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Alicia Rodríguez

Alicia Rodríguez is one of the 11 Puerto Rican former political prisoners granted clemency by President Clinton in September 1999. She immediately returned to Puerto Rico, where she she and her compañeros/as were met with a huge welcome celebration. For updates on this clemency, see www.prisonactivist.org/quesalgan

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The background description below is adapted from Can't Jail the Spirit (March 1998).

Alicia Rodríguez was born October 21, 1954 in Chicago, Illinois. She attended the University of Illinois in Chicago where she studied for three years for her Bachelors' degree in Biology. After her sister Ida Luz ("Lucy") went underground, she raised her sister's son until her own capture. Alicia was captured April 4,1980 along with her sister Lucy and other comrades, on charges of seditious conspiracy and related charges.

Throughout her capture, trial and incarceration, she maintained her position as an anti-colonial prisoner of war (POW) resisting the illegal U.S. occupation of her homeland. She has artistically contributed to the Juan Antonio Corretjer Puerto Rican Cultural Center in Chicago and she taught a photography class in prison. Her biography was published in the book Puerto Rican Women: A History of Oppression and Resistance and John Langston Gwaltney, the author and anthropologist profiled part of her life in The Dissenters: Voices From Contemporary America.

Alicia was physically and verbally abused in Judge Bailey's courtroom when she reaffirmed her principle of non-recognition of the colonial courts of the United States. The following day she was taken to the courthouse for a secret hearing. When she arrived, there were six guards waiting for her. To quiet her, they stuffed a cloth in her mouth and pinched her nose so she could not breath, but they never succeeded in silencing her.

This page is maintained by the Prison Activist Resource Center. Updated 26 September 1999.