political Prisoners campaigned around many issues, regarding the 15 Puerto Rican Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War. One of the primary focuses of the organization, in addition to building awareness and solidarity with the Puerto Rican Independence Movement, was to make people aware of the distinction between international law vs. US domestic law and further explain why the captured Puerto Ricans declared themselves POWs. The materials contained in this collection range from 1981-1998 and include general flyers and pamphlets about the issues, newsletters from 1980s and monographs which delve into international law and the right to struggle against colonialism, the political stance of the PPs and POWs and their ideas, poems and lives.

The 15 prisoners were: Edwin Cortes, Ida Luz Rodriguez, Elizam Escobar, Alberto Rodriguez, Alejandrina Torres, Ricardo Jimenez, Carmen Valentin, Carlos Alberto Torres, Juan Segarra Palmer, Antonio Camacho Negron, Luis Rosa, Dylcia Pagan, Adolfo Matos, Alicia Rodriguez, Oscar Lopez Rivera.  Only Oscar Lopez Rivera is still incarcerated.

Documents

US Colonialism in Puerto Rico 1898- US Colonialism in Puerto Rico 1898-
Publisher: Free Puerto Rico! CommitteeFormat: PamphletCollection: Free Puerto Rican POWs and Political Prisoners
Pamphlet addressing the following nine questions: What is Colonialism?; What is the history of colonialism in Puerto Rico?; Why is Puerto Rico so important to the United States?; What are the effects of US Colonialism on the Puerto Rican people on the island and here in the US?; What is Puerto Rico's current status?; Many ask What would the Puerto Rican people do without our help?; What has been the response of the Puerto Rican people?; Why is the Puerto Rican independence movement in this country?; Why should North Americans oppose colonialism in Puerto Rico?
POW Update POW Update
Publisher: National Committee to Free Puerto Rican POWs and Political PrisonersVolume Number: Vol. 1-1Format: PeriodicalCollection: Free Puerto Rican POWs and Political Prisoners
Contents: Puerto Rican Nationalist Prisoners of War are Free; Vieques Example of Valor; Contradictions of Andres' Funeral; Free Pablo and Nydia; Lares, Cradle of Our Army.