The second notable attack occurred on March 1, 1954, when four members of the Nationalist Party shot at members of the U.S. House of Representatives. The attack was led by Lolita Lebron, who shouted, "Viva Puerto Rico Libre" before she and her associates Rafael Cancel Miranda, Andres Figueroa Cordero, and Irving Flores Rodriguez opened fire on the assembled congressmen. Five congressmen were wounded. Upon being arrested, Lolita proclaimed, "I did not come to kill anyone, I came to die for Puerto Rico!" The Nationalists, who did not resist arrest, were convicted of attempted murder and other crimes, and sentenced to death. President Truman commuted the sentences to life imprisonment. Pedro Albizu Campos, the Nationalist Party president, who had been pardoned for revolutionary activities in Puerto Rico, hailed the attack as an "act of heroism." Governor Munoz Marin revoked the pardon and Albizu remained incarcerated for another decade.
— Pedro Caban on his article "Puerto Rican Nationalist Uprising"
Lolita Lebrón being led by police officers following her arrest.
Poster designed by Rachael Romero.
Hotel Royalmont 315 W. 94th St. Where Lolita Lebrón, one of the three Puerto Ricans in the 5 Congres...
This timespace is inspired by the 7th chapter of the book How to Hide an Empire, by Daniel Immerwahr. It tells the life of Puerto Rican nationalist Pedro Albizu Campos in the context of other nationalist movements and U.S. interventions in Latin America.
