September 20, 2024 • 34 mins
Luisa Capetillo was an early Puerto Rican feminist, works rights activist, author, leader, and pants wearer. Yves joins us to share Luisa's story.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha, and welcome to stuff
I've Never told you, a production of iHeartRadio. And welcome
to another edition of Female First, which means we are
once again joined by the wondrous, the delightful Eves.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Welcome Eves.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Thank you. I like that we're wondrous.
Speaker 4 (00:30):
I know, I was thinking the same thing. I'm like,
I don't know if I've heard that use too often.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
There it is, he's giving fantasy novel. I like that. Well.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
I was thinking about as we're moving into to Fall,
and for me, follows my favorite season.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
It just has this kind of vibe to me.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
That feels kind of like wondrous. And I really like
the the atmosphere and the changing of the leave. So
it's been on my mind. Perhaps, how have you been good?
Speaker 5 (01:01):
I'm thinking about fall, like you said, And I was
taking a hike the other day through this place that
really felt like a fairy land to me because there
was so much moss everywhere, like dew and just like
moisture dripping off of leaves, and I was just like,
I really think fairies would live here. It did feel
like a wondrous place, and it's like just enough greenery
(01:21):
and foliage, but at the same time, like there weren't
leaves on a lot of the trees, so it was
like this perfect harmony of like being able to see enough,
but also still it still felt like pretty lush. So yeah,
I like fall. I'm a summer I like springing summer.
But I'm like trying not to be my normal biased
(01:44):
self and be like, what are the parts of fall
that I actually like and can enjoy, because to me,
I go straight to it's getting colder.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
The days are getting shorter, which I don't like.
Speaker 5 (01:56):
I like sunlight, so I'm trying to see what I
can like gather out of it that is positive.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
I wonder if that's partly because we're in the South,
because I think the same thing, and fall is so
short that you don't get to see like the like
I lived in La j Georgia, which is in the mountains,
so right at the foot hills of the mountains, and
it does have a good fall peak, but it's like
been short because of global warming. It's been shorter and
(02:25):
shorter and shorter as I've grown up. But when it
was there for like a full month, it was gorgeous
red and yellows and the breeze and like less rain.
It was lovely to see, but like I wonder, because
we're in the South, it doesn't last as long, or
it seems to like if you blink it's gone, and
it feels like it lasts two weeks at most and
(02:45):
then like it's darkness and just dead trees everywhere.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
So it's like, uh, where did that go? As where?
Speaker 4 (02:53):
Like summertime obviously again in the South, it'll seems to
last a whole lot longer than anything else.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Yeah, yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 5 (03:04):
Yeah, I feel like I don't really know fall that
well because we don't get those like amazing colors in Atlanta.
I've seen them in other places. But I do think
too that that the idea of fall and all of
the different colors it does. I can see what you're
what you mean by the wondrous thing, too, Annie, because
(03:24):
when I think of fall, I think of children's books too,
Like I think of parents and children's books like taking
their kids to play in leaf piles and the kids
are wearing like what are they called galoshes, like the
rain boots. I don't know if that's the right word
for them, but there I feel like I never used
(03:46):
that word because I don't know fall will and our
climate actually isn't that rainy either, so yeah, I don't know.
I see it, and I plan on spending some time
in the northeast, so hopefully I do get to see
a little bit of the fall this year up there.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Yes, yes, oh, oh, yes, Well, I'm very excited for
this story used because I feel like this was a
first that opened a door to like an un amazing story,
Like it was not going it went all over the place.
I wasn't expecting a lot of it. And it's also
something that Samantha and I have talked about on the
(04:24):
show about clothes and drama calls around clothes and women
wearing them. So who did you bring for us to
talk about today?
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Us?
Speaker 3 (04:36):
So today we're going.
Speaker 5 (04:37):
To be talking about Luisa Capaccillo, and she is what
Adie's talking about. She's remembered as the first woman to
wear pants in Puerto Rico. That sounds like that is
not in any way that just scratches the surface of
everything that she did in her life. So it's not
like we're being reductionist by saying that. It's definitely one
(04:59):
thing that happen, but in her story. It's the thing
that gets the person the movie, you know what I mean,
Like it's that moment in their life that is like
indicative of all of the things that they've done in
their life. Who they are in their life. Is a
very symbolic part of her story, but it is in
no way the most important part of her story.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
Is really just really just it.
