On Friday, March 14th, 2014 the monthly General Assembly of the PRCC was dedicated to the memory of the Puerto Rican patriot Luis Nieves Falcón. A short video of Luis Nieves Falcón last trip to Chicago was played in which he rendered homage to the patriot Oscar López Rivera. This was followed by a moving and powerful presentation by the renowned Puerto Rican lawyer, writer and human rights activist Eduardo Villanueva. Villanueva’s presentation zeroed in on Nieves Falcón’s political transformation from a leading position in the Popular Democratic Party to becoming one of Puerto Rico’s most important spokesperson, on a national and international level, for the independence of Puerto Rico. He also touched on Nieves Falcon’s scholarship and deep commitment to social justice, equity and human rights. Nieves Falcón fought the good fight in every major Puerto Rican struggle during the past 50 years: from the anti-militarism campaign to the struggle to withdraw the US navy from Vieques and Culebra; from the efforts to stop strip mining in Puerto Rico to the efforts to make Spanish the official language of the island; from the movement to stop the building of a gas pipeline on the island to the struggle for workers and women’s rights; from the battle to democratize the University of Puerto Rico to the crusade to release Puerto Rican political prisoners. According to Villanueva, Nieves’ words, both spoken and written, became the spears and shields in the quest for liberation.
