Episode 2 Lolita Lebron

In this episode of Arroz con Crime, the host discusses the uprisings in Puerto Rico in 1950 and the legacy of Lolita Lebron. Lolita Lebron, born in 1919, became politically active after the Ponce Massacre in 1937, where civilians were killed during a peaceful protest. She moved to New York City in 1941 and experienced discrimination against Puerto Ricans. Lolita joined the nationalist party and fought against oppressive laws, including the Gag Law, which criminalized displaying the Puerto Rican flag and discussing independence. The revolts in 1950 were a result of these oppressive laws. Lolita Lebron and her group later attacked the U.S. Capitol in 1954 to bring attention to the situation in Puerto Rico. Five representatives were injured in the attack. The media portrayed Lolita Lebron in different ways, but she was known among Puerto Ricans as a fighter for independence. content warning this story describes depictions of gun violence welcome to this episode of arroz con crime i am your host rebecca and i am co-host of this episode thanos today we will be discussing the series of uprisings which left a total of 28 dead and 49 wounded at the end these revolts were carried out on october 30th 1950 in several towns in puerto rico the culmination of which led up to the 1954 attack on the u.s capital this is the legacy of lolita lebron dolores lebron soto mayor was born on november 19 1919 in lares puerto rico she was one of five children her family lived on several haciendas growing up in which her father was the foreman she was nicknamed lolita and won beauty pageants as a teenager in lares early on she joined the liberal party in puerto rico but she wasn't really very involved in the political happenings on the island that is until march 21st 1937 when at the age of 18 lolita lebron hears the news about the ponce massacre which we discussed in episode 1 wherein 17 civilians and two police officers who were killed by friendly fire were murdered by the insular police during a peaceful protest this included 7 and 13 year old girls that is when she began to truly adopt more of a nationalistic view or ideology in 1941 lolita lebron and her then boyfriend a poet francisco matos paoli moved to new york city after she was told the united states was paradise she quickly learned it was no paradise for puerto ricans or for anyone who was considered other she herself experienced and saw others experience discrimination at the factory where she worked as a seamstress as well as other spaces for example she saw signs posted in different businesses that said such indignant things as no blacks no dogs no puerto ricans and different variations of the same this radicalized her further and she joined the nationalist party where she eventually worked her way up the ranks working directly with pedro albizu campo the first puerto rican to graduate from harvard law and the president of the nationalist party she gained influence over the party and was able to incorporate her own socialist and feminist ideals into the party's goals eventually she moved back to the island the unrest on the island she found continued to grow as the acts and laws being implemented by the united states appointed government of puerto rico became more and more suppressive in 1948 the legislature enacted la ley de la mordaza the gag law lawmakers insisted its purpose was to de-escalate the rise in support of the independence movement in puerto rico and into diaspora when in reality it was oppressing all puerto ricans on the island and throughout the diaspora the act which was later signed into law made it a crime to display or even own a puerto rican flag sing the puerto rican national anthem or have a meeting or assembly of any type to discuss the independence of puerto rico francisco mato paoli the poet lolita le rome moved to new york city with in 1941 was arrested and imprisoned for 10 years for displaying a puerto rican flag and for writing speeches on puerto rican independence the law allowed police to enter your home without a warrant to search and seize your property if you were accused of owning a puerto rican flag the law wasn't repealed until 1957 when it was recognized as unconstitutional as per article 2 of the puerto rican constitution and the first amendment of the u.s constitution so thenos i'd like to get your opinion on this what do you think of the gag law how would you feel if you were told you could not display any type of pride in being a puerto rican here in america or on the island or even playing the national anthem being a proud puerto rican you see how we are we're always displaying our flags and singing songs and and really celebrating being puerto rican today we're able to do that but how would you feel if you were literally told you would go to jail 10 years in prison for just having a puerto rican flag well of course my first thought would be this obviously doesn't make any sense obviously doesn't mean anything to anybody else outside of our and shouldn't mean anything outside of our group but obviously any type of display of any type of pride of any other nationality at that time of course was going to make people in america specifically white americans uncomfortable and at that time i'm pretty sure that i would understand that but having been raised in today's time and with today's perspective i would want to go against it full force of course i would get upset and i would be in the exact same shoes as lolita but do you think you would feel that way back then absolutely i do um because even though we have it you know a bit better today and we you know we're a bit freer to express opinions and to express things at that time they would always advertise that about america freedom of speech freedom to be yourself so it would upset me so much to the point that i would feel like i would want to do something i would want to go against them i would want to be a part of the liberal party we're supposed to be american citizens so even though we're an island apart from the mainland we're supposed to technically have all the rights of a united states citizen so first amendment should have been instantly no of course they can fly their flags and say what they want to say and sing their songs because they're american citizens and it's freedom of speech issue but instead there was always inherent segregation there was always that sort of ideology in america especially at that time so it just doesn't surprise me right but it is unfortunate and it is horrible i couldn't imagine being there at that time in her shoes especially agreed now this