Juan Mari Brás

Juan Mari Brás
Mari Brás after receiving the first Certificate of Citizenship of Puerto Rico, September 14, 2007
Born	(1927-12-02)December 2, 1927 Mayagüez, Puerto Rico
Died	September 10, 2010(2010-09-10) (aged 82) San Juan, Puerto Rico
Nationality	Puerto Rican
Organization	Puerto Rican Socialist Party (PSP)

Juan Mari Brás (December 2, 1927 – September 10, 2010) was an advocate for Puerto Rican independence from the United States who founded the Puerto Rican Socialist Party (PSP). On October 25, 2006, he became the first person to receive a Puerto Rican citizenship certificate from the Puerto Rico State Department.

Juan Mari Brás was born in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. His father was active in the independence movement who often took his son to political meetings and rallies. In 1943, when he was 18 years old, he founded a pro-independence movement in his high school, along with some of his friends, in Mayagüez. He was also the founder and director of the first pro-independence political radio program "Grito de la Patria".

In 1944, he enrolled in the University of Puerto Rico (Universidad de Puerto Rico) and in 1946 became a founding member of Gilberto Concepción de Gracia's Puerto Rican Independence Party. Mari Brás became the president of the party's "Puerto Rican Independence Youth". In 1948, the university's pro-independence student body invited nationalist leader Pedro Albizu Campos to the Río Piedras campus as a guest speaker. The chancellor of the university, Jaime Benítez, did not permit Albizu access to the campus. As a consequence, the students protested and went on strike. Mari Brás was one of the student leaders who chanted anti-American slogans and who marched with a Puerto Rican flag in his hand. Both of these acts were considered as acts against the Government of the United States, which at that time had complete control of the government of the island. Mari Brás and others who protested were expelled from the university.