Manuel Rojas Luzardo was a Puerto Rican-Venezuelan commander of the Puerto Rican Liberation Army and one of the main leaders of the Grito de Lares uprising against Spanish rule in Puerto Rico.
Manuel Rojas Luzardo
Manuel Rojas house in 1965
Grito de Lares, also referred to as the Lares revolt, the Lares rebellion, the Lares uprising, or the Lares revolution, was the first of two short-lived revolts against Spanish rule in Puerto Rico, staged by the Revolutionary Committee of Puerto Rico on September 23, 1868. Having been planned, organized, and launched in the mountainous western municipality of Lares, the revolt is known as the Grito de Lares . Three decades after rebelling in Lares, the revolutionary committee carried out a second unsuccessful revolt in the neighboring southwestern municipality of Yauco, known as the Intentona de Yauco (The Attempted Coup of Yauco). The Grito de Lares flag is recognized as the first flag of Puerto Rico.
Grito de Lares
Original Revolutionary Flag of the Grito de Lares, c. 1868
The city's nickname, Ciudad del Grito can be seen on an overpass as one enters Lares.
Ramón Emeterio Betances, co-leader of the revolt