Speaker 5 (05:20):
Expresses the type of persons she was and kind of
it was also kind of a practical thing for her too,
So that is what she's remembered as. She could also
be considered one of the earliest feminist writers in Puerto Rico,
and we'll get into that in her story.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
Yeah, you know, as insignificant as it seems about the
pants the amount of conversations we've had on the show
alone in our books, like that's really fairly significant because
of the demonstrations and this is a revolt. This is
a protest that a lot of women did way back
when we talked about with the Bloomers, and then we
(06:00):
talked about it in our own and I think we
did an episode and we also did in our book
about pantsuits about how the government which just happened not
too long ago, Like in our lifetimes about how they
in the Congress. In Congress women decided to protest by
wearing pants suits, which was like unheard of. Like all
of these things that we talk about, it is such
(06:21):
an odd conversation and it seems so trivial, but at
the same time, it was fairly bigger than what we know,
and the whole implications of it was pretty big, and
it does kind of set a precedent about who these
people were and what they were trying to say, and
it often has a lot to do with women's rights
and feminism in itself.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
I love that, Yeah, I do too.
Speaker 5 (06:40):
And also, we haven't really I don't think we've ever
talked about a Puerto Rican woman.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
On the show before.
Speaker 5 (06:46):
I might be incorrect about that, but we definitely haven't
talked about a lot of them. So I'm excited that
we were able to talk about somebody from Puerto Rico
today because Puerto Rico and itself has its own rich history,
one that is still influx and that's still so many
people are talking about so thinking about how we're still
like and this was the eighteen hundreds to the early
(07:08):
nineteen hundreds that we were talking about people wearing pants,
and then in US Congress, we're talking about this in like.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
The nineteen nineties. So I think two.
Speaker 5 (07:19):
I mean, obviously because of Vice President Kamala Harris and
everything that's happening right now in the US presidency, Like
there's so much friction and so much coagulation and so
much electricity around this idea of like women in politics
doing things. And like, I think one interesting thing about
(07:42):
what y'all talk about on Sminty and then what we
have talked about on female First is like being able
to see that from a more global perspective and you
start to like just be able to put into perspective better,
like what's happening in different places at the same time.
So we'll get to talk about that context too. With
Luisa Capaitillo's story.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Yes, well, should we get into it.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (08:06):
So Luisa was born on October twenty eighth, eighteen seventy nine,
and Attecibo, Puerto Rico. And at the time she's born,
Puerto Rico is under Spanish rule, but in eighteen ninety eight,
the US invaded Puerto Rico and Spain ceded Puerto Rico
to the United States. So her father, Luisa's father Luis
(08:32):
Capetillo was from Spain. He did various jobs, including ones
in agriculture and construction. And Luisa's mother was Margharita Proone
and she was a domestic worker from France, and Luisa
was their only child. And Luisa's parents they were really
influenced by like the aftermath of the French Revolution. Margherita
(08:55):
herself was influenced by the work of George sand who
was a woman writer who criticized marriage and like talks
about lots of other things. But Louise and Margarita never
got married, and.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Like in any other story, I wouldn't really.
Speaker 5 (09:14):
Like it feels kind of odd to say that, but
it's because of this specific context, Luisa's context, and she
talks about marriage and her work and relationships between couples,
and also women's rights are part of the things that
Luisa talked about, which is why I have to just
add this disclaimer. That's why I'm saying that it's not
like I actually cared whether or not they're married or
(09:36):
like that's even that pertinent to the story beyond that point.
But Luisa's father taught Luisa to read and to write
and to do math, so she is she got kind
of an outside of the home education as well, but
inside of the home is where a lot of the
education was happening because her parents were introducing to her,
(09:57):
introducing Luisa to these works. She's exposed to the writings
of philosophers and anarchists, of people like Victor Hugo and
Emil Zola and John Stuart Mill. And she spoke with
her parents about workers' rights, religion, and anarcho syndicalism, which
(10:17):
is an anarchist philosophy that really advocates for workers taking
direct action for better conditions. It's like seeking to tear
down traditional organizations of authority and capitalism and organize these
mass unions and have civic and political life revolve around that.
