‘The Last American Colony’: Documentary examines Puerto Rican independence movement

Jose Ramon Garcia calls it, in part, a story of redemption.

But it’s much more than that. It’s a story of an island with a fractured and painful history, and of a man with an Ivy League degree who decided to dedicate his life to winning independence for his native Puerto Rico — even if that meant armed struggle against the world’s most powerful nation.

“The Last American Colony” is a documentary film that builds its narrative around Juan Segarra, a Harvard University graduate from the early 1970s who later became a key figure in Los Macheteros (“The Machete Wielders”), a Puerto Rican guerilla group that in the 1970s and early 1980s led a direct action campaign — including the destruction of 10 U.S. military aircraft in Puerto Rico — in its efforts to win independence for the island.

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