Lebrón, Lolita (1920–)

Dolores Lebrón Sotomayor was born in 1920 in the city of Lares in Puerto Rico. A lifelong advocate of Puerto Rican independence, Lebrón is best known as the passionate leader of the group of Puerto Rican nationalists who in 1954 opened fire on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives in an effort to bring world attention to the impact of U.S. colonial control of her country. For this act, Lebrón and her comrades, Rafael Cancel Miranda, Irving Flores, and Andres Figueroa Cordero, were incarcerated for more than 20 years.

In 1940, Lebrón traveled to New York City in pursuit of a better life. She worked as a seamstress and attended night school. While living in New York, Lebrón faced the deep racism toward Puerto Ricans so rampant at the time. In the late 1940s, she became a loyal and committed member of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party and a follower of Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos. In 1950, the Puerto Rican independence movement began to plan and stage a series of armed confrontations, in the struggle for Puerto Rico's independence from U.S. rule. These included the Jayuya Uprising and the attack on the Blair House carried out by Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola with the intention to assassinate President Harry S. Truman. These attacks resulted in the incarceration of Albizu Campos and his compatriots for sedition and intent to overthrow the government of the United States. Their sentences were pardoned by Luis Muñoz Marin in 1953.

While in prison, Albizu Campos began correspondence with Lebrón. In 1953, the leader of the independence movement selected the 34-year-old woman to carry out a series of pro-independence actions in the United States. Albizu Campos's decision was to make Lebrón the first Latin American woman to lead an action against colonial rule. A nationalist attack on the U.S. House of Representatives became her primary focus. The March 1, 1954, date was chosen to coincide with the anniversary of the 1917 law that solidified U.S. control of Puerto Rico. The primary intent of the mission was to focus world attention on the cause of Puerto Rican independence. Once in the visitor's gallery above the House floor, Lebrón stood up with her comrades, shouting Viva Puerto Rico Libre! as a Puerto Rican flag was unfurled and 30 shots were fired, leaving five people wounded.

Lebrón, Figueroa, Flores, and Cancel Miranda were immediately apprehended. Charged with attempted murder and crimes of sedition, Lebrón asserted that they had not come to kill anyone, but rather to die for Puerto Rico. Although the four were sentenced to death, President Truman had their sentence commuted to life imprisonment. Implicated in the attack, Albizu Campos was sent back to prison in Puerto Rico, where Governor Muñoz Marin revoked his pardon. Lebrón was imprisoned in the Federal Industrial Institution for Women in Alderson, West Virginia, until 1979, when President Jimmy Carter pardoned the Puerto Rican nationalists, prior to the end of his term in office.

Upon her release from prison, Lebrón was given a hero's welcome by Puerto Rican nationalists in the United States and on the island. She married Dr. Sergio Irizarry and has resided in Puerto Rico since her release from prison. Today, she continues to be a fierce advocate for Puerto Rican independence and most recently participated in the Vieques protest to rid the island of U.S. Navy operations. In November 2000, she served as a witness at the International Tribunal on Violations of Human Rights in Puerto Rico and Vieques, proclaiming pride for her historical effort to bring world attention to the cause of a free Puerto Rico. At age 81, Lebrón was arrested for trespassing twice during the Vieques confrontation. For her uncompromising commitment and support of Puerto Rico's rights as a sovereign nation, Lolita Lebrón continues to be an inspiration to men and women struggling for social justice.

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