(10:38):
And I am trying to imagine these conversations that she
was having with her parents, because I'm imagining this is
during the time of her adolescence, Like, I don't know
of any record of what those conversations were like. It's
just that in the sources I've seen from the scholars
and the historians who worked on uncovering her legacy have
(11:02):
said that she was a precocious child and that her parents,
because of their background, they came from Europe, and this
was in the eighteen hundreds. You know, the times that
they grew up in Spain and France were obviously very turbulent,
and so they had clearly some sort of social and
class consciousness coming over from Europe. And also I believe
(11:24):
they weren't wealthy, so I'm not sure if they were poor,
but they weren't wealthy. And they were also already thinking
about labor and thinking about their economics and their social status,
and they were migrants, so I guess in my mind
(11:46):
these are really big topics. And it seemed like Luisa
was pretty young. And I'm not saying that people who
are that age can't like internalize these things, but I
don't know how do y'all feel about that? Were these
are kinds of conversations you were having with like any
adult figures who were in your life, like in your
(12:08):
adolescent times, about like anarcho cynicalism, and like, I don't
know what do y'all think about that?
Speaker 1 (12:14):
I would say, I am like a very I was
not at that level at all, but my family was
very political. My dad was a professor, so we would
like over the dinner table, have these debates isn't even
the right word, just like discussions about it. But of
course I was quite young, so I'm sure I don't
(12:37):
know how educated I sounded, or like how great the points.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
I was making were. But we were having like political.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
Discussions when I was at least middle school, and my
older brother was way more into it than me, so
not the same level, but kind of.
Speaker 4 (12:59):
No answer is just no, I'm like I would still
have to look up some of those words today.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
Oh, it's just being very honest.
Speaker 4 (13:07):
We didn't talk about politics much, and because I come
from a very conservative family that wasn't highly educated, it
was mainly just of like, don't talk about it, talk
about Jesus only in the story.
Speaker 5 (13:18):
Yeah, I could imagine, like just between the two of y'all,
that's a huge range on the spectrum of the kinds
of conversations that y'all were having when you were children.
And I just think about it because I try to
imagine the context of like someone like this who was
involved in organizing and who has a political consciousness across continents,
you know, and across a certain period of time, Like
(13:41):
how were they thinking when they were young, and like
what kinds of conversations did they have with the people
who were in their lives, whether they were peers or
they were.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Like older than them.
Speaker 5 (13:52):
So it's interesting to see the kinds of works that
she was reading and imagine those conversations, because we don't
have audio of those kinds versations, we don't have documentation
of them. So I think it's just something interesting to
ponder as we think about how Luisa Capetillo the organizer
came into being. At some point when Luisa was young,
(14:22):
her father left and didn't come back, and her mother
mostly raised her from then, and sometimes she even went
to work with her mom, and this is how she
met Monuel Ledesma. Manuel was the son of the leader
of the Unconditional Spanish Party, which was a loyalist conservative party,
(14:44):
and she had two children with Monuel in the late
eighteen nineties, and their names were Manuela and Gregorio. And
Manuel is of a higher class than Luisa is, and
there were of course these conceptions around gender and around relationships,
(15:05):
and Luisa was expected to care for her children, but
the children lived with Luisa's mother, while Louisa kind of
went back and forth between households and someone of Manuel's
stature he was higher class. He was in this kind
of upity family that was involved in politics, and he
(15:26):
wasn't supposed to mix with someone of the working class
like Luisa, especially with the kind of arrangement that they
had and their relationship ended, but he did keep supporting
the children financially, and Luisa also worked as a seamstress
to support her children. So one thing that I've seen
(15:51):
brought up in sources too, is about how the children
had to deal with the different, like kind of political
ideologies between the two of them, because Louisa was not
a loyalist in the Conservative Party. And I don't really
know how the children responded to that. I know that
(16:13):
they were pulled in different directions because of their different
ideologies and what they would have imagined for their futures.
But I am also curious like about, like in that
moment at the time, as they were growing up, how
they reconciled the information that they were getting from their parents,
because Manuel and Louisa weren't together, but Momuel seemed like
(16:38):
he did stick around for Manuela and Gregorio and was
still in their lives even beyond when they separated. But yeah,
Louisa starts to get into her organizing life. So she
starts writing her first articles for local newspapers. Around nineteen
oh four, she starts working in garment factory and she
(17:01):
goes to strikes and she becomes involved with the Free
Federation of Workers of Puerto Rico. And I'll call that
the FLT from here on because that remains in her story.
