It was a joy and an honor to co-present former Puerto Rican political prisoner Oscar López Rivera (OLR) with Boricuas in Berkeley and UC Berkeley’s Alternative Breaks Puerto Rico last Saturday, Feb. 22, 2020 at La Peña. The event included a reception to present Mr. López Rivera with his induction to La Peña’s Hall of Fame, offerings of music and dance by the Bay Area Bomba y Plena Workshop, poetry by Rico Pabon, a talk and Q&A with the community, anda book signing. The event, which was part of OLR’s North West Speaking Tour, raised $2,165 toward the OLR foundation Fundación Libertá. You can donate to the Foundation’s Papal here.

Oscar López Rivera served 36 years in prison, Oscar López Rivera is the longest held Puerto Rican political prisoner in the history of Puerto Rico’s struggle for independence, regarded as the “Nelson Mandela of the Americas.” In 2017, as the result of a broad human rights campaign, Pres. Obama commuted his sentence only days before leaving office.

Since then, he has continued to energetically advocate an end to U.S. colonialism, and resumed his role as an organizer, deepening his relationship to the municipalities of Loiza and Comerio and working to establish a community center in Rio Piedras, from which to train organizers to develop the capacity for community self-reliance, mutual aid, and self-governance.

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