Luisa Capetillo, born on this day in 1879, was a Puerto Rican labor organizer, feminist, and Christian anarchist. Capetillo advocated for women's suffrage, was arrested for wearing pants in public, and helped raise the minimum wage.

As a labor activist, Capetillo organized workers throughout the United States, worked as a reporter for the FLT (Federacion Libre de Trabajadores), and traveled throughout Puerto Rico, educating and organizing women. Her hometown, Arecibo, became the most unionized area of the country.

Capetillo is considered to be one of Puerto Rico's first suffragists. In 1908, during the FLT convention, Capetillo asked the union to approve a policy for women's suffrage, insisting that all women should have the same right to vote as men. Along with other labor activists, she also helped pass a minimum wage law in the Puerto Rican Legislature.

Today, Capetillo is perhaps best known for being arrested for wearing pants in public, although the charges against her were later dropped.

In 2014, the Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico honored Capetillo, along with eleven other women, with plaques in the "La Plaza en Honor a la Mujer Puertorriqueña" (Plaza in Honor of Puerto Rican Women).

Capetillo, Luisa - a biography anarchy

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  • TerminalEncounter [she/her]
    ·
    8 months ago

    It's kinda insidious when you read the news about pro Palestine rallies from around the world and the article is always matched with pictures of only brown people (presumably Palestinian refugees) at the rallies. Like, yeah, of course refugees are gonna be out for peace and ceasefire but that's not the only people attending... and it's so deeply concerning that the media is pretending there's no cross racial solidarity here. Like, maybe a significant aection of the masses aren't as concerned about skin colour when they see people being blown up

    • TerminalEncounter [she/her]
      ·
      8 months ago

      And then you see videos of these same rallies and its a mix. The photographers for these articles and editors had to work hard to find pictures with ONLY brown people - it's intentional when they're doing it and it's fucking creepy as shit.

      • SpiderFarmer [he/him]
        ·
        8 months ago

        Honestly, a similar thing was done with Ukraine a decade back. CNN was looking for the paler Ukrainians and Fox the ones with a more olive complexion. Or other way around? My mind is dusty.

    • Dirt_Owl [comrade/them, they/them]
      ·
      edit-2
      8 months ago

      It's really fucked up and racist. Tryng to scare old suburbanites with images of pissed off arabs (who are totally all terrorists, we aren't racist we swear!)