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Dr. Stephanie Rivera Berruz will discuss: "Writing to Be Heard: Recovering the Philosophy of Luisa Capetillo, 1829-1922."
Luisa Capetillo (October 28, 1879 – October 10, 1922) 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.
She found a job as a reader in a cigar making factory in Arecibo. After the Spanish–American War, the American Tobacco Company, which had gained control of most of the island's tobacco fields, would hire people to read novels and current events to the workers. It was in the tobacco factory that Capetillo had her first contact with labor unions.
In 1904, Capetillo began to write essays, titled "Mi Opinión" (My Opinion), about her ideas, which were published in radical and union newspapers.