Lolita Lebrón
Dolores "Lolita" Lebron Sotomayor (b. 1919) is an active advocate for Puerto Rican independence. She was a leader of a group of nationalists who attacked the United States House of Representatives in 1954.
Early years
Lolita Lebron was born in Lares, Puerto Rico), 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. Lebron 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 Lebron was a stern believer in the idea of Puerto Rican independence.[citation needed]
In the 1940s Lebron left for New York City, leaving behind her daughter Gladys, 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.
Nationalist
In New York, she became a follower of Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos, leader of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. Lebron participated in many of the meetings of nationalist party held in the Puerto Rican barrios of that city. In the early 1950s, 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 drawing international attention to the changing form of Puerto Rico's continued colonial status. The plan included an attack on the House of Representatives.
Attacking the U.S. House of Representatives
The attack on the Blair House was carried out by Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola on November 1, 1950, resulting in the death of Torresola and a White House police officer. After this the group continued to plan attacks. Albizu Campos had been corresponding with 34-year-old Lebron from prison and chose her, a woman 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 Jones-Shafroth Act that made Puerto Ricans U.S. citizens . Lebron's mission was to bring world attention to Puerto Rico's independence cause.
When Lebron'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. Lebron claimed that she 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 bullet hole still marks the desk used by Republicans when they speak on the floor of the House.[citation needed] Upon being arrested, Lebron yelled "I did not come to kill anyone, I came to die for Puerto Rico!".
Lebron and her comrades were charged with attempted murder and other crimes, and sentenced to death. The sentence was later changed to life imprisonment. Lolita was imprisoned in the Federal Correctional Institution for Women in Alderson, West Virginia. Lebron's daughter Gladys died in 1977.
Later years
In 1979 President Jimmy Carter pardoned Lolita Lebron, Irving Flores, and Rafael Cancel Miranda after they had served 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. Lebron 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. Lebron appeared as a witness at the "International Tribunal on Violations of Human Rights in Puerto Rico and Vieques" held on November 17-21, 2000 on the island of Vieques. According to the local newspaper El Vocero, her audience applauded when Lebron 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, Lebron 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. Lebron had already served 23 days in jail since her arrest in June, leaving her to serve 37 additional days. On May 1, 2003, the Navy left Vieques and turned over its facilities to the government of Puerto Rico.
As of 2007, Lebron is married to Dr. Sergio Irizarry and continues to participate in pro-independence activities.
Honors
Lebron has received many honors. The artist Octavio Ocampo created a poster of Lebron that was exhibited at the Galería de la Raza in San Francisco, California. In Chicago's Humboldt Park there is a mural depicting Lebron among other illustrious Puerto Ricans. Among the books written about Lebron are The Ladies Gallery:A Memoir of Family Secrets by Irene Vilar (Lebrón's granddaughter), translated by Gregory Rabassa (earlier published as "A Message from God in the Atomic Age") and Lolita la Prisonera by Federico Ribes Tovar.
Writer, director and film producer Judith Escalona is planning to make a film about Lebron's life.[1]
It should be noted, that these honors have been bestowed on her by people outside of Puerto Rico. Lebron is not seen in the same light by most Puerto Ricans, and her dimming star remains within the Independence Party of Puerto Rico.
See also
References
- Edward F. Ryan, The Washington Post, March 2, 1954, pp.1, 12-13.