Luisa Capetillo (October 28, 1879 – April 10, 1922) was one of Puerto Rico's most famous labor leaders. She was an
anarchist
Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...
writer, activist, labor organizer who fought for workers' rights,
women's rights
Women's rights are the rights and Entitlement (fair division), entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st c ...
, free love, and human emancipation.
Early years
Capetillo was born in
Arecibo, Puerto Rico
Arecibo (; ) is a Arecibo barrio-pueblo, city and Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality on the northern coast of Puerto Rico, on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, located north of Utuado, Puerto Rico, Utuado and Ciales, Puerto Rico, Ciale ...
, to a Spanish father Luis Capetillo EchevarrÃa from the
Basque country and Luisa Margarita Perone, a
Corsican immigrant. Luis Capetillo arrived in Puerto Rico at around the same time as Margarita, traveling with his family.
In 1898, Capetillo had the first of her two children out of wedlock. She found a job as a reader in a cigar-making factory in
Arecibo
Arecibo (; ) is a Arecibo barrio-pueblo, city and Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality on the northern coast of Puerto Rico, on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, located north of Utuado, Puerto Rico, Utuado and Ciales, Puerto Rico, Ciale ...
. After the
Spanish–American War
The Spanish–American War (April 21 – August 13, 1898) was fought between Restoration (Spain), Spain and the United States in 1898. It began with the sinking of the USS Maine (1889), USS ''Maine'' in Havana Harbor in Cuba, and resulted in the ...
, 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.
Influences
Luisa Capetillo was greatly influenced by her parents, her environment, her personal experiences and the literature she surrounded herself with. Both of her parents shared many ideals, including those related to Romanticism. Her mother being of French descent, believed women should defend their ideals and act according to themselves. She strongly sided with George Sands' beliefs that the old liberated woman could be "revolutionary, both politically and in her personal life, opposed to marriage and to all social contracts that would regulate human relations, but willing to sacrifice everything in the name of love". Margarita reflected these ideals since she lived and procreated with the man she loved at the same time providing for herself. Later on, Luisa would dedicate the following words to her mom: "To you, dear mother of mine, who tried to control me, or make me think traditionally. You allowed me to inquire freely, only reproaching what you thought were exaggerations, without forcing me in any way". As for her father, Luis, he taught her how to read and write.
Luisa Capetillo also developed her ideals of anarchism and romanticism from the literature she read in her childhood. She read much of French writers like
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo, vicomte Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romanticism, Romantic author, poet, essayist, playwright, journalist, human rights activist and politician.
His most famous works are the novels ''The Hunchbac ...
and
Émile Zola and of Russian Romantics like
Leo Tolstoy
Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Tolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; ,Throughout Tolstoy's whole life, his name was written as using Reforms of Russian orthography#The post-revolution re ...
. Through some of these books, she encountered anarchists' beliefs that "the closer behavior is to being natural, the closer it will be to a just society". Tolstoy was probably the author that most closely reflected her spiritual beliefs. His legacy inspired her even further as a writer. She wrote a play titled "Influencias de las ideas modernas" (The Influence of Modern Ideas) which clearly was motivated by his philosophies. One of the main characters can be said to be Tolstoy himself. One of the characters says "Well, my friends, don't let my ways surprise you. I have read
Malatesta, Tolstoy and Zola, so I have understood many things that I couldn't before", which can be interpreted as a reflection of herself.
Even though Luisa was baptized as a child, as an adult she rejected the Catholic Church and even called priests hypocrites. In one of her essays titled ''Ensayos Libertarios'' (Libertarian Essays), she wrote "don't baptize your children. Think about it. If it were so necessary, it would be stupid for there to be millions of human beings who don't believe in it". As a mother, she never baptized her children and in one letter she wrote to her daughter she said " I never taught you to pray, that is something you have to feel. You are not baptized by any religious rite." She considered organized religion to be a form of prison for humans.
Beliefs
She considered herself both an anarchist and spiritual person. In an essay she wrote, titled ''¿Anarquista y espiritista?.... ¡Uf, uf!'' (Anarchist and Spiritis?...Humph!), Luisa opened up on how she considered herself a Christian and an anarchist. Traditionally you're either an anarchists or a Christian, but she defended the position that you can be both. She taught her children how to be a good Samaritan without having to follow a particular religion. In a letter she wrote to her daughter she advised her that in order to be considered good, she didn't have to attend Mass. Instead, she could visit the poor, feed the hungry and nurse the sick.