But the organization followed anarcho Synicolas principles, and Luisa also
(17:21):
joined the Tobacco Workers Union and she became a reader
or what was known as electora in a cigar factory
and she was paid to read to people while they worked.
Could you like that sounds like a great job? Like
I mean, just from my bias perspective, like showing up
(17:42):
and reading to people is amazing, but like honestly, practically
like it was really good because there were a lot.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
Of people who couldn't read.
Speaker 5 (17:51):
And obviously this is a service that she like loves
doing and has clearly had a background through how her
parents raised her and her education that she got in
the home, and she wasn't just reading anything to them,
so she would read to them while they were she
got paid for it, but she would read things like
news and political theory, and so people's consciousnesses were raising
(18:16):
through the work that she was doing. She would be
seated on this raised platform, surrounded by these workers, and
she would start reading newspapers, and then she would also
read chapters from novels, so if there was she could
like serialize a novel over time and read a novel
to a person by reading chapters every time she was there.
(18:37):
So people are learning about labor organizing around the world.
They're learning philosophy while she's there, and they're also getting
to enjoy fictional narratives while they're working. So Luisa also
publishes articles in progressive publications like the flt's newspaper Union Operera,
(19:00):
and folks get familiar with her work as electora and
as a journalist. She participates in more agricultural strikes and
ramps up her organizing work, so people are listening to
what she's saying. They're rallying as she tries to bring
farmers together in factory workers together, and she's writing and
(19:22):
lecturing about workers' rights, about women's rights, and about collective liberation.
So in nineteen oh seven she published her first book
in SCIOs Libertarios and here is part of the beginning
of that book, education is the basis of happiness for
all people. Teach under the canopy of truth, tear off
(19:43):
the veil of ignorance, and show the true light of progress,
free from all rights and dogmas. Practice fellowship in order
to tighten the bonds that should unite humanity from one
end to another, regardless of race or belief. Ignorance is
the cause of the worst crimes. And in just this
is and that's the end of that quote. So in
(20:04):
that book she talks about the workers struggles and how
they're up against the greed and exploitation of these wealthy capitalists.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
She began traveling across Puerto Rico.
Speaker 5 (20:17):
She was lecturing on behalf of the FLT, and she
was writing articles for labor papers, and she also edited
a publication called La Mujer which means the Woman. And
don't think any of the work that she edited for
that publication or that publication is available to read today,
(20:41):
but there is a lot of her other work that
you can read. In nineteen ten, she published her second book,
Humanity in the Future, and in that book, she advocates
for free love, she advocates for vegetarianism, health reform, education.
These are things that'll come up across her work as
her philosophy continues to expand and as she continues to organize.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
In nineteen eleven, she.
Speaker 5 (21:07):
Published My Opinion about the Freedom's Rights and Duties of
the Woman, And some folks have considered that kind of
like the first feminist treatise published in Puerto Rico, but
it's definitely an early one. And she talks about sex work,
she talks about religion, and she talks about sexual oppression
(21:28):
and marriage, and she advocates for the comprehensive education of women.
And that same year, nineteen eleven, she has a child
with a pharmacist who happened to be married, and.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
That child's name.
Speaker 5 (21:45):
Was Louise, and the pharmacist doesn't recognize Louis as his
child unfortunately, and Louise goes back to live with his
siblings and Louise's mom, and his situation is a little
different from Mamuela and Gregorio's because you know, their father
was in their life, but in this case, Luis's father
(22:06):
is not in his life.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
So he.
Speaker 5 (22:10):
Forms a lot of his consciousness around Louisa alone, and
he gets to travel with her sometimes as well, but
he does spend time with his siblings and Luisa's mom.
So Luisa herself she believed that motherhood is important, but
that women's role should extend beyond the domestic sphere. So
(22:31):
she recognizes oh motherhood and how that plays a role
in how people develop their consciousnesses and how they're raised
and how society works. But she doesn't believe that women's
work should just stop right there. And she also advocated
for women's voting rights as part though of this larger
(22:55):
working class agenda. So a lot of other people in
Puerto Rico at the time were more so thinking about
women's voting rights going to educated women versus Luisa thought
about it more and fellow anarcho syndicalists who were in
(23:15):
alignment with her and her ideals, as this is something
that all women should, no matter the stature, should be
involved in. If we're going to use voting as a
means to power, then all women should have access to voting.
