Luisa Capetillo: Why she kicks ass
- Luisa is one of Puerto Rico’s most famous labor organizers, a writer and an anarchist who fought for workers and women’s rights.
- After the Spanish-American War, she found a job in a cigar factory. Here she had her first contact with labor unions, and began to write essays, titled “Mi Opinión”, about her ideas, which were published in radical and union newspapers.
- She is considered to be one of Puerto Rico’s first suffragists; she challenged the mainstream society by becoming the first woman in Puerto Rico to wear pants in public (and was sent to jail for what was then considered to be a “crime” though the judge dropped the charges.)
- She also helped pass a minimum-wage law in the Puerto Rican Legislature.
