List of Puerto Ricans - Civil Rights And/or Political Activists

Civil Rights And/or Political Activists

• Mariana Bracetti a.k.a. "Brazo de Oro" (Golden Arm) Political activist
  Bracetti was the leader of the "Lares's Revolutionary Council" during the Grito de Lares. Bracetti knit the first flag of the future "Republic of Puerto Rico".
• Mathias Brugman Political activist
  Leader of the Grito de Lares. Brugman founded the first revolutionary committee in the City of Mayagüez. His revolutionary cell was code named: "Capa Prieto" (Black Cape).
• Dr. María Cadilla Women rights activist
  Women rights activist and one the first women in Puerto Rico to earn a doctoral degree.
• Blanca Canales Political activist
  Nationalist leader who led the Jayuya Uprising in 1950 against U.S. colonial rule of Puerto Rico.
• Rafael Cancel Miranda Political activist
  Cancel Miranda is a member of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party and advocate of Puerto Rican independence who proceeded to attack the United States House of Representatives in 1954.
• Luisa Capetillo Labor activist
  Capetillo was one of Puerto Rico's most famous labor organizers. She was also a writer and an anarchist who fought for workers and women's rights.
• Oscar Collazo Political activist
  One of two nationalists who attempted to assassinate President Harry S. Truman.
• Raimundo Díaz Pacheco Political activist - Commander in Chief of the Cadets of the Republic (Cadetes of the Republica)
  Díaz Pacheco served as the Comandante (Commander) of the Cadets of the Republic (Cadets of the Republica) also known as the "Ejército Libertador de Puerto Rico" (The Liberation Army of Puerto Rico), a quasi-military organization and official youth organization within the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party.
• Tito Kayak, Political activist
  De Jesus Mercado gained notoriety when a group of Vieques natives and other Puerto Ricans, including De Jesus Mercado, began protesting and squatting on U.S. Navy bombing zones, after the 1999 death of Puerto Rican civilian and Vieques native David Sanes, who was killed during a U.S. Naval bombing exercise.
• Sylvia del Villard Afro-Puerto Rican activist
  Founder of the Afro-Boricua El Coqui Theater, was known to be an outspoken activist who fought for the equal rights of the Black Puerto Rican artist. In 1981, she became the first and only director of the office of the Afro-Puerto Rican affairs of the Puerto Rican Institute of Culture. (see also actresses)
• Isabel González Civil Rights activist
  Young Puerto Rican mother who paved the way for Puerto Ricans to be given United States citizenship.
• Lolita Lebrón Political activist
  Nationalist leader and activist. Lebrón was the leader of a group of nationalists, who proceeded to attack the United States House of Representatives in 1954.
• Tomás López de Victoria Political activist and Sub-Commander of the Cadets of the Republic
  López de Victoria was the Captain in charge of the cadets who participated in the peaceful march which ended up as the Ponce Massacre. He led the Nationalists in the Arecibo revolt in what is knoan as the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party Revolts of the 1950s.
• Sylvia Mendez Civil Rights activist and educator
  Mendez was eight years old when she played an instrumental role in the Mendez v. Westminster case, the landmark desegregation case of 1946. The case successfully ended de jure segregation in California. and paved the way for integration and the American civil rights movement.
• María de las Mercedes Barbudo Political activist
  Mercedes Barbudo is considered to be the first female from Puerto Rico "Independentista" meaning that she was the woman to become an avid advocate of the Puerto Rican Independence..
• Ana María O'Neill Women Rights activist and educator
  In 1929, O'Neill became the first female professor in the field of Comerence in the University of Puerto Rico, a discipline which she taught until 1951. As a women's rights activist, she urged women to participate in every aspect of civic life and to defend their right to vote.
• Manuel Olivieri Sanchez Civil Rights activist
  Olivieri Sanchez was a court interpreter and a civil rights activist who led the legal battle which granted U.S. citizenship to Puerto Ricans living in Hawaii.
• Ruth Mary Reynolds Educator, political and civil rights activist
  Reynolds was a native of South Dakota who became interested in the ideals of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. As the founder of "Americans for Puerto Rico's Independence", she devoted many years of her life to the cause of Puerto Rico's independence from the United States.<
• Sylvia Rivera Transgender activist
  Sylvia Rivera was a pioneer of the LGBT movement and was a veteran of the 1969 Stonewall riots.
• Isolina Rondón Political activist and Treasurer of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party.
  She was one of the few witnesses of the killing of four Nationalists committed by local police officers in Puerto Rico during a confrontation with the supporters of the Nationalist Party that occurred in 24 October 1935,and which is known as the Rio Piedras massacre.
• Isabel Rosado Political activist
  Rosado was imprisoned multiple times because of her commitment to the cause of Puerto Rican independence.
• Anthony Romero Civil rights leader
  Romero is the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union.
• Dr. Helen Rodriguez-Trias Physician and women's rights activist.
  Rodriguez-Trias was the first Latina president of the American Public Health Association, a founding member of the Women's Caucus of the American Public Health Association, and the recipient of the Presidential Citizen's Medal. She is credited with helping to expand the range of public health services for women and children in minority and low-income populations in the United States, Central and South America, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. (see also Educators and scientists)
• Ana Roque Women Rights activist
  Roque was an educator and suffragist. She was also one of the founders of the University of Puerto Rico.
• Vidal Santiago Díaz Political activist
  Santiago Díaz was the barber of Pedro Albizu Campos. He made Puerto Rican media history when numerous police officers and National Guards men attacked him at his barbershop "Salon Boricua" because of his ideals of Puerto Rican independence. It was the first time in Puerto Rican history that an attack of such nature was transmitted via radio to the Puerto Rican public in general.
• Arturo Alfonso Schomburg Civil rights
  Schomburg was a pioneer in black history. He helped raise awareness of the great contribution that Afro-Latin Americans and Afro-Americans have made to society.
• Griselio Torresola Political activist
  Nationalist who died in attempt to assassinate President Harry S. Truman in 1950.
• Carlos Vélez Rieckehoff Political activist
  Former President of the New York chapter of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party in the 1930s. In the 1990s Rieckehoff was among the protesters who protested against the United States Navy's use of his birthplace, the island of Vieques, as a bombing range.
• Dr. Olga Viscal Garriga Political activist
  member of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. During the late 1940s she became a student leader at the University of Puerto Rico and spokesperson of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party's branch in Rio Piedras.
• Marcos Xiorro House slave
  In 1821, Xiorro planned and conspired to lead a slave revolt against the sugar plantation owners and the Spanish Colonial government in Puerto Rico.
• Pedro Julio Serrano Human Rights activist
  President of Puerto Rico Para Tod@s, that strives for inclusion of LGBT community and for social justice for all in Puerto Rico. Serrano also work as Communication Manager at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.