Luisa Capetillo Contributions To Society

Introduction

The Latin American History has had numerous amount of heroic people who have changed the Latino community for better or worse however, due to the sexist and patriarchal views of the past there were many Latina women who have been oppressed and restricted for being intellectual and creative. Despite this, they overcame this issue and made many contributions within the Latino community. One of the many women is Luisa Capetillo. Here we explore her life and the contributions she has made with her writings, activism, and so forth and what impact she has made in her society.

Context or background

The late 1800s was an interesting time in Puerto Rico. In 1873 slavery had been abolished in Puerto Rico, however, it was not a time for

freedom for women. Due to patriarchal ideologies of the past brought by European conqueror, there were rigid gender binaries. Women were still seen as subordinate to men and expected to stay home and take care of the domestic work and raise children. In 1895 The Revolution in Cuba increased the demand in Puerto Rico for self-ruling. The revolution also played a part in the U.S. controlling of Puerto Rico. In 1898, the U.S. battleship Maine was blown up in Havana which sparked the start of the Spanish- American War. The United States took interest in Puerto Rico, which was Spain's remaining colonial outpost in the caribbean, because they wanted to use it as a military base to help the United States maintain control of the Isthmus of Panama and to keep communications and traffic flowing between the Atlantic and the Pacific. Spain had surrendered to the United States in 1898 which lead to Puerto Rico becoming the property of the United States. This had numerous consequences such as intensifying economic development and enabling the formation of labor unions.
Subject of paper

Early life
Luisa Capetillo was born on October 28, 1879 in Arecibo, Puerto Rico.

Her parents were both of the working class. Her mother, Luisa Margarita Perón, was a French immigrant who came to Puerto Rico looking for work as a tutor for children, but instead was hired as a domestic servant in the city’s wealthy households. Her father, Luis Capetillo Echeverria, was Spaniard who also came to Puerto Rico looking for work. Capetillo’s parents were unwed, which was frowned upon during that time. Depsite this, they raised Capetillo together. Capetillo did have some formal schooling but also was self-taught, in part of her parents doing who encouraged her to read European literature and philosophy. Capetillo was not and atheist but she did reject religion. She believed to be a Christian meant that one believed in justice and equality and therefore considered herself to be a good Christian even though she did not agree with the rigid ideologeis of the

church.

Middle life
In 1896, Capetillo met Don Manuel Ledesma by accompanying her mother to work. Despite the dissaproval of Ledesma’s wealthy and powerful family, they eventually became lovers and had two children together even though they never married. Unfortunatlety Ledesma held held the sexist views of that time and tried to constrian Capetillo by wanting her to stay home performing the duties of a housewife and mother. This lead to the endning of their relationship after three years. Ledesma provided money for their children’s education, while Capetillolived and her children lived with her mother who helped raised them.

As an adult, Capetillo found a job as a reader in the islands tabacoo factories in Arecibo where she was able to developed her skills as a public speaker and gain connections with leaders of the city’s burgeoning labor movement such as La Federacion de Torcedores de Tabaco (The Federation of Tobacco Rollers) which was affiliated with La Federacion Libre de Trabajadores (The Free Federation of Labor) since her job involved reading certain passages of particular literary works or political essays, and books aloud to factory laborers. This also lead to open discussions and debate on particular lectures. She later went from reading to writing by producing and creating articles and pamphlets discussing conditions of workers and women. She also wrote letters, essays, speeches, articles etc. about anarehism, education, family concerns, health, marriage, socialism, and women's rights.

In 1905, Capetillo began to be involved in the Union by helping lead a large strike of agriculture workers lead by the FLT. Capetillo held similar views of the FLT which supported the intervention of the United States in Puerto Rico. She played an important role in the strike and quickly became the leader of the union. She traveled throughout Puerto Rico educating and organizing workers while making a living by selling union newspaper.

Capetillo used her leadership position to overcome rigid gender binaries and argue for free love and education for all people regardless of sex. In 1908, she attended the FLT convention, where she incited them to adopt a policy to fight for women’s suffrage. She supported women’s suffrage but disagreed on the views of those feminists who argued that only literate women. She insisted that all women, not just the rich or literate, should have the same right to vote as men.Therefore, she did not join any of the feminist organizations that emerged during that time and instead dedicated her time to the labor movement, believing that the union would help poor working women to obtain justice and equality.

In 1909 Cepetillo published her own magazine La Mujer, while on a organizing campign by the FLT named “la Cruzada del Ideal” (Crusade of the Ideal). During this time she was also Capetillo wrote for the union newspaper, Union Obrera, and wrote and published a collection of essays entitled Ensayos Libertarios. In the same year Capetillo wrote and published the first feminist thesis written in Puerto Ricoa name Mi opinion sobre las libertades, derechos y deberes de la mujer (My opinion about the liberties, rights and responsibilities of women). Later in 1911, Capetillo had her third child and also published her first edition to her book Mi Opinion.

In 1912 Capetillo left to New York City to join a transnational community of radical Spanish-speaking cigar workers. A year later she moved to Tampa, Florida. She contiued to support herself by s a reader in cigar factories and as a writer and speaker. During her stay in Florida, she also published the second edition of her book Mi opinion. Shortly after she traveled to Cuba where she joined the sugar cane workers in their strike which was organized by la Federacion Anarquista (the Anarchist Federation of Cuba). In 1915 she was arrested in Havana for walking in public with mens clothing on. This event caused an uproar in Cuba and Puerto Rico and was published in major newspaper. She was acquitted for the incidence but was deported for being involved sugar cane worker strike.

End of Life
Capetillo returned to Puerto Rico where she was paricipated and oragnized a number of strikes inthroughout 1916 to 1919.

During this time period it was the most intense in terms of strike activity in Puerto Rico. Capetillo also traveled to New York to establish a pan-Caribbean system of schools for the children of agricultural workers, however she was not able to gain the support of Union leaders. She did established a guest house and cafe in New York where she offered vegetarian meals and space for anarchist meetings. In 1919 She traveled to Domincan Republic to support strinking workers.

In 1920 Returned to Puerto Rico and settled in a working class neighborhood in San Juan, Río Piedras. Here she participated in a political campaign for the Socialist Workers Party, even though it was against her ideals as an anarchist. In 1921 Capetillo obtain turburculosis and died at the age of 43 in 1922

Legacy

Although she was well known as the first woman to wear pants publicly, Luisa Capetilla, has made great contribution as a feminist, workers rights activist, and anarchist. By her being actively involved in workers strikes such as the Sugar Cane strike of 1916 that increase an avareage salary increase by 13%. She also fought for the rights of all women and not just the upper-class which the femisinst of that time did. She activley and relentlessly tried to break the rigid boundaries between men and women oftime and became an inspiration to all, even to this day.

Conclusion

Due to Latin Americas sexist a patriarchal of the past, it was not easy for women to live the life they wanted to. Women were not seen as equal to men and therefor did not recieve the same opportunities such as obtaining a higher education, being able to obtain a job of high status and so fourth. However Luisa Capetilla was able to break boundaries, which was a difficult thing to do at that time, and make change and progress in a slow paced world. All her contributions she has made, she was able to do so even as a lower-class, latina woman. Her heorism and her message is inspiring and has changed the lives of many women today.