and his wife at the time, Paquita Pesquera Cantellops, had their first child: Santiago Mari Pesquera (born in 1952). In 1954, he went to study law and political science at George Washington University Law School but was expelled for being a suspected communist thanks to his involvement with the Puerto Rican independence movement. He finally obtained his law degree from American University. During this time he also worked as a research assistant at the Brookings Institution. Political career Pro-Independence Movement On January 11, 1959, Mari Brás founded the Pro-Independence Movement, which grouped Puerto Rican independence followers who supported the Socialist philosophy. Along with César Andreu Iglesias he founded the political newspaper Claridad, which he directed for three decades. On November 28, 1971, at the Pro-Independence Movement's eighth general assembly, the Pro-Independence Movement officially became the Puerto Rican Socialist Party (PSP). A political organization with Marxist-Leninist and nationalist leanings influenced by the Cuban Revolution. In 1973, he spoke before the United Nations about Puerto Rico being a colony of the United States and demanded the decolonization of the island. On March 24, 1976, the eldest of Mari Brás' children, Santiago Mari Pesquera, was murdered while his father was preparing for a gubernatorial run on the Socialist Party ticket. Police investigations have hinted that Mari Pesquera was assassinated in reprisal for his father's political activism. The murder has never been officially solved. In 2009, thanks to the Freedom of Information Act documents were obtained by news stations, Primera Hora, that showed the FBI knew of a plan to assassinate Juan Marí Pesquera, and had not warned him. (They had known for two months and it was Mari Brás' son who was assassinated, in the end.) After losing his son and the election, Mari Bras continued to dedicate his time to campaigning for the independence of Puerto Rico. He was a prolific writer as well as a speaker before various audiences on the issue of the political status of Puerto Rico. Along with being a founding member of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party, he also was a co-founder of the Puerto Rican Independence Party in 1946. After the demise of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party, he and other former party leaders founded the Hostosian National Independence Movement in an attempt to unify the various factions vying for Puerto Rican independence. Professionally he performed as a law professor at the Eugenio María de Hostos