[News] Lolita Lebrón, a bold fighter for Puerto Rican independence

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Lolita Lebrón, a bold fighter for Puerto Rican independence

By Carlos ‘Carlito’ Rovira
http://socialismandliberation.org/mag/index.php?aid=574


Throughout Puerto Rican history, women have 
played an exemplary and leading role in the 
struggle against colonialism and oppression. 
Political and military leaders like Mariana 
Bracetti, Lola Rodríguez De Tío, Juana Colón, 
Blanca Canales and many others, have been models 
of courage and devotion to the struggle for 
independence and self-determination.

One of the most widely known and respected women 
from the 20th century Puerto Rican liberation struggle is Lolita Lebrón.

Lolita came from a poor, working-class family. 
She was born in the year 1920, when U.S. colonial 
rule in Puerto Rico was open and brutal, with 
rampant social misery. Her family lived in the 
legendary city of Lares, known for the 1868 “El 
Grito de Lares” uprising against Spanish 
colonialism and chattel slavery in Puerto Rico.

The hardships her family faced during her youth, 
brought upon by the tightening of U.S. 
colonialism’s economic dominance in the country, 
contributed to Lolita Lebrón’s strong character. 
As a young woman, like so many of her 
compatriots, she decided to leave Puerto Rico in 
1940 in search of a better life.

After World War II and into the 1960s, an average 
of 63,000 people migrated annually to the United 
States from Puerto Rico. By the end of this 
migration, nearly half of the Puerto Rican nation 
would be uprooted. They were pushed off their 
land in order to make way for lucrative 
agricultural and mining industries. This was an 
aspect of Washington’s colonial policy in the 
interests of giant capitalist corporations but at 
the expense of the Puerto Rican masses.

Lolita Lebrón settled in New York City’s East 
Harlem, then the largest community of Puerto 
Ricans outside of Puerto Rico. Like so many who 
migrated to find work in New York City, Lolita 
was employed as a stitcher in the city’s garment 
district. She immediately came face to face with 
the racism and exploitation that defines life for 
immigrant workers in the United States.

The Nationalist Party

Having a proud sense of her self-identity and a 
strong belief in the cause for Puerto Rico’s 
independence, Lolita increasingly developed 
resentment for the presence of a foreign invader 
in the homeland she adored. And because Lolita 
witnessed first hand the suffering of her people 
who were compelled by colonialism to migrate to a 
distant land to endure racism and discrimination, 
she joined the New York committee of the 
Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico, led by Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos.

The Nationalist Party was banned in 1938. It 
continued its activities under intense 
repression, especially following the 1950 Jayuya 
uprising and the attempted assassination in the 
same year of President Harry S. Truman by 
Nationalists Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola 
in retaliation for the crackdown that followed 
Jayuya. During the anti-communist, anti-labor and 
racist witch-hunts of the McCarthy era, the 
Nationalist Party committee in New York City 
secretly operated under the name “Movimiento 
Libertador” (Liberation Movement).

The New York committee served as a rear guard 
within the colonizing country to gather political 
and financial support for the movement in Puerto 
Rico. They held many public meetings with the 
hope of organizing the Puerto Rican community and 
to draw allies around the issue of independence.

Colonizers shift tactics

Taking advantage of the imprisonment of the 
revolutionary leadership, the U.S. government 
shifted its methods to disguise its role as 
colonizers. The governorship of Puerto Rico was 
no longer to be a military official appointed by 
the U.S. president. Instead, the U.S. granted 
supposedly “free elections” from among Puerto 
Rican candidates who were approved exclusively by 
the U.S. rulers. In addition, in 1952 the 
U.S.-dominated United Nations was persuaded to 
approve a resolution that designated the case of 
Puerto Rico as an internal matter of the United States.

Faced with this new reality, anti-colonial 
activists had to find new tactics to expose the 
colonial reality that Puerto Rico still 
experienced. Albizu Campos put out a call to 
carry out any form of action that would highlight 
the criminal nature of the U.S. domination of Puerto Rico.

A group of members from the New York 
committee­Rafael Cancel Miranda, Andrés Figueroa 
Cordero, Irvin Flores and Lolita Lebrón­secretly 
prepared to respond to Albizu Campos’s call. For 
many weeks and months the four patriots met to 
discuss the target, chosen with no regard for 
their own personal safety or survival.

With no mention of their plan to their families 
or friends, the four left for Washington, 
expecting never to return. Their only concern was 
to achieve the political objective in the action they were to take.

A bold and daring attack

On the morning of March 1, 1954, members of the 
House of Representatives were meeting to discuss 
immigration policy and the government of 
democratically elected President Jacobo Árbenz of 
Guatemala­a government that the CIA overthrew in 
November of that year. The four patriots calmly 
entered the Capitol building, passing through the 
lobby and up the stairs to a balcony designated for visitors.

As the proceedings went on, the Nationalists 
unfurled the Puerto Rican flag. Lolita Lebrón 
then shouted, “Que viva Puerto Rico libre!” 
Within seconds of brandishing and aiming their 
automatic weapons, the four revolutionaries opened fire on the U.S. Congress.

Gunfire broke out and bullets whistled through 
the air. Panic erupted in the chamber. Many 
congressional figures and their staff began 
screaming as they frantically pushed one another 
to get to the exit doors. Others avoided being 
shot by running to hide underneath tables and behind chairs.

Before it ended, 30 rounds were fired. Five 
congressmen were wounded. All government 
buildings were shut down, and security throughout 
the city of Washington was increased.

The four Nationalists were immediately 
apprehended. The mass media launched a campaign 
to demonize them and the whole Puerto Rican 
independence movement. The four were ultimately 
convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.

As the Puerto Rican people mounted their struggle 
for the right of self-determination in Puerto 
Rico and in the United States during the upsurge 
of the 1960s and 1970s, more and more people 
raised the demand for the immediate release of 
Puerto Rican political prisoners. Thanks to the 
diplomatic work and solidarity of the Cuban 
revolutionary government, an international 
campaign galvanized widespread support for their release.

The political pressure paid off in 1979, when 
President Jimmy Carter granted amnesty to Lolita 
Lebrón, Rafael Cancel Miranda, Andrés Figueroa 
Cordero, Irvin Flores as well as Oscar Collazo. 
All five were released from prison.

The bold action taken by the four Puerto Rican 
patriots was an event that shocked the 
imperial-minded men of privilege­a shock that the 
U.S. ruling class has never forgotten. The 
colonizers of Puerto Rico never imagined that the 
people they victimized would dare such a bold act 
within the capital of the empire.

What Lolita, Rafael, Andrés and Irvin did on that 
day symbolizes not only the fury of the colonized 
Puerto Rican nation but of every oppressed people 
that strives for a world without imperialist oppression.

¡Que viva Puerto Rico libre!
Articles may be reprinted with credit to Socialism and Liberation magazine.


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