Expropriation

To obtain land for the base in Vieques, the United States government initiated a series of mandatory expropriations of the private lands on Vieques. The expropriation and the dislocation of thousands of people were relatively easy for the Navy because of the concentration of the lands in the hands of the large sugar owners. For example, one owner in Punta Arenas owned more than 3000 cuerdas on which were 62 houses.

Although some of the families had been living in these homes for generations, they held no title to their property, but had rather made informal agreements with the landowners. When the land was expropriated the families living there lost not only their homes, gardens, animals and any other possessions they could not immediately take with them, but they lost their jobs as well, all this occurring in a time period of from ten days to 24 hours depending on the case.

Most agregados were simply informed that they had to leave their homes immediately. Those fortunate enough to get a ten day notice received this eviction notice:

“The house and land which you occupy in the Municipality of Vieques was acquired by the United States under judgment of the Federal Court which granted the right of immediate possession. You will be required to vacate this property within ten days from the start of this notice. Should you wish to move to another site on Federal property you will be assigned to a suitable area by the Officer-in-Charge of the Project upon execution by you of an agreement setting for the terms upon which your occupancy of the site is permitted.”

This notice was signed by J. C. Gebhard, “Captain (CEC), U.S.N.”

Almost three quarters of the island ended up in Navy hands and the displaced families were relocated into the center of the island onto razed sugar cane fields marked off in 200 square foot plots. They were not given title to this land, not allowed to exchange lots and were told that they would face eviction with a notice of 24 hours at the navy’s discretion.

“They gave us a paper that said we had to leave within 24 hours. My parents had two wooden houses. We had animals such as chickens, pigs, goats, horses and cows. For us, this was everything. The horse was our means of transportation; to go shopping, to go to the doctor.

“In spite of being very poor, we lived well. We grew everything on our land, all kinds of fruits and vegetables which we shared with everyone. My father was a hard worker and he maintained four gardens in which were planted plantains, bananas, potatoes, yautía, oranges and all kinds of vegetables. He even learned how to grow rice and how to prepare it. In the house where we lived, we had 20 mango trees, which people called the mango grove of Don Domingo, which was my father’s name.

“As I was only 11 years old, I did not understand my father’s great anguish. The worst was that we could not sell anything that we had because everyone else was in the same position. We had to go and leave everything: animals, crops and our dreams. Nobody cared and nobody helped us.

“We lived in Mosquito in Barrio Blaidín. To me this was paradise as it must have been to all the families who were fortunate enough to live there. When we had to leave it was as if we were being sent into exile in a foreign country. As we had to leave immediately, my father found it necessary to rent a small straw hut in the Barrio Puerto Real. My father was able to put together $300. As we did not want to go to an area called Santa Maria which was mostly bush in those days, he wanted us to settle somewhere else and with the money, papa was able to buy a house with two acres of land.

“It is still fresh in my mind the moment that my father with the aid of my brothers put all of our belongings onto a rented truck. We had to make the move in one trip for that was all my father could afford. We loaded as much as we could with the help of the driver. As there were so few trucks in those days, they gave preference to those who had to take apart their house, and being that ours was just a move, we had to do it in the middle of the night. Everybody was in a state of panic, taking down their houses before the bulldozer came and left us with nothing because they had threatened that if we did not leave on time, they would tear down the house, with everything in it, whether there were people inside or not. I remember the neighbors commenting that you have to get up early to gather everything before the “pig” arrives. That is what the people called the bulldozer.”
Vieques, Sesenta Años de Bombardeos en Tiempos de Paz, Cruz Cordero Ventura

The promise of employment on a poor island mitigated the shock of the forced relocations, and in fact the building of the base, which included the massive seawall and concrete warehouses for the storage of armaments, did bring about a period of full employment and relative prosperity.

This lasted for only for a few years. When the German Army became bogged down in Russia, the base-building effort became less critical. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the whole strategy of concentrating the Atlantic Fleet in one area was put into question.

Work on the base stopped as quickly as it began. The Viequenses were left worse off than ever. With the expropriation of the sugar lands there was no industry and no jobs. Their relocated homes did not offer them the alternative of living off the land, raising animals and planting fruit trees and gardens. With vast majority of the land restricted they also lacked access to the lagoons and to the coast, which in the past provided food such as fish, conch, whelk and land crabs.

Thus began an era of 60 years of Navy occupation of Vieques.