was during a time where roughly 61 000 puerto ricans were fighting in the korean war fighting for a country where they weren't allowed the freedom to fly their own flag or sing their own national anthem and so all over the island and in the diaspora the state of unrest continued to grow the revolts of october 30th 1950 were a result of years of these oppressive laws like this one being forced upon a people by autocratic despotic leadership laws that would be instantly considered unconstitutional in any of the 50 states our family migrated to the mainland in the 1950s because of the korean war and so the first one here was actually my uncle your father's godfather he went to new york city in the 1950s he was fighting in the korean war and our family followed so your grandpa your great-grandpa my grandpa and the rest of the siblings along with my great-grandma all came to the united states after he went to fight in the korean war and that's how we came to be on the mainland in america how do you even know that during the uprisings in and nationalists cut the phone lines and burned the local post office then they raised the puerto rican flag in the middle of town square in defiance of the gag law in retaliation major general luis r estevez used a p-47 thunderbolt attack aircraft to drop 500 pound bombs over the towns leaving them in ruin nationalists were outraged at the counter-attack and they went back to planning in 1952 the governor of puerto rico luis muñoz marín signed a pact making puerto rico a commonwealth of the united states creating the political structure we still have active today which rafael cancer miranda states the u.s. portrayed puerto ricans as happy slaves the party felt the possibility of a free puerto rico was dwindling and more extreme measures had to be taken after a failed attempt on president truman's life they planned what would be their final act a final attempt to bring attention to what was actually happening on the island as they were trying to garner support from other countries but the news was not reporting the actual happenings and using a narrative that portrayed it as situations or incidents between puerto ricans on the island so on march 1st 1954 rafael cancer miranda irving flores and andre figueroa led by lolita lebron bought one-way tickets from new york city to washington dc as they believed they would not be returning alive they entered the united states capital building and went upstairs to the visitors gallery where lolita lebron took the seat directly behind the speaker of the house more than 240 house members sat in the house of representatives that day they were in the midst of debating mexico's economy and an immigration bill when lolita lebron gives the signal and her and her group stand reciting the lord's prayer she then unravels a puerto rican flag while yelling viva puerto rico libre long live a free puerto rico the group then opened fire loud pops echoed off the walls and muzzle flashes could be seen through the gun smoke while shards of plaster fell and dust floated down like thick gray snow over the fray in the mayhem five representatives were shot and injured representative james van zandt a navy veteran was able to wrestle the gun away from one of the assailants another man frank wise was able to subdue rafael cancer miranda though mr wise stated cancer miranda didn't really put up a fight a doorman who confronted lolita lebron stated while trying to subdue her she fought like a tiger the media in the 1950s didn't know what to make of her remember this is the 1950s women had just won the right to vote only 30 years prior that only applied to white women in the country black people won their right to vote in 1965 and latin americans along with other ethnicities whose first language was not english became eligible to vote in 1975 but in the 1950s women were still very much viewed as submissive housewives for the most part so here they had a beautiful latin woman in a blazer and pencil skirt with bright red lips walking into a government building with a Luger pistol shooting it up some papers described her as a terrorist leader and some as an attractive trim divorcee while amongst the majority of Puerto Rican she was known as the Puerto Rican Joan of Art an unrelenting freedom fighter and a hero right after their arrest they did a press conference i don't know how common this was that after an arrest the perpetrators are then brought to a room before press to answer questions but they did it with them like what do you think of that do you think we should do that today like okay you just committed this mass atrocity or whatever it is let's go do some press probably not because there are a lot of crimes being committed nowadays that have no meaning ultimately that try to or act like they do and aren't really saying much of anything so nowadays probably not but back then yeah yes in this situation yes yeah that makes sense i mean it probably really helped their cause if anything because that's that was their goal was to show america and other countries this is why we're doing this crazy stuff like we're not just doing it to do it we need your attention because we need your help so it probably helped some somewhat that was the most fortunate thing that could have happened in that situation for me i agree during this press conference a reporter asked her did you shoot to kill in congress her response not to kill another reporter asked her what was the purpose of the shooting her answer the purpose of the shooting was a cry for freedom for my country when asked if she was sorry she very matter-of-factly looked at the crowd with a small shrug stated oh i'm not sorry a voice in the crowd said what did you say miss and she repeated i'm not sorry because it was an act of freedom for my country police later found a letter a sort of manifesto where she wrote before god and the world my blood claims for the independence of puerto rico my life i give for the freedom of my country this is a cry for victory in our struggle for independence the united states of america are betraying the sacred principles of mankind their continuous subjugation of my country i take responsibility for all of it i mean what do you think of that um that's a hard link that whole quote goes hard that's that's my entire yeah yeah for sure the four nationalists along with 13 other members of the party were arrested and indicted for seditious conspiracy now seditious conspiracy makes it illegal to try to overthrow or oppose the authority of the u.s government by force lolita lebron rafael cancel miranda ervin flores and