Luis Nieves Falcon speaks about Oscar Lopez Rivera, 4-11-2013 |
On Monday, March 10, one of Puerto Rico’s most prominent public intellectuals, the renown lawyer, psychologist and sociologist, Dr. Luis Nieves Falcón passed away after a long battle with leukemia in San Juan Puerto Rico. The Puerto Rican Cultural Center is joining the Puerto Rican nation in mourning the loss of this intellectual giant with the following: A message from our Executive Director José E. López, sent to Puerto Rico and which will be published in La Voz del Paseo Boricua, (see below); the dedication of the Puerto Rican Cultural Center monthly general assembly to his memory, featuring the prominent Puerto Rican lawyer and activist, Eduardo Villanueva, who will provide a short reflethe March issue of La Voz del Paseo Boricua, with images of Nieves Falcón.
PRCC General Assembly
Friday March 14, 4pm
Diabetes Emnpowerment Center, 2753 W. Division St
It is with a sad heart, and the most profound emotions that I share my personal condolences, and that of my entire family, as well as that of the National Boricua Human Rights Network and the Puerto Rican Cultural Center Juan Antonio Corretjer, on the physical loss of one of Puerto Rico’s towering intellectual figures- Dr. Luis Nieves Falcón.
Nieves Falcón was not only a teacher of teachers, a psychologist to psychologists, a lawyer to lawyers, and a sociologist to sociologists; he was, indeed, an organic intellectual.
Nieves Falcon’s life was totally committed to the struggle for the independence of Puerto Rico, and, particularly, in defense of those who suffered persecution in their quest to make Puerto Rico a free homeland.
He dedicated the past 35 years to freeing Puerto Rican political prisoners- he masterminded the campaign that excarcerated more than a dozen of them in 1999, and continued this quest, until his final hours, to see my beloved brother: Oscar López Rivera, free in “nuestra Patria.”
Everywhere Nieves Falcón lived, he left an indelible mark. He was a world traveler, visiting almost every continent. In each, Nieves Falcón left a part of himself.
He invested a great deal of his time and efforts in the empowerment of the Puerto Rican Diaspora.
In Philadelphia, in 1999, he helped to articulate the vision that would ultimately free the Puerto Rican political prisoners through Ofensiva ’92.
In New York, he pioneered many of the struggles that would improve the quality of life of Puerto Ricans whether in the Bronx or El Barrio or in organizing tribunals around human rights violations and political prisoners.
In Chicago, he lived among us in the community, shaping and creating some of the most innovative ideas about curriculum and overall educational praxis that would make Clemente High School a model to be emulated in the 1990s.
We fondly remember his last visit to Chicago in April 2013 where he made three major speeches, and even sang, with his melodic voice, a song for Oscar’s freedom.
Nieves Falcón, you will always be our Quixote confronting the windmills of oppression and our Cimarron building a community of resistance, hope and change.