35 Mujeres and Pro Libertad

      When i was a young girl my parents were always political and involved in the communit, especially the Latino community. My mother finally decided to go back to college to finnish her bachlors degree after many,many years of being a stay at home mother.She began attending CCNY around 1995/1996 . During my mother's amazing self transformation,she met some wonderful people who were also attending the Education program, who were  also very active in the politicalcommunity as well. 
    These wonderful people were a great influence onmy mother, and our family in general. They protested with my mother on campous a few times, which i was brought along to join and rally in with them. I have to say, I dont remember many exact details,but i do remember feeling completly empowered and important. I remember feeling likeI was really making a difference in the world just by being there and standing for something that meant alot tomy mother.
     My mother also began attending meetings for an organization named Pro-Libertad. The Pro-Libertad campaign focused onmanypolitical issues sourounding Puerto Rico. At the time the two main issues taht were focused on were "freeing" Puerto Rico fromtheUnited States, making them their own country again,and freeing the 14 Puerto Rican Political prinsoners (at the time there were 14). We attended organization meetings, protests, Rally's until I was about 14 or 15 years old. My parents continued to be affliated with the organization a bit after i stoped attending meetings,and eventually stopped being politacally active all together. 
      I didnt realize how much i missed being involved and interested in being affliated with a political organization. Now here we are about 17/18 years later, and i plan onbecoming involved with Pro Libertad again, and another organization that they are affliated with named, 35 mujeres.
     When i began doing research for this project i found one of the light blue shirts that i used to wear to our protests and meetings when i was younger had two phone numbers on the back of the shirt. I decdied to call those numbers just to see what happened. Thefirst number directed me tona voicemail, i left a message explaining who i was and the project that i wasdoing. The second number rang a bit, but a woman picked up. I was super excited andnervous at the same time. She told me that her name is Esperanza Martell, and that she was once a huge part of pro libertad, and now is focusing on another movemet which she helped to organize named 35 mujeres. 35 mujeres is an activist group that is focusing on freeing one of the remaining (of the 14 original) Puerto rican political prisoners. I spoke with Espreanza briefly and explained to her  how i am doing a project about different forms or artistic activism for a class project and that i was interested in doing some feild work and  getting back into the activist scene. She was very warm and helpful and said that i could come and join the group in advocating for the release of Oscar Lopez Rivera. She told me that 35  Mujeres gets together every last Sunday of each month on 44^th street and broadway in new ork city, times square. The chanting begin at 4pm and lasts until 4:35pm. It 35 minutes of chanting, I belive the 35 is derived from the 35 years that Oscar has been in prison. I found a video clip from last year and it said “34 mujeres” and they were chanting stating that he had been inprisoned for 34 years, so im asuming that each year that Oscar is in jail, the women add another number to their name. This will be one of my questions whe I speak to esperanza on Sunday November 27, 2016 so that I can be 100% certain. Espreanza also said that when I come to the chant on November 27, 2016, that I can interview  few people and posibily even her, if things aren’t too hectic at the moment. She also said for me and who ever comes with me to wear light blue and pink and to bring noise makers.
            As of right now, I am planning attending each meeting (the last Sunday of every month) and creating a Blog after each meeting. I would begin small, and as I learn more about the cause I would be writing and comenting about other organzitions that are afiliated with Pro Libertad and 35 Mujeres. In addition, I would also like to create a twiter account that would bring more attention to the cause, because as of right now the two groups are on a very limited amount of social Media.

http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43/003.html

http://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/08/us/12-imprisoned-puerto-ricans-accept-clemency-conditions.html

http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1014&context=yjll

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/10/puerto-rico-last-political-prisoner-oscar-lopez-rivera

https://www.facebook.com/events/116440038824759/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOcDFeeuPdQ