Dylcia Noemi Pagán

Her involvement began in the civil rights movement, participating in voter registration drives and doing community organizational working in the areas of housing, health, youth development and research. She also worked for (CDA) Community Development Agency evaluating poverty programs throughout the City of New York. In the late 60’s Ms. Pagán ran for public office as a candidate for District Leader. She also ran as a delegate to the Democratic Convention on Shirley Chisholm’s ticket during her presidential candidacy.

Sometime in 1979 she went underground with her son and was arrested in 1980, charged with Seditious Conspiracy, for fighting for the Independence of Puerto Rico and was sentenced to 63 years of imprisonment in state and federal facilities in the USA. Read more...

Luisa Capetillo

 “When there is no longer the need to steal a roll of bread, for lack of food; when private property no longer exists and we all begin to view each other as brothers and sisters, then and only then will the prisons and useless, destructive churches disappear. Misery, hate and prostitution will cease to exist. Free trade will exist because all frontiers and borders will be abolished and then true liberty will reign on this planet” – Luisa Capetillo

Luisa Capetillo was born in Arecibo, Puerto Rico on October 28, 1879 and was educated at home by her parents, where she received a more liberal education than what most young women could expect to receive at that time in Puerto Rico and throughout Latin America. Eventually, she adopted an anarchist philosophy and politic and it was those ideas and ideals that she would live by for the rest of her life.

Luisa was baptized as a Catholic, but rejected the concept of religion. But unlike other anarchists, Luisa considered herself to be a "good Christian", who simply rejected the rigid dogmas and rituals and believed that the Catholic Church was allied with the ruling class. She insisted instead that true Christianity was to be found in the eradication of oppression and exploitation.

At first, Luisa embroidered shirts and handkerchiefs in order to help support her family, but soon secured a position as a lectora (reader) in one of Arecibo’s tobacco factories. The reader, or lectora, would entertain and educate the workers by reading to them from local and international newspapers, books on socialist and anarchist philosophy, and also from novels chosen by the workers themselves, while the workers would select, cut and coil tobacco leaves to produce cigars. Read more...

Filiberto Ojeda Ríos

On Friday, September 23, 2005, Filiberto Ojeda Ríos, a Puerto Rican independence leader, and leader of the militant group known as Los Macheteros, was hunted down by U.S. Federal Agents in the western town of Hormigueros, Puerto Rico, and killed. The Federal Bureau of Investigation claims they came to “arrest” him, while Federal investigators also estimate more than 100 shots were fired by the agents. Of those 100 or more shots, one hit the Macheteros leader, puncturing his lung. The Federal agents came and arrested his life partner, Elma Beatriz Rosado Barbosa, and left Filiberto to bleed to death, as agents remained outside, awaiting orders. Read more...

Dolores "Lolita" Lebrón Sotomayor

LOLITA LEBRON:
A woman who symbolizes resistance

"…may young people rise up every day…with the nationalist flag in hand to fight for independence..."

"Puerto Rico needs women like Lolita, Viva Lolita!," chanted dozens of people in front of the Athenium building in San Juan's historic quarter, where they awaited the arrival of the hearse bearing the body of the veteran fighter.

The on-line edition of El nuevo día, described the scene: "At 9:42 p.m., when the line waiting stretched up to the nearby Casa Olímpica, a group of women joined hands to meet the cortege bringing the body of the former political prisoner. It arrived, without anyone expecting it, against the traffic, as a final act of disobedience against the established order."

Dolores "Lolita" Lebrón Sotomayor whose will they could not break during the 25 years that she was incarcerated in the United States, was however, defeated by illness. Follow this link to learn more.

Learn more about José ‘Chegüí’ Torres.

José ‘Chegüí’ Torres, 72, Boxing
Hall of Famer and Official, Dies

By Richard Goldstein
The New York Times, January 19, 2009

José Torres, a former light-heavyweight champion who became a boxing official and a literary presence in the sport as a biographer of Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson, died Monday in Ponce, P.R. He was 72.

José Torres, left, in his 1965 title-bout win over Willie Pastrano.
The cause was a heart attack, his wife, Ramonita Ortiz, told The Associated Press.

Fighting professionally from 1958 to 1969, Torres had a record of 41-3-1. He captured the light-heavyweight crown in March 1965 when the referee stopped his fight with Willie Pastrano after the ninth round. After three title defenses, Torres lost the championship to Dick Tiger of Nigeria on a decision in December 1966. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1997.

Torres was the chairman of the New York State Athletic Commission from 1984 to 1988, becoming the first former professional boxer and the first Latino to head the agency, which oversees boxing in the state. Click here to read the rest from The New York Times.

Edgardo Vega Yunqué, Puerto Rican Novelist

Puerto Rican writer Edgardo Vega Yunqué, who founded the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural Center in the lower East Side, has died, his literary agent said yesterday. He was 72.

