Tag Archives: Puerto Rican Independence

Remembering Lolita Lebron – The BBC’s “Last Word” radio program

Lolita Lebrón
Puerto Rican nationalist who has died aged 90.  LISTEN TO THE REPORT Lolita Lebron Obit on BBC Radio 8-6-10

Lolita Lebron did not expect to live beyond March 1st 1954. That was the day she led a gun attack on the US House of Representatives which wounded several congressman and saw her jailed for the next 25 years. The former beauty queen from the island of Puerto Rico soon became the poster woman for the nationalist struggle to gain independence from the US and she is often now compared to the revolutionaries Che Guevara and Pancho Villa.

Jane spoke to one of her co-activists who took part in the attack in 1954, Rafael Cancel Miranda, and to Angelo Falcon of the National Institute for Latino Policy.

Dolores “Lolita” Lebrón was born 19 November 1919 and died 1 August 2010