Lolita Lebrón

Puerto Rican-born activist

• Born: November 19, 1919
• Birthplace: Lares, Puerto Rico
• Died: August 1, 2010
• Place of death: San Juan, Puerto Rico

Notorious for orchestrating and leading an attack on the U.S. Congress, Lebrón was an ardent advocate for Puerto Rico’s independence from the United States. While condemned as a terrorist by many, Lebrón’s supporters honor her for giving Puerto Rico a voice with which to determine its own identity.

Early Life

Lolita Lebrón (loh-LEE-tah lay-BRON) was born in Lares, Puerto Rico, on November 19, 1919, to Gonzalo Lebrón Bernal and Rafaela Soto Luciano. While the mountain town of Lares was known for its history of political rebellion, Lebrón’s father did not have time for political involvement. As the foreman of a coffee farm in the Pezuelas barrio of Lares, her father worked hard to support her and her four siblings. As a small child, Lebrón attended a small community school where she received a rudimentary education. However, her father eventually relocated his family to Mirasol, where Lebrón had access to a better education at the local public school.

As a teenager in Lares, Lebrón was renowned for her beauty, winning her the local Queen of the Flowers of May beauty contest. During this time, she moved to San Juan in pursuit of her first love and to learn the art of sewing. However, unable to find the man with whom she had fallen in love, Lebrón moved back to Lares to care for her father, who had contracted tuberculosis. After her father’s death, Lebrón earned a living by sewing and making clothing.

While registered with the Liberal Party at a young age, Lebrón’s interest in politics did not surface until she was eighteen years old. In 1937, seventeen Puerto Rican nationalists were killed during a peaceful protest on orders of the American-appointed governor. Angered by what became known as the Massacre of Ponce, Lebrón became a nationalist.

During this time, Lebrón had her first child, Gladys. Seeking work and a better life, she left Gladys with her mother and moved to New York in 1940. While in New York, Lebrón worked in sweatshops as a machinist. On more than one occasion, she was fired for protesting the unfair discrimination against Puerto Ricans. The prejudice Lebrón experienced led her to officially join the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. While working in New York, she took night classes in an effort to further her education. At twenty-two, Lebrón briefly married and gave birth to her son, who was sent to Puerto Rico to live with her mother.

Life’s Work

In 1943, disgusted by the poverty Puerto Rican immigrants faced in the United States, Lebrón increased her involvement in the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. As a party member, she familiarized herself with the ideas of its president, Pedro Albizu Campos. Inspired by his ideas, Lebrón began integrating feminist and socialist principles into the party’s work. Her hard work and passion earned her a number of powerful positions in the party, including that of vice president.

Albizu Campos was arrested in 1950 and found guilty of orchestrating a plot to assassinate President Harry S. Truman. After his imprisonment, Lebrón continued to promote his ideas by spreading the message of Puerto Rican liberation. In 1952, Puerto Rico’s governor signed a commonwealth pact that granted Puerto Ricans self-government but kept the nation subject to the United States. Angered by this decision, Albizu Campos chose Lebrón and three others to carry out an attack on the United States. Lebrón immediately took leadership by studying the plan and choosing the location of the attack.

Lebrón chose the day of the attack to coincide with the Interamerican Conference in Caracas, Venezuela. She hoped that an attack on this date would demonstrate the seriousness of Puerto Rican liberation to the Latin American countries at the conference. On March 1, 1954, Lebrón and her fellow nationalists, Andrés Figueroa Cordero and Irving Flores Rodríguez, took the train from New York to Washington, D.C., where they met Rafael Cancel Miranda. Expecting to die, Lebrón and her companions had purchased one-way tickets. Arriving at the visitor’s gallery in the chambers of the House of Representatives, the nationalists listened while Congress debated an immigration bill. Lebrón gave the order for the attack, shouting “Viva Puerto Rico Libre!”and unfurling a Puerto Rican flag. The attackers fired twenty-nine shots, injuring five congressmen; Lebrón fired eight of these shots directly at the ceiling.

Lebrón was convicted of five counts of assault with a dangerous weapon, as well as conspiracy, and sentenced to serve from sixteen years and eight months to fifty-six years in the Federal Correctional Institute for Women in Alderson, West Virginia. During her first two years in prison, Lebrón’s son and mother died. On two occasions she was offered parole, which she refused, using the offer as an opportunity to make political statements in protest of U.S. foreign policy. Lebrón spent her time in prison studying and writing poetry.

In 1977, Lebrón was given furlough to attend the funeral of her daughter, Gladys, who had died in a car accident. Two years later, Lebrón and her collaborators were pardoned and released from prison by President Jimmy Carter. The pardon is suspected to have been part of a prisoner swap with Cuba. After their release, she and the other nationalists toured the U.S., visiting Puerto Rican communities and rallies. Arriving back in Puerto Rico, she was greeted by crowds of supporters.

Back in Puerto Rico, Lebrón married Sergio Irizarry Rivera, a doctor who had monitored her health in prison. Even after twenty-five years in prison, her passion for Puerto Rican independence had not wavered. Having renounced violence and embraced civil disobedience, Lebrón participated in protests against the U.S. military’s use of the island of Vieques. In 2001, at the age of eighty-one, she was arrested and sentenced to sixty days in jail for trespassing on the military base there.

In 2008, Lebrón began to experience health complications because of a fall that resulted in a fractured hip and arm. In 2009, she suffered a series of heart and respiratory problems that would contribute to her death on August 1, 2010.

Significance

While thought of as a terrorist by many people, Lebrón’s extreme actions for independence had a tremendous impact on many Puerto Ricans. Even though she was unsuccessful in securing independence for Puerto Rico, Lebrón’s actions brought attention to the issue. Her position as a woman leader underscored her uniqueness and visibility. She did not fit the stereotypes of revolutionary male leaders, but her long years in prison gave her similar stature. After her release from prison, Lebrón continued to inspire many young Puerto Ricans advocating for independence, only this time she inspired civil disobedience. Many Puerto Ricans continue to feel a sense of national pride when they think of Doña Lolita.

Bibliography

Ribes Tovar, Federico. Lolita Lebrón, La Prisonera. New York: Plus Ultra Educational, 1974. This book, written in Spanish, is perhaps the most complete biography available on Lolita Lebrón and includes many details from her childhood.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. “1954.” In A Chronological History of Puerto Rico. New York: Plus Ultra Educational, 1973. Not only provides chronological details of Lebrón’s attack on the U.S. Congress and her court trial but also offers historical context by discussing events occurring simultaneously in Puerto Rico.

Roig-Franzia, Manuel. “A Terrorist in the House.” The Washington Post Magazine, February, 24, 2004, W12. While this article provides biographical details of Lebrón’s life, it also imparts stories of Roig-Franzia’s personal interactions with her.

Vilar, Irene. The Ladies Gallery: A Memoir of Family Secrets. New York: Other Press, 2009. Formerly published as A Message from God in the Atomic Age, this memoir by Lebrón’s granddaughter includes family details from three generations, beginning with Lebrón’s life. Lebrón contested many of the stories in her granddaughter’s book.