The author of 17 novels, who was born in Cidra, Puerto Rico, and lived alone in Brooklyn, died at Lutheran Hospital on Aug. 25, the agent, Tom Colchie, said.

It was not clear yesterday why it took so long to know of his death. The cause of death is not yet known, Colchie added. A spokesman for Lutheran Hospital couldn’t be reached for comment last night.

Vega Yunqué was “a great American writer as well as a great Puerto Rican writer,” said Colchie.

He added that Vega Yunqué’s best books, such as “Blood Fugues” and “Lamentable Journey of Omaha Bigelow Into the Impenetrable Loisaida Jungle,” “ will become classics."

Rachel/Raquel “Rusty” Villegas
(January 16, 1933  - February 10, 2008)

There is an old but at times useful cliché that says “It takes a village to raise a child.” If that child grows to become one of our village’s elders – whose life was marked by a degree of dedication to the wellbeing and welfare of the village – and who upon passing away, we could add: “It takes a village to say farewell …” to that person. And so last week at Johnston Funeral home, family and members of the community of El Barrio/East Harlem said farewell to Raquel Villegas.

Click here to read the entire article by William Gerena-Rochet...

Don Otilio Díaz, Executive Director of
La Casa de la Herencía Cultural Puertorriqueña

New York, NY, August 25, 2006–Don Otilio Díaz, executive director of La Casa de la Herencia Cultural Puertorriqueña, died peacefully on Monday, August 21, 2006. He was 75. Mr. Díaz had no children, but is survived here in New York City by a sister, a nephew, and many nieces and cousins. A public memorial was held Wednesday, August 30 and Thursday, August 31 at the Julia de Burgos Latino Cultural Center in East Harlem. Religious services were held Friday, September 1 at Saint Cecilia's Church. Mr. Diaz was then buried in his hometown of Guayama, Puerto Rico.

Igor González

Hola Hoy, 4 de junio 2004

[In 2004], Puerto Ricans lost two important figures whose wisdom and enlightenment will prevail in history forever. Pedro Pietri, an important writer and poet, and Richard Pérez, a Puerto Rican activist, died leaving an empty space in our hearts and in the city of New York. Both belonged to the “Young Lords,” a 60s political leftist group comprised of Nuyorican shakers, represented by their powerful voices.

Pietri revived the movement in the late 60s to defend Puerto Rican rights. On the other hand, Pérez, an activist who fought police brutality, helped solve the murders of Anthony Báez and Amadou Diallo, who died in 1994 and 1999, respectively. Pietri, with his lyrical poetry, also helped create the legendary Nuyorican Poets Café, alongside Miguel Algarin, pioneers of this very alive movement today. Both died at the age of 59; victims of cancer. Their legacy will prevail in our memories and always be remembered as the same proverb they used to say. “Poetry forever” and “Pa’lante, siempre pa’lante (always go forward).

David Santiago, a community advocate who fought for black and Hispanic access to public housing projects in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in the 1980's and who more recently coordinated protests against the United States military presence in Vieques, died on Sept. 17 in Fairfax, Va., near his home in Annandale, Va. He was 49.

He died during a liver transplant operation and had fought liver disease since 1999, said his companion, Ida Castro.

From 1979 to 1994, Mr. Santiago was a co-chairman of the Southside Fair Housing Committee, originally called the Williamsburg Fair Housing Committee, a housing advocacy group that accused the New York City Housing Authority of operating a quota system favoring Hasidic families over those of blacks and Hispanics in three housing projects in Williamsburg.

Now, after a series of legal settlements, 42 percent of the projects' units are occupied by nonwhite tenants, compared with 25 percent when the group began its fight, but the two sides are still in court.

Mr. Santiago was also active on many other political fronts, perhaps most prominently in his advocacy for a Congressional district with a Latino majority, which came to fruition in 1991 with the creation of the 12th District, covering parts of the Lower East Side, Brooklyn and Queens. A year later, Nydia Velázquez was elected from the district, becoming the first Puerto Rican woman in Congress.

Mr. Santiago also worked for the 1990 election of Richard Rivera, who became the first Hispanic civil court judge in Brooklyn.

David Santiago was born Dec. 8, 1951, in Brooklyn. He moved to Chicago as a teenager, and in his 20's worked as a labor organizer and political activist throughout the Midwest. He returned to New York in the late 1970's.

In 1994, Mr. Santiago moved to the Washington area, where he worked for the National Puerto Rican Coalition as director of membership and special events, and for the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration as director of regional affairs. He was also a prominent organizer in Washington on the Vieques bombing.

Mr. Santiago was a skilled and outspoken advocate who, friends and colleagues said, always backed up his positions with hard evidence. He eventually returned to school and earned his associate's degree from the University of Virginia in 1999 and was working on a bachelor's degree.

He is survived by Ms. Ida Castro, who was chairwoman of the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission during the Clinton administration; his mother, Tomasita Santiago; his children, Nivea, Nicasio and Gabriel Santiago; and two grandchildren.