Labor leader and women's rights activist

During a farm workers' strike in 1905, Capetillo wrote propaganda and organized the workers in the strike. In 1910 she became a reporter for the "FLT" (
American Federation of Labor
The American Federation of Labor (A.F. of L.) was a national federation of labor unions in the United States that continues today as the AFL-CIO. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions eager to provide mutual ...
) and traveled throughout Puerto Rico educating and organizing women. Her hometown, Arecibo, became the most unionized area of the country. Additionally, she also started her own newspaper called ''La mujer'', which confronted women's issues.
Capetillo started a program of reading to the women who worked 12 hour shifts on the shop floor making cigars. It is assumed that is where she developed many of her feminist principles. In 1908, during the "FLT" convention, Capetillo asked the union to approve a policy for
women's suffrage
Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Several instances occurred in recent centuries where women were selectively given, then stripped of, the right to vote. In Sweden, conditional women's suffra ...
. She insisted that all women should have the same right to
vote
Voting is the process of choosing officials or policies by casting a ballot, a document used by people to formally express their preferences. Republics and representative democracies are governments where the population chooses representative ...
as men. Capetillo is considered to be one of Puerto Rico's first
suffragists.
In 1912, Capetillo traveled to New York City, where she organized
Cuban and
Puerto Rican tobacco workers. Later on, she went to
Tampa, Florida
Tampa ( ) is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. Tampa's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and t ...
, where she also organized the workers. In Florida, she published the second edition of "Mi Opinión". She also traveled to
Cuba
Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...
and the
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...
, where she joined the striking workers in their cause.
In July 24, 1915, she challenged the mainstream society by becoming the first woman in Puerto Rico to wear pants in public. Capetillo was sent to jail for what was then considered to be a "crime", but the judge later dropped the charges against her. She would repeat this act of rebellion again stepping off the boat into Cuba where the judge was not so lenient leading to her serving time. In that same year, along with other labor activists, she helped pass a minimum-wage law in the Puerto Rican Legislature.
In 1916, Capetillo was deported by President
Menocal.
Legacy
On May 29, 2014, The
Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico honored 12 illustrious women with plaques in the "La Plaza en Honor a la Mujer Puertorriqueña" (Plaza in Honor of Puerto Rican Women) in San Juan. According to the plaques the 12 women, who by virtue of their merits and legacies, stand out in the history of Puerto Rico. Capetillo was among those honored.
See also
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Anarchism in Puerto Rico
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Corsican immigration to Puerto Rico
*
List of Puerto Ricans
This is a list of notable people from Puerto Rico which includes people who were born in Puerto Rico (Borinquen) and people who are of full or partial Puerto Rican people, Puerto Rican descent. Puerto Rican citizens are included, as the governm ...
*
List of Puerto Rican writers
*
List of women's rights activists
*
Puerto Rican literature
*
History of women in Puerto Rico
References
Bibliography
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Further reading
* ''The Puerto Rican Nation on the Move: Identities on the Island and in the United States'', by Duany, Jorge. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002.
* ''Puerto Rican Women and Work: Bridges in Transnational Labor'', by Ortiz, Altagracia; Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1996.
* "Whose Legacy?: Voicing Women's Rights from 1870s to 1930s", by Romero-Cesáreo, Ivette; ''Callaloo'' 17, no. 3 (1994).
* "Feminism and Its Influence on Women's Organizations in Puerto Rico." In ''The Puerto Rican Woman: Perspectives on Culture, History and Society'', 2nd ed., by: Valle Ferrer, Norma. Edited by Edna Acosta-Belén, 75–87. New York: Praeger, 1986.
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* Southern Discomfort women's Activism in Tampa, Florida 1800s–1920s by Nancy A. Hewitt.
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* Capetillo, Luisa. ''A Nation of Women.'' Translated by Alan West-Duran. London, UK: Penguin Random House (2021).
''Small Axe'' special edition November 2022.
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Capetillo, Luisa
1879 births
1922 deaths
20th-century anarchists
20th-century deaths from tuberculosis
20th-century Puerto Rican non-fiction writers
20th-century Puerto Rican women
20th-century Puerto Rican women writers
American women non-fiction writers
Anarcha-feminists
Anarchist writers
Christian anarchists
People from Arecibo, Puerto Rico
Puerto Rican activists
Puerto Rican anarchists
Puerto Rican feminists
Puerto Rican people of Corsican descent
Puerto Rican suffragists
Puerto Rican women activists
Puerto Rican women non-fiction writers
Tuberculosis deaths in Puerto Rico
Women trade union leaders