She started wearing pants too, so these helped her moves
(23:39):
around all the spatusem so she was traveling a lot,
she was going through fields, she was going through factory
so the pants probably just as I said earlier from
a practical standpoint, made a lot of sense for her
to wear, but it also may have helped her blend
in better with the men who were leaders in the FLT.
So there were a lot of men who were part
(24:01):
of these organizations, and she was one of the fewer
number of women who were leaders in the labor organizations,
and so this helped her kind of assimilarly in a way,
or be like less and more conspicuous at the same
time in an odd way, because she wasn't dressing like
(24:22):
other women, but at the same time she was like
blending in. So that's where the pants story starts. And
you can see pictures of her wearing these outfits too,
which is pretty cool. So she visited the US and
Cuba in nineteen twelve, and she went to New York,
(24:42):
she went to Tampa, Florida, and she went to Havana, Cuba,
and she was moving through these intellectual and political circles
and writing for local anarchists and labor papers in New York,
working as a journalist, and she was working as electora
in a cigar factory in Aybor City in Tampa, and
(25:06):
she began writing her last book while she was there
in ay Boar City in nineteen thirteen, and Abor City,
which is the neighborhood in Tampa, was a hub for
diverse anarchists and socialists. So it wasn't like she was
like one of a kind while she was there. There
were a lot of people from different places who were
involved in that manner of political ideology. So there were
(25:29):
also anarchists. There were also socialists who were there who
were involved in labor organizing. There were also other electorists
forgive me Spanish for those of y'all who speak Spanish.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
But yeah, who were there.
Speaker 5 (25:45):
There were mostly men, and that was the case in
Puerto Rico as well, and that was the case here
in Tampa. So it was mostly men who did this job.
It was fewer women who did it. And so she
was introducing these feminist ideas to the ideas they were
bringing to the table. But she wasn't the only one
who It was not like something necessarily they had.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
Not heard before.
Speaker 5 (26:08):
They might not have her her specific brand of like
how she was bringing her ideology as a suffragist into it.
But she she was in good company, so to say.
And by nineteen thirteen she published a second edition of
her nineteen eleven book My opinion. She continued doing her
(26:28):
organizing work, but by nineteen fifteen she had moved to
Cuba and she was working with the Anarchist Federation and
she helped sugarcane workers during a strike, and she supported
a manifesto that denounced the government for trying to suppress
labor uprisings. And on July twenty fourth, nineteen fifteen, in Havana, Cuba,
(26:52):
she was arrested for what they considered dressing like a
man in public, which meant that she was wearing a
jack get, a tie and a hat. So she was
back in Puerto Rico by nineteen sixteen, and that year
she published her fourth in her last book, Influencias de
(27:15):
las Adillas modern and Us. And there are plays, stories
and letters in this last book as well. So she
helped lead strikes, walkouts and protests now that she's back
here in Puerto Rico, and of course she gets pushed
back from authorities from the work that she was doing.
(27:36):
In nineteen eighteen, she was arrested in jail for what
they considered in citing a riot, and she was fined,
but her supporters raised the money and she got out
and from nineteen nineteen to nineteen twenty, she traveled between
the Caribbean and the US. She was running a boarding house,
and she was participating in political debates, and by nineteen
(27:58):
twenty one she was back in Puerto Rico though, so
she was campaigning for candidates for the Socialist Workers Party.
But at some point during all this moving around that
she was doing, she got tuberculosis and she was struggling
with her health and she died in Puerto Rico on
April tenth, nineteen twenty two. So she did a lot
(28:21):
in her life, even though she died when she was
relatively younger. But her organizing, you know, really crossed borders,
coming from the Caribbean to the United States. And also,
just like her upbringing, took place at a time when
a lot was changing in Puerto Rico. So I think
her story is very fascinating. And clearly she was also
(28:42):
a stylish person, so I appreciate that too.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
Yes, she was those pictures listeners, look them up.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
She was fashion forward.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
She was fashion forward, but also yeah, practical. It just
made sense. There's so much I love about her story.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
She has a lot of great quotes, and you know,
we love quotes over here, so also go look that
up listeners. Just a lot of interesting thoughts about religion
and anarchy that I thought was that was fascinating because
you know, we like talking about religion here. Yeah huh,
but yeah, like you said, it's the perspective of this
(29:32):
is really useful because we are having so many of
these conversations still, but seeing it from her viewpoint, similar
things from her viewpoint, I think is incredibly valuable. And
also I kind of love she called her book My Opinion.
