Isabel Rosado

19th Century female leaders of the Puerto Rican Independence Movement

Isabel Rosado Morales died on January 13, 2015, of natural causes at the Sagradas Misiones de la Misericordia (Sacred Missions of Mercy) hospice in Fajardo, Puerto Rico, where she resided. She was 107 years old at the time of her death. She was buried at The Ceiba Municipal Cemetery in Ceiba, Puerto Rico. Nationalist leader Rafael Cancel Miranda made the following statement:

In 1979, Rosado participated in an ecumenical prayer service on Vieques naval territory. She was among a group of protestors against the occupation of the small island by the U.S. Navy. Rosado was handcuffed and taken to the police station by the local authorities. She was released soon after.

On March 1, 1954, four Puerto Rican nationalists, Lolita Lebrón, Rafael Cancel Miranda, Andres Figueroa Cordero, and Irvin Flores Rodríguez, shot 30 rounds from semi-automatic pistols from the Ladies' Gallery (a balcony for visitors) of the House of Representatives chamber in the United States Capitol.

On March 6, 1954, she was in the Nationalist office with the Nationalists Pepe Sotomayor, Doris Torresola Roura, Carmín Pérez and Albizu Campos. The police arrived and raided the facilities. The following morning the police attacked the Nationalist headquarters in San Juan with tear gas. Albizu Campos was carried out unconscious and those in the building, including Rosado were arrested and imprisoned. Rosado was sentenced to serve eleven years in prison. She was released from prison in 1965, via a Habeas Corpus.

On October 30, 1950, Nationalist leader Pedro Albizu Campos ordered an uprising by the against United States Government rule of Puerto Rico and against the approval of the creation of the political status "Free Associated State" ("Estado Libre Associado") for Puerto Rico which was considered a colonial farce.

On May 21, 1948, a bill was introduced before the Puerto Rican Senate which would restrain the rights of the independence and nationalist movements on the archipelago. The Senate, which at the time was controlled by the Partido Popular Democrático (PPD) and presided by Luis Muñoz Marín, approved the bill. This bill, which resembled the anti-communist Smith Act passed in the United States in 1940, became known as the Ley de la Mordaza (Gag Law, technically "Law 53 of 1948") when the U.S.-appointed governor of Puerto Rico, Jesús T. Piñero, signed it into law on June 10, 1948. Under this new law it became a crime to print, publish, sell, or exhibit any material intended to paralyze or destroy the insular government; or to organize any society, group or assembly of people with a similar destructive intent. It made it illegal to sing a patriotic song, and reinforced the 1898 law that had made it illegal to display the Flag of Puerto Rico, with anyone found guilty of disobeying the law in any way being subject to a sentence of up to ten years imprisonment, a fine of up to US$10,000 (equivalent to $113,000 in 2021), or both. According to Dr. Leopoldo Figueroa, a non-PPD member of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives, the law was repressive and was in violation of the First Amendment of the US Constitution which guarantees Freedom of Speech. He pointed out that the law as such was a violation of the civil rights of the people of Puerto Rico.

On March 21, 1937, Rosado was listening to the radio, where she heard the events involving what is known as the Ponce massacre. That day the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party held a peaceful march in the city of Ponce, Puerto Rico, commemorating the ending of slavery in Puerto Rico by the governing Spanish National Assembly in 1873, and coinciding with a protest against the incarceration by the government of the United States of America government of nationalist leader Pedro Albizu Campos on sedition charges, The participants and innocent bystanders were fired upon by the Insular Police, resulting in the death of 17 unarmed civilians and two policemen, plus the wounding of some 235 civilians, including women and children. The Insular Police, a force somewhat resembling the National Guard, answered to orders of the U.S. appointed governor of Puerto Rico, General Blanton Winship. The outcome of the Ponce massacre served as an influential factor in her decision to join the Nationalist Party and to become a follower of Pedro Albizu Campos.

Isabel Rosado (November 5, 1907 – January 13, 2015), a.k.a. Doña Isabelita, was an educator, social worker, activist and member of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. Influenced by the events of the Ponce massacre, Rosado became a believer of the Puerto Rican independence movement and was imprisoned because of her commitment to the cause.