andres figueroa faced several charges including attempted murder according to the court transcripts the prosecutor attorney rover during cross-examination asked one of the nationalists it doesn't specify who but i want you and i to go ahead and read this thanos if you would all right so thanos will be the attorney and i will be the nationalist answering the questions but you knew of course that shooting loaded pistols into the chamber of the house of representatives might seriously injure some of those gentlemen or might even kill some of them isn't that right yes sir i know that because the government do a lot of shooting and they show us that they can kill you know and they can do everything i know that the bullet can make damage i know that true from your government so you were perfectly satisfied to kill any of these men no i'm not perfectly satisfied to kill anyone when cross-examining cancel miranda specifically he asked him why did you not use blank cartridges for this demonstration because when the united states went into puerto rico they did not use blank cartridges it is assumed the nationalist meant the u.s invasion of 1898 on puerto rico as well as the more recent helio piedra and ponce massacres when the insular police led by u.s appointed governor plantin winship shot and killed innocent civilians in their search for nationalist members they were sentenced to a minimum of 50 years she was offered parole several times in exchange for a public apology and she refused every single time what do you think of that badass completely in 1979 president jimmy carter commuted their sentences after 25 years in prison lolita lebron and the other members went home and were received with open arms as heroes by the citizens of their beloved island since then the survivors continued their advocacy where she spent months at a time in prison for protesting such things as the military occupation of the acres where its residents were dying of cancer in unprecedented numbers due to the chemical weapons being stored and deployed during their trainings finally in 2003 the military occupation ended and the land was returned to puerto rico 2003 it was a year maybe less you were almost a year old right if not less so in your time of being alive in this country they were using the island to test chemical instruments of war of course and so the people on the island were getting cancer in droves and they couldn't they didn't have any other explanation for it like it has to be these chemicals that you're storing here and so for years and years and years they fought this and finally 2003 the military left of course it's not surprising to me that things like this happen all the time whenever they need to test anything they really do not care unless it's on american soil that's the only time they'll actually care and actually do something about it if it's not on american soil what what they consider american soil then they really just do not care about it and it's just really not surprising to me which is sad period lolita lebron died august 1st 2010 at 90 years old still actively fighting for the liberation of the island she loved so much many puerto ricans continue to fight for the rights of puerto ricans as american citizens and others continue to fight for the island's freedom from colonization people such as new york democratic representative nydia m velasquez who was the first puerto rican woman to be elected to congress and stated status affects everything in 2022 the congresswoman helped introduce a bill that would have allowed puerto ricans on the island to choose among statehood free association and independence in a referendum the bill passed the house but didn't pass the senate puerto rico remains split on the issue of wanting independence and wanting statehood so i know you and i we we're in the diaspora right we don't we don't live on the island but we have family that does and so hearing these stories and knowing the history that has happened between the united states and puerto rico would you be more for statehood or more for independence or do you have an opinion on that at all at this point from even just hearing this story and even outside of this everything that i've heard from before about puerto rico and what they what they've been going through and what they continue to go through i honestly still do not know whether being a part of the states would be more beneficial because this entire time they've been a territory of america nobody has done anything for the island nobody has done anything to help the island if anything they've done everything within their power to make the island worse and worse and worse so whether they be independent or whether they do become a part of the united states i honestly don't know whether it would be beneficial for them to become a part of the states because it could just be another gentrification it could just be more enforcement of the united states on their overall you know people and their overall culture and their politics so i honestly don't know between the two that's i agree it's hard because you know if they get their independence i would assume they should get some type of a reparation considering all the money all the reparations right considering all the money that the united states have made off of the island and and taken from the island like i would say give them their reparations and then set them free or if they're going to be a state then they need to be treated as a state and given everything that comes with statehood without intrusion without intrusion absolutely um or more intrusion than has already been imposed on them so it's tough because again we don't live on the island but we have family you know my brother still lives there aunts cousins um just recently my mother just moved out of there and back into the states so it's it's a hard question it's a hard question because a lot goes into either one the spirit and the legend of lolita lebron lives on in all who fight for the island's rights whether you believe in its complete autonomy or statehood it's about the desire for the betterment of the island and its people if you have a story of a crime committed in puerto rico or in caribbean history that you'd like me to discuss please feel free to email me at we the diaspora 1898 at gmail.com thank you for listening to this episode of arroz con crime i hope you learned something felt something and may you always have the courage to speak up and do something and remember whether you call it or something else i'm glad you're here you want to say your goodbye um thank you goodbye