Like I know it's the longer title, but I like
(29:53):
that it's called my Opinion. I actual really appreciate that. Yeah, yeah,
because it just feels so confident in a way. I guess,
like because if you're getting the book, you're you're like saying,
I want to get my opinion.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
It feels very right.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
She's going to influence you with the her thoughts and
the way she's thought about them and written about them.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
I love it, but not in an evangelizing way.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
No, no, no no, because.
Speaker 5 (30:21):
It's like I have authority, but I'm still telling you
this is like from my particular viewpoint, so I'm not
trying to force this down your throat. I'm just saying
I have a lot of these thoughts and they have
great basis, and I've done a lot of work in
these areas, and i have something to say about it.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
I'm gonna publish it.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Mm hmmm. I love it. I love it so much.
Speaker 4 (30:44):
And just thinking about about the first conversation we were
having when we were talking about did you talk about
politics like this as a child?
Speaker 3 (30:49):
And I was like, nah, so.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
Her dut she was my age, she died around my age,
And looking back at what she did, I'm like, damn,
I'm behind.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
Oh my goodness, this Samantha stop it just all the time.
Speaker 4 (31:03):
But the fact that she was such a force and
such an influence on unionizing as well as labor organization,
that's huge in itself, because that's still a conversation and
a big need that's happening.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
All around the world today.
Speaker 4 (31:15):
And the fact that it's still something is contentious like
that is something that we do need to talk about,
especially when we're talking about Puerto Rico in itself. In
the history of Puerto Rico and the US is not pretty.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
And the fact that that's.
Speaker 4 (31:27):
Still on the table and discussion and seeing what she
has done and what she has done to influence so
much in feminism and get unionization and all of that.
That's a lot, and that is a lot she's in
her short life that she has accomplished, and that's amazing
to see it. And I'm glad we've got those records
and also the pictures.
Speaker 5 (31:46):
And also the pictures, and speaking of the records, like
shout out to all the people who translated her work
from Spanish to English, because if it weren't for those people,
then people like me, silly Americans who can only speak English,
would not be able to access her work without having
like somebody else to help translate. So to the translators
(32:07):
who translated her work and who translate everything else to
allow us to learn more about people, because I think
outside of Puerto Rico, I mean I think maybe even
in Puerto Rico it could like it's been helpful the
work that scholars have done to uplift her legacy, but
like outside of Puerto Rico, outside of the Caribbeans, like
the work that the scholars and historians have done to
(32:30):
uplift her legacy, which seemingly deserve to be and was
like covered as many other people we talk about on
Female First have been that the work that they were
able to do to uplift it has been really helpful.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
Sure, yes, Yes, always appreciate translators who help us talk
about important topics around the world.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
And we always.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
Appreciate you Eve for bringing people we might not have
heard of and giving these stories and all of this context.
So thank you so much as always for being here.
Speaker 3 (33:09):
You're welcome, happy to be here, per usual.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Yay, Where can the good listeners find you?
Speaker 3 (33:17):
You can find me on the internet.
Speaker 5 (33:20):
You can just go to Eves Jeffcote dot com and
then you can find all the other things from there.
My name is spelled yvees j E F F co
A T. If you want to hit me up on
Instagram you can. You can go to Not Apologizing. You
can also hear me on on Theme, which is a
podcast about black storytelling that I co host with Katie Mitchell,
(33:43):
and also on many many other episodes of Female First
here on Sminty.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Yes, so go check out all of that stuff if
you haven't already, listeners, and if you would like to
contact us, you can you can email stuffing your mom
stuff at I Heart can find us on Twitter at
most of podcast or on Instagram and TikTok at stuff
I Never Told You. We're on YouTube, we have a
tea public store, and we have a book where, yes
we do talk about pantsuits and clothing you can get
(34:11):
wherever you get your book. Thanks, it's always to our
super producer Christina or executive producer May.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
And our contributor Joey.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
Thank you and.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
Thanks to you for listening. Stuff I'll Never Told You
is a production by Heart Radio. For more podcasts from
my Heart Radio, you can check out the Art Radio app,
Apple Podcasts or Revulus Send to your favorite shows.
