Thursday, April 28, 2005

My mom's fav. quote....

I was re-reading this article on Puerto Rico’s current colony status and this statement by Lolita Lebron moved me. It’s one of my mom’s favorite quotes.
“ People were not born to be slaves, even if those slaves were dressed in gold and ate at the tables of their masters. There was a divine principle underlying the situation: human beings had been created free and should, therefore, move in the direction of freedom. The United States had tried to make young Puerto Ricans forget their language and culture -- to make them speak English and think of themselves as North Americans. They wanted to buy Puerto Ricans with banal things. The United States gave Puerto Rico nothing, exploiting the territory 24 hours a day, while it was claimed that Puerto Rico could not survive without the United States. Puerto Rican heads might be bowed, but they were a people who would rise from their knees.”

Throughout her life Lolita Lebron has had an impact on my mom. As a child Lolita Lebron was an embarrassment to my mother b/c she was considered a terrorist by the American government. To my grandmother Delia, Lebron was a hero. Lebron led an attack on the House of Representatives in 1954. Wrapping herself in a Puerto Rican flag she fired a gun from the visitors' balcony of the House of Representatives. Her shots wounded several members of Congress as she announced, "I did not come here to kill. I came here to die."
In Junior high school as her social/ political conscience was awakened Lebron became one of mom’s heroes. Mom even volunteered on committees working for Ms. Lebron’s freedom. Finally in 1979 when my mom was a HS junior Lebron was pardoned by President Jimmy carter after serving 25 years.



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