35 Mujeres:
Free Oscar Lopez Rivera!
When i was a young girl my parents were
always political and involved in the community, especially the Latino community.
My mother finally decided to go back to college to Finnish her bachelor’s
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 political community as
well.
These wonderful people were a great influence on my mother, and our family in general. They protested with my mother on campus a few times, which i was brought along to join and rally in with them. I have to say, I don’t remember many exact details, but i do remember feeling completely empowered and important. I remember feeling like I was really making a difference in the world just by being there and standing for something that meant a lot to my mother.
My mother also began attending meetings for an organization named Pro-Libertad. The Pro-Libertad campaign focused on many political issues surrounding Puerto Rico. At the time the two main issues that were focused on were "freeing" Puerto Rico from the United States, making them their own country again, and freeing the 14 Puerto Rican Political prisoners (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 affiliated with the organization a bit after I stopped attending meetings, and eventually stopped being politically active all together.
I didn’t realize how much I missed being involved and interested in being affiliated with a political organization. Now here we are about 17/18 years later, and I plan on becoming involved with Pro Libertad again, and another organization that they are affiliated 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 decided to call those numbers just to see what happened. The first number directed me to a voicemail, i left a message explaining who i was and the project that i was doing. The second number rang a bit, but a woman picked up. I was super excited and nervous 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 movement 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 field 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 44th street and Broadway in New York City, Times Square. The chanting begin at 4pm and lasts until 4:35pm. It 35 minutes of chanting, I believe 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 imprisoned for 34 years, so I’m assuming that each year that Oscar is in jail, the women add another number to their name. This will be one of my questions when 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 possibly even her, if things aren’t too hectic at the moment. She also said for me and whoever 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 commenting about other organizations that are affiliated with Pro Libertad and 35 Mujeres. In addition, I would also like to create a twitter 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.
These wonderful people were a great influence on my mother, and our family in general. They protested with my mother on campus a few times, which i was brought along to join and rally in with them. I have to say, I don’t remember many exact details, but i do remember feeling completely empowered and important. I remember feeling like I was really making a difference in the world just by being there and standing for something that meant a lot to my mother.
My mother also began attending meetings for an organization named Pro-Libertad. The Pro-Libertad campaign focused on many political issues surrounding Puerto Rico. At the time the two main issues that were focused on were "freeing" Puerto Rico from the United States, making them their own country again, and freeing the 14 Puerto Rican Political prisoners (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 affiliated with the organization a bit after I stopped attending meetings, and eventually stopped being politically active all together.
I didn’t realize how much I missed being involved and interested in being affiliated with a political organization. Now here we are about 17/18 years later, and I plan on becoming involved with Pro Libertad again, and another organization that they are affiliated 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 decided to call those numbers just to see what happened. The first number directed me to a voicemail, i left a message explaining who i was and the project that i was doing. The second number rang a bit, but a woman picked up. I was super excited and nervous 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 movement 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 field 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 44th street and Broadway in New York City, Times Square. The chanting begin at 4pm and lasts until 4:35pm. It 35 minutes of chanting, I believe 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 imprisoned for 34 years, so I’m assuming that each year that Oscar is in jail, the women add another number to their name. This will be one of my questions when 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 possibly even her, if things aren’t too hectic at the moment. She also said for me and whoever 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 commenting about other organizations that are affiliated with Pro Libertad and 35 Mujeres. In addition, I would also like to create a twitter 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.
I originally was going to focus on
the Prolibertad Movement. I wanted to do this because I of my past experiences
with the group, but after speaking with Esperanza and doing research about
Oscar Lopez Rivera, I finally decided to focus on the 35 mujeres movement. The
35 in the name is for the amount of years Oscar has been in jail, each year
that passes another year is added to the name.
35 Mujeres NYC are women from New York City who have dedicated
themselves to making sure Oscar Lopes Rivera is a free man one day. They meet
every last Sunday of the month at 4pm and chant for 35 minutes. Each minute of
chanting stands for 1 yea that Oscar Lopez has been incarcerated.
We pray it will end by this year before the Trump Administration takes office. When Trump was elected, it was not only sad and scary for many of us, but it was a huge blow for Oscar Lopez, because at that moment his chances became super limited. The group has been working very hard and has organizations in Chicago, Puerto Rico, New York city and many other large cities throughout the country.
We pray it will end by this year before the Trump Administration takes office. When Trump was elected, it was not only sad and scary for many of us, but it was a huge blow for Oscar Lopez, because at that moment his chances became super limited. The group has been working very hard and has organizations in Chicago, Puerto Rico, New York city and many other large cities throughout the country.
I attended the rally for Oscar on
November 27, 2016. I met many new people and encountered a few people that I
haven’t seen in many, many years. I interviewed a few of the main women from 35
mujeres and spoke with a few people off camera. Everyone was so happy and proud
that after so many years I was coming back into the community. I have kept in
contact with Esperanza and with Angel. We are going to be working together on
future projects.
This experience has moderated me to want to do more for our community and society. I posted a live
video, so far it has about 100 views, not many shares or likes, but that is not the point. The point is to
get the word out about Oscar Lopez’s situation and try to get as much awareness ass possible. Oscar
Lopez Rivera will be free before Trump takes office, he has to be! I am currently working on a few
projects for Esperanza and will be posting those on Facebook and other areas of social media soon.
Please join me in helping getting the word out about Oscar Lopez Rivera and this very important
cause.
35 mujeres rally for Oscar Lopez!
Petition: "president-obama-free-oscar-lopez-rivera"!! Please sign!!
Facebook live nov 27
Kathe:35 Mujeres
100,000 signatures and counting. The more, the better. Please sign the petition!
http://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/08/us/12-imprisoned-puerto-ricans-accept-clemency-conditions.html
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43/003.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.youtube.com/watch?v=iOcDFeeuPdQ
https://www.facebook.com/irene.rodriguez.50552/posts/1356108511065954
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