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<font size=3>Lolita Lebrón, a bold fighter for Puerto Rican independence
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By Carlos ‘Carlito’ Rovira <br>
<a href="http://socialismandliberation.org/mag/index.php?aid=574" eudora="autourl">
http://socialismandliberation.org/mag/index.php?aid=574<br><br>
<br>
</a>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.<br><br>
One of the most widely known and respected women from the 20th century
Puerto Rican liberation struggle is Lolita Lebrón.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
<b>The Nationalist Party<br><br>
</b>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.<br><br>
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). <br><br>
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.<br><br>
<b>Colonizers shift tactics<br><br>
</b>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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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. <br><br>
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.<br><br>
<b>A bold and daring attack<br><br>
</b>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.
<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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. <br><br>
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. <br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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. <br><br>
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.<br><br>
¡Que viva Puerto Rico libre!<br>
Articles may be reprinted with credit to Socialism and Liberation
magazine. <br><br>
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