Luisa Capetillo, Pioneer Puerto Rican Feminist

Luisa Capetillo (1879-1922) was a pioneer in the struggle for women's and workers' rights. A feminist and an anarchist, she earned her living as a labor leader and journalist. She wrote brilliant theoretical essays and published four books, including several plays. Ahead of her time, she espoused vegetarianism, a daily regime of Swedish calisthenics, and was the first woman in the Caribbean to wear pants in public. Her life can be read as a dramatic novel, every day an intense ode to personal and political liberation. This biography, the only in-depth historical account of her life and work, rescued her from oblivion and made her a popular icon throughout Latin America. This edition, the first available in English, brings Capetillo's inspiring story to a broader audience.

Autorentext

The Author: Norma Valle-Ferrer is a journalist, writer, and professor at the Escuela de Comunicación, Universidad de Puerto Rico. She is producer and host of the weekly radio program Agenda de Hoy heard on the University of Puerto Rico radio station WRTU-FM. She has published six books, including Fiestas de Cruz; El ABC de un Periodismo No Sexista; and Apreciación Crítica de la Radio en Puerto Rico. Her articles have been published widely in Puerto Rico and Latin America. The Translator: Gloria Waldman-Schwartz is a professor at York College and The Graduate Center, City University of New York. Her books include Feminismo ante el Franquismo; Borges in/and/on Cine; Luis Rafael Sánchez: Pasión Teatral; Spanish Women Writers: A Bio-bibliographical Source Book; and Argentine Jewish Theatre: A Critical Anthology. She was theatre critic for El Nuevo Día (Puerto Rico) and El Diario/La Prensa (New York).

Zusammenfassung
«Luisa Capetillo was a radical, a feminist, and a labor organizer in Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and the United States. Her story reveals how a woman of her time, and in the cultural world of the Caribbean, decided to live a free life. This wonderful book shows us that the ideals that link personal freedom and social justice, ideas that seem so contemporary, indeed have roots. Initially published in Capetillo's home of Puerto Rico, this biography is now translated and available to readers in the United States. It brings this dramatic and inspiring woman to life and to history.» (Paul C. Mishler, Coordinator of Labor Studies, Indiana University South Bend; Author of 'Raising Reds: Young Pioneers, Radical Summer Camps and Communist Political Culture' (1999))