The Puerto Rican Cultural Center, its staff, Executive Director,
José E. López and Board of Directors extend their deepest
condolences to the Arpin and Gallegos families on the passing
of Maria Arpin after an extended battle with cancer. Maria, an
activist with the PRCC shortly after its founding in 1973, was
part of the initial efforts of the PRCC at community building and
eventually became part of it’s leadership, devoting much of her
time as a single mother to assuring the success of it’s
educational, community-centered and anti-political repression
efforts.
Oscar López Rivera, one of the founders of the Rafael Cancel
Miranda Puerto Rican High School (now known as Dr. Pedro
Albizu Campos Puerto Rican High School) fondly remembers
Maria as one of the hardest working young people that was
never too busy to counsel High School students or serve as the
Editor and proofreader of Libertad, the newspaper of the
National Committee to Free Puerto Rican Political Prisoners
and Prisoners of War. She also visited several of the Puerto
Rican Political Prisoners on the East and West Coasts, driving
over 12 hours to Lewisburg, PA to visit compañeros regularly.
Maria is survived by her husband, Russell Arpin, her brother
Salvador “Chava” Gallegos, her son, Andrés “Andy” E. Molina,
himself one of the first graduates of the Consuelo Lee Corretjer
Day Care and a graduate of Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos Puerto
Rican High School, her siblings Victor, Gracie and Ricky
Gallegos, her grandchildren Cristian Andrés and Gabriela Elise
Molina and their mother, Shellie Molina, and various nephews
and nieces.
