Melissa Montero Padilla

{}
PROJECT SUMMARY
March 1, 1954, 2:32pm, Washington DC, Congress was in session. A striking thin brunette wearing red lipstick, Lolita Lebron, led three men to the visitor’s gallery of the House of Representatives and fired eight shots while in her other hand holding the Puerto Rican flag. She yelled, “¡Que Viva Puerto Rico Libre!” (Long Live a Free Puerto Rico!) 5 days later . . . March 6, 1954, San Juan, Puerto Rico, the FBI and police surrounded the Nationalist Party on Calle (Street) Sol and Cruz. Tear gas and bombs were thrown at the 2nd floor office and a gun battle broke out. Party member, Isabel Rosado and three others picked up arms and began to shoot as they protected their leader, Pedro Albizu Campos and the cause they believed in -- Puerto Rican Independence. In the melee that followed several Puerto Rican Nationalists were apprehended. Among them were Campos and Rosado who were carried out unconscious. Campos had ordered Lebron to attack the U.S. House of Representatives. Now five decades later Isabel Rosado is here to tell us what happened and walk us through a century of struggle.
Our Women, Our Struggle (working title) is a 70-minute long documentary that chronicles the life of Puerto Rican revolutionary – Isabel Rosado, -- who dedicated her life to the Puerto Rican Independence movement and has become a symbol of the island’s patriotism. Other women such as Lolita Lebron and Dylcia Pagan will also be highlighted. All three women were subjected to FBI surveillance and each spent many years in prison as a consequence of their radical political actions or as some might refer “terrorist activities”. Isabel Rosado was charged with arms possession and attempted murder. Lolita Lebron was first charged with attempted murder but then her sentence changed to seditious conspiracy. Decades later Dylcia Pagan was also charged with seditious conspiracy. However, it’s Isabel Rosado who takes us through a century of historical struggle for Puerto Rican Independence from the United States as she speaks about her involvement in the political movement, her time in prison, her continuous support for Independence and the persecution they all faced. These controversial women were labeled as a threat to society and national security yet were and are still loved by many Puerto Ricans.
PROJECT BACKGROUND AND DESCRIPTION
Our Women, Our Struggle, includes Doña Isabel Rosado, a 101-year-old life long Nationalist who participated in the uprisings of the 1950s. After hearing about the Ponce Massacre of 1937, where 19 Nationalist demonstrators were killed and over 200 injured, Rosado was deeply angered and decided to join the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. “Now I have to be more conscious of the things that are happening and I have to join the fight, I told myself. So that is what got me involved in the movement, the Massacre of Ponce”-Rosado. The Nationalist Party was founded in 1922 in order to work towards Puerto Rico’s Independence. There were several party chapters all over the island with hundreds of members being led by Albizu Campos’ radical platform. Rosado was imprisoned for her active role in the Party and the Puerto Rican independence movement serving 12 years in prison. Today Rosado still supports independence.
Lolita Lebron and Dylcia Pagan
Doña Lolita Lebron, also a life-long Nationalist, now 90, immigrated to New York City’s East Harlem in the 1940’s like many other Puerto Ricans did at that time due to the economical hardships in Puerto Rico. Leaving behind her daughter to be cared for by her mother, Lebron immediately began working in the garment industry’s sweatshops. She was faced with the grim reality of life for the newly emigrated: exploitation, discrimination, and racism. Lebron also saw the conditions her people were living in, all of which compelled her to join New York’s chapter of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. Albizu Campos ordered Lebron to lead an attack on the U.S. Congress on behalf of Puerto Rican Independence. She was pardoned by President Jimmy Carter and released from federal prison in 1979 after having served 25 years in federal prison. Active today, the white-haired elderly woman was arrested in June 2001 for acts of civil disobedience in the Vieques Naval Range. She was sentenced to 60 days in jail and served her term. Often labeled a terrorist, Lebron has adopted a pacifist philosophy and became a very devote Christian while in jail.
In order to capture the Puerto Rican Diaspora in New York we include Dylcia Pagan, former member of the defunct Armed Forces for National Liberation (FALN), an armed revolutionary clandecent group formed in the late 70s. Born and raised in New York City’s East Harlem. Pagan was a star child and appeared on NBC’s Children’s Hour with Ed Hurly. As an adult she was a television producer and a political activist heavily involved in her community. She lived two very different worlds: the privileged life as a producer and the other as a resident of El Barrio where she was exposed to how Puerto Ricans led disadvantaged lives. This duality and the radical political climate of the early 70’s led her to become a member of the FALN. In 1999, President Bill Clinton granted Pagan clemency after having served 19 years in prison. “My life is part a trajectory of the history of struggle of Puerto Rico”, she says. Active today, this former Puerto Rican political prisoner still strongly supports independence.
Our Women, Our Struggle walks the viewer through decades of the Puerto Rican independence movement as experienced by and seen through the eyes of Isabel Rosado. These periods include the Nationalist uprisings of the 1930s - 1950s to the post-civil rights Puerto Rican liberation movement of the 1960s to 1980s. Through out those decades Puerto Ricans experienced constant FBI surveillance and human rights violations, a U.S. approach to dissidents very much similar to today’s Patriot Acts and Homeland Security issues. Rosado’s story along with highlights of the other women unfolds this unknown history of Puerto Rico, the colonial relationship it has had with the United States and explores how these women were models of resistance for many. Not only were these women part of a larger movement of self-sovereignty but they also represented the hundreds of people arrested through out this time in the name of freedom.
Filmmaker: Melissa Montero
Melissa Montero is a Latina filmmaker living in Queens, New York of Puerto Rican and Ecuadorian heritage. She has co-produced and directed a non-broadcast ten-minute promotional video/documentary on Casa Atabex Ache, a non-profit organization that does healing and transformation work for women of color. Melissa has also taught video production classes at the Grand Street Settlement After school Beacon Program where she produced and directed a short video on the program’s services. She’s worked at NBC, The History Channel, Lifeskool/Sportskool, VOOM HD and is now at The Biography Channel as a Production Coordinator/Associate Producer. She is a graduate of the 2004 National Association of Latino Independent Producer (NALIP) NY Documentary Mentoring Program where she began working on her documentary, Our Women, Our Struggle. In the fall of 2005, Melissa’s film became a fiscal sponsored project of Women Make Movies and in August of 2007 she graduated from NALIP’s Latino Producer’s Academy held in Tucson, Arizona. Melissa has a Bachelor of Arts in TV/Video from the Hofstra University’s School of Communications.Fiscally Sponsored by
Women Make Movies
PHOTOS FROM MY FUNDRAISER EVENT FEB 2008!

PHOTOS FROM MY FUNDRAISER EVENT OCT. 2007!
"I would like to thank the Jersey City community for hosting a special event for my documentary at the Jersey City Museum. Special thanks to Sonia Araujo, who organized the amazing evening. Thank you Rose Valentin for informing the community and working the event. Thank you to all of the organizations and individuals who sponsored the event such as Hispanic Heritage Foundation of Hudson County, Jersey City Museum, Jersey City Borinquen Lions, and Jersey City Council President Mariano Vega, Jr. And last but not least thank you to all of the supporters who came out to the event and supported. It was truly appreciated".
Melissa Montero