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha, and welcome to stuff
I've Never told you, a production of iHeartRadio. And welcome
to another edition of Female First, which means we are
once again joined by the wondrous, the delightful Eves.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Welcome Eves.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Thank you. I like that we're wondrous.
Speaker 4 (00:30):
I know, I was thinking the same thing. I'm like,
I don't know if I've heard that use too often.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
There it is, he's giving fantasy novel. I like that. Well.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
I was thinking about as we're moving into to Fall,
and for me, follows my favorite season.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
It just has this kind of vibe to me.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
That feels kind of like wondrous. And I really like
the the atmosphere and the changing of the leave. So
it's been on my mind. Perhaps, how have you been good?
Speaker 5 (01:01):
I'm thinking about fall, like you said, And I was
taking a hike the other day through this place that
really felt like a fairy land to me because there
was so much moss everywhere, like dew and just like
moisture dripping off of leaves, and I was just like,
I really think fairies would live here. It did feel
like a wondrous place, and it's like just enough greenery
(01:21):
and foliage, but at the same time, like there weren't
leaves on a lot of the trees, so it was
like this perfect harmony of like being able to see enough,
but also still it still felt like pretty lush. So yeah,
I like fall. I'm a summer I like springing summer.
But I'm like trying not to be my normal biased
(01:44):
self and be like, what are the parts of fall
that I actually like and can enjoy, because to me,
I go straight to it's getting colder.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
The days are getting shorter, which I don't like.
Speaker 5 (01:56):
I like sunlight, so I'm trying to see what I
can like gather out of it that is positive.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
I wonder if that's partly because we're in the South,
because I think the same thing, and fall is so
short that you don't get to see like the like
I lived in La j Georgia, which is in the mountains,
so right at the foot hills of the mountains, and
it does have a good fall peak, but it's like
been short because of global warming. It's been shorter and
(02:25):
shorter and shorter as I've grown up. But when it
was there for like a full month, it was gorgeous
red and yellows and the breeze and like less rain.
It was lovely to see, but like I wonder, because
we're in the South, it doesn't last as long, or
it seems to like if you blink it's gone, and
it feels like it lasts two weeks at most and
(02:45):
then like it's darkness and just dead trees everywhere.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
So it's like, uh, where did that go? As where?
Speaker 4 (02:53):
Like summertime obviously again in the South, it'll seems to
last a whole lot longer than anything else.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Yeah, yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 5 (03:04):
Yeah, I feel like I don't really know fall that
well because we don't get those like amazing colors in Atlanta.
I've seen them in other places. But I do think
too that that the idea of fall and all of
the different colors it does. I can see what you're
what you mean by the wondrous thing, too, Annie, because
(03:24):
when I think of fall, I think of children's books too,
Like I think of parents and children's books like taking
their kids to play in leaf piles and the kids
are wearing like what are they called galoshes, like the
rain boots. I don't know if that's the right word
for them, but there I feel like I never used
(03:46):
that word because I don't know fall will and our
climate actually isn't that rainy either, so yeah, I don't know.
I see it, and I plan on spending some time
in the northeast, so hopefully I do get to see
a little bit of the fall this year up there.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Yes, yes, oh, oh, yes, Well, I'm very excited for
this story used because I feel like this was a
first that opened a door to like an un amazing story,
Like it was not going it went all over the place.
I wasn't expecting a lot of it. And it's also
something that Samantha and I have talked about on the
(04:24):
show about clothes and drama calls around clothes and women
wearing them. So who did you bring for us to
talk about today?
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Us?
Speaker 3 (04:36):
So today we're going.
Speaker 5 (04:37):
To be talking about Luisa Capaccillo, and she is what
Adie's talking about. She's remembered as the first woman to
wear pants in Puerto Rico. That sounds like that is
not in any way that just scratches the surface of
everything that she did in her life. So it's not
like we're being reductionist by saying that. It's definitely one
(04:59):
thing that happen, but in her story. It's the thing
that gets the person the movie, you know what I mean,
Like it's that moment in their life that is like
indicative of all of the things that they've done in
their life. Who they are in their life. Is a
very symbolic part of her story, but it is in
no way the most important part of her story.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
Is really just really just it.
