Lolita Lebron

Lolita Lebrón (November 19, 1919 – August 1, 2010) was a Puerto Rican nationalist who was convicted of aggravated assault and other crimes after carrying out an armed attack on the United States Capitol in 1954, which resulted in the wounding of five members of the United States Congress.

In 1941, Lebrón migrated to New York City, where she joined the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, gaining influence within the party's leadership.

In the early 1950s, the Nationalist Party began a series of revolutionary actions, including the 1950 Jayuya Uprising against American presence on the island.

They conducted these attacks to protest the false and misleading claims by the United States government and Luis Muñoz Marín that Puerto Rico would no longer be dominated by the United States.

As part of this initiative, Pedro Albizu Campos ordered Lebrón to organize attacks in the United States, focusing on locations that were "the most strategic to the enemy."

Lebrón led a group of nationalists that attacked the United States House of Representatives in 1954.

She was convicted, found guilty and incarcerated as a result.

She was released from prison in 1979 after being granted clemency by President Jimmy Carter.

Lebrón was born and raised in Lares, Puerto Rico, where she joined the Puerto Rican Liberal Party.

In her youth she met Francisco Matos Paoli, a Puerto Rican poet, with whom she had a relationship.

Lebrón remained imprisoned for 25 years, until 1979 when Jimmy Carter issued commutations to the group involved in the attack.

After their release in 1979, the group returned to Puerto Rico, where supporters of Puerto Rican independence received them warmly.

During the following years, Lebrón continued her involvement in pro-independence activities, including the protesting the existence of a United States Navy base at Vieques.

Her life would be subsequently detailed in books and a documentary.

On August 1, 2010, Lebrón died from complications of a cardiorespiratory infection.

Lebrón (birth name: Dolores Lebrón Sotomayor ) was one of five siblings born in Lares, Puerto Rico to Gonzalo Lebrón Bernal and Rafaela Soto Luciano; the other four children were Aurea, Augusto, Gonzalo Jr. and Julio.

Lebrón was raised in Hacienda Pezuelas in Pezuela, a barrio in Lares.

Gonzalo Lebrón worked as the hacienda's foreman earning a salary of $30 a month.

The owner allowed to live in a "small house" and also permitted the family to plant produce.

In Pezuela, Lebrón began her education in a small community school.

Early in her life, Lebrón contracted pneumonia when she accidentally fell into a gutter that was full of water.

As a consequence of this illness, she grew with a frail body and was unable to keep up with the constant activities of her brothers without feeling fatigue.

She developed an introverted and contemplative personality, often spending time admiring nature around the hacienda.

From Pezuela the family moved to Mirasol, also in Lares, where Gonzalo Lebrón administered a hacienda owned by Emilio Vilellas.

There Lolita received a better education and attended a local public school.

When Lebrón completed the sixth grade she attended the Segunda Unidad Rural, a middle school located in Bartolo, an adjacent barrio.

She concluded her formal public school education in the eighth grade.

Lebrón 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.

Although her father was an atheist, Lebrón was baptized in the Catholic faith when she was fourteen years as were her other siblings.

During the baptism celebration she met Francisco Matos Paoli, who became her first boyfriend.

Paoli and Lebrón wrote letters to each other in which they exchanged the poetry which they wrote.

According to Jossianna Arroyo, Lolita wrote "more mystical poetry, centered on what she called 'visions' filled with religious symbolism."

Paoli's family opposed their relationship because they considered Lebrón a jíbara (peasant).

Her father also opposed this relationship and ordered her to stop writing Paoli.

However, they both continued to write each other until Paoli moved out of the city.

Lebrón eventually moved to San Juan, where she studied sewing and continued her correspondence with Paoli.

She felt duty bound to return to Lares because her father was severely affected by tuberculosis.

The family was forced to abandon the house in the hacienda, but Ramón Santiago later provided them with a new house.

Lebrón took upon herself the responsibility of taking care of her father.

She would travel to a nearby town to buy medicines for her father, which she gave him every seventy minutes.