Lolita Lebrón
Encyclopedia : L : LO : LOL : Lolita Lebrón
Lolita Lebrón (born Dolores Lebrón Sotomayor in 1920 in Lares, Puerto Rico) is an active advocate for Puerto Rican independence. She was the leader of a group of nationalists who attacked the United States House of Representatives in 1954.
Lebrón was born in Lares, a town best known for El Grito de Lares, a revolt for independence against Spain which occurred on September 23, 1868. Her parents were poor: her father was a foreman at a local coffee plantation and her mother was a homemaker. Lebrón had uncommonly good looks and when she was a teenager won first place in the annual "Queen of the Flowers of May" beauty contest held in Lares. From a young age Lebrón was a stern believer in the idea of Puerto Rican independence.
In the 1940's Lebrón left for New York City, leaving behind her daughter Gladys (born out of wedlock), in search of a better way of life. Instead, she became a victim of the racial discrimination which was rampant in the United States at that time. She worked as a seamstress during the day and went to school at night. She was briefly married and had a son, whom she sent to Puerto Rico to live with her mother.
In New York, she became a follower Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos, leader of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. Lebrón participated in many of the meetings of nationalist party held in the Puerto Rican barrios of that city. In the early 1950's, angered by Puerto Rico's new commonwealth status with the United States, the Nationalist Party staged various uprisings in Puerto Rico, among them the Jayuya Uprising and developed a plan that would involve an attack on the Blair House with the intention of assassinating United States President Harry S. Truman and also an attack on the House of Representatives.
The attack on the Blair House was carried out by Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola on November 1, 1950. Albizu Campos had been corresponding with 34-year-old Lebrón from prison and chose her, a women he had never met, as the leader of a group of nationalists who included Rafael Cancel Miranda, Irving Flores and Andrés Figueroa Cordero to attack the United States House of Representatives. The date for the attack on the House of Representatives was to be March 1, 1954. The date was chosen because it was the anniversary of the 1917 law that made Puerto Ricans U.S. citizens. Lebrón's mission was to bring world attention to Puerto Rico's independence cause. When Lebrón's group reached the visitor's gallery above the chamber in the House, she stood up and shouted "¡Viva Puerto Rico Libre!" ("Long live a Free Puerto Rico!") and unfurled a Puerto Rican flag. Then the group opened fire with automatic pistols. Lebrón fired her shots at the ceiling, while Figueroa's pistol jammed. Some 30 shots were fired (mostly by Cancel, according to his account), wounding five lawmakers; one representative, Alvin Bentley, R-Michigan, was seriously wounded in the chest. A penny-sized bullethole still marks the desk used by Republicans when they speak on the floor of the House. Upon being arrested, Lebrón yelled "I did not come to kill anyone, I came to die for Puerto Rico!".
Lebrón and her comrades were charged with attempted murder and other crimes, and sentenced to death. President Truman had the sentence changed to life imprisonment. Lolita was imprisoned in the Federal Industrial Institution for Women in Alderson, West Virginia. Lebrón's daughter Gladys died in 1977.
In 1979, upon international pressure, President Jimmy Carter pardoned Lolita Lebrón, Irving Flores, and Rafael Cancel Miranda after serving 25 years in prison. Andrés Figueroa Cordero was released from prison earlier because of grave health. Governor of Puerto Rico Carlos Romero Barceló publicly opposed the pardons granted by Carter, stating that it would encourage terrorism and undermine public safety. Lebrón was welcomed by various independence groups as a hero upon her return to the island. She continued to be active in the independence cause and participated in the Vieques protest against the U.S. Navy.
An "International Tribunal on Violations of Human Rights in Puerto Rico and Vieques" was held on November 17–21, 2000 on the island of Vieques. It was called by the "Committee on Human Rights". One of the witnesses was Lolita Lebrón. According to the local newspaper El Vocero, her audience applauded when Lebrón said at the end of her deposition "I had the honor of leading the act against the U.S. Congress on March 1, 1954, when we demanded freedom for Puerto Rico and we told the world that we are an invaded nation, occupied and abused by the United States of America. I feel very proud of having performed that day, of having answered the call of the motherland".
On June 26, 2001, Lebrón was among a group of protesters that were arrested for trespassing in the restricted area in Vieques. On July 19, 2001, she was sentenced to 60 days of prison on the charge that she was trespassing on a U.S. Navy property in Vieques. Lebrón had already served 23 days in jail since her arrest in June, which meant that she only had to serve 37 additional days. On May 1, 2003, the Navy moved out of Vieques and turned over their facilities to the local government of Puerto Rico. Lolita Lebrón is currently married to Dr. Sergio Irizarry and she still continues to participate actively in pro-independence activities.
Lebrón has received many honors. The artist Octavio Ocampo created a poster of Lebrón that was exhibited at the Galería de la Raza in San Francisco, California. In Chicago's Humboldt Park there is a mural depicting Lebrón among other illustrious Puerto Ricans. Among the books written about Lebrón are The Ladies Gallery:A Memoir of Family Secrets by Irene Vilar and Rabassa Gregory Rabassa and Lolita la Prisonera by Federico Ribes Tovar. Writer, director and film producer Judith Escalona is planning to make a film about Lebrón's life. A book written by Lebrón's granddaughter, Irene Vilar (Gladys's daughter), A Message from God in the Atomic Age: A Memoir, recounts what it was like growing up being the granddaughter of Lolita Lebrón and how it affected her and her family. Vilar wrote about the tragedies her family had lived through.
See also
Reference
- Edward F. Ryan, The Wahington Post, March 2, 1954, pp.1, 12-13.
External links
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.