Speaker 5 (05:20):
Expresses the type of persons she was and kind of
it was also kind of a practical thing for her too,
So that is what she's remembered as. She could also
be considered one of the earliest feminist writers in Puerto Rico,
and we'll get into that in her story.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
Yeah, you know, as insignificant as it seems about the
pants the amount of conversations we've had on the show
alone in our books, like that's really fairly significant because
of the demonstrations and this is a revolt. This is
a protest that a lot of women did way back
when we talked about with the Bloomers, and then we
(06:00):
talked about it in our own and I think we
did an episode and we also did in our book
about pantsuits about how the government which just happened not
too long ago, Like in our lifetimes about how they
in the Congress. In Congress women decided to protest by
wearing pants suits, which was like unheard of. Like all
of these things that we talk about, it is such
(06:21):
an odd conversation and it seems so trivial, but at
the same time, it was fairly bigger than what we know,
and the whole implications of it was pretty big, and
it does kind of set a precedent about who these
people were and what they were trying to say, and
it often has a lot to do with women's rights
and feminism in itself.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
I love that, Yeah, I do too.
Speaker 5 (06:40):
And also, we haven't really I don't think we've ever
talked about a Puerto Rican woman.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
On the show before.
Speaker 5 (06:46):
I might be incorrect about that, but we definitely haven't
talked about a lot of them. So I'm excited that
we were able to talk about somebody from Puerto Rico
today because Puerto Rico and itself has its own rich history,
one that is still influx and that's still so many
people are talking about so thinking about how we're still
like and this was the eighteen hundreds to the early
(07:08):
nineteen hundreds that we were talking about people wearing pants,
and then in US Congress, we're talking about this in like.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
The nineteen nineties. So I think two.
Speaker 5 (07:19):
I mean, obviously because of Vice President Kamala Harris and
everything that's happening right now in the US presidency, Like
there's so much friction and so much coagulation and so
much electricity around this idea of like women in politics
doing things. And like, I think one interesting thing about
(07:42):
what y'all talk about on Sminty and then what we
have talked about on female First is like being able
to see that from a more global perspective and you
start to like just be able to put into perspective better,
like what's happening in different places at the same time.
So we'll get to talk about that context too. With
Luisa Capaitillo's story.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Yes, well, should we get into it.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (08:06):
So Luisa was born on October twenty eighth, eighteen seventy nine,
and Attecibo, Puerto Rico. And at the time she's born,
Puerto Rico is under Spanish rule, but in eighteen ninety eight,
the US invaded Puerto Rico and Spain ceded Puerto Rico
to the United States. So her father, Luisa's father Luis
(08:32):
Capetillo was from Spain. He did various jobs, including ones
in agriculture and construction. And Luisa's mother was Margharita Proone
and she was a domestic worker from France, and Luisa
was their only child. And Luisa's parents they were really
influenced by like the aftermath of the French Revolution. Margherita
(08:55):
herself was influenced by the work of George sand who
was a woman writer who criticized marriage and like talks
about lots of other things. But Louise and Margarita never
got married, and.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Like in any other story, I wouldn't really.
Speaker 5 (09:14):
Like it feels kind of odd to say that, but
it's because of this specific context, Luisa's context, and she
talks about marriage and her work and relationships between couples,
and also women's rights are part of the things that
Luisa talked about, which is why I have to just
add this disclaimer. That's why I'm saying that it's not
like I actually cared whether or not they're married or
(09:36):
like that's even that pertinent to the story beyond that point.
But Luisa's father taught Luisa to read and to write
and to do math, so she is she got kind
of an outside of the home education as well, but
inside of the home is where a lot of the
education was happening because her parents were introducing to her,
(09:57):
introducing Luisa to these works. She's exposed to the writings
of philosophers and anarchists, of people like Victor Hugo and
Emil Zola and John Stuart Mill. And she spoke with
her parents about workers' rights, religion, and anarcho syndicalism, which
(10:17):
is an anarchist philosophy that really advocates for workers taking
direct action for better conditions. It's like seeking to tear
down traditional organizations of authority and capitalism and organize these
mass unions and have civic and political life revolve around that.
(10:38):
And I am trying to imagine these conversations that she
was having with her parents, because I'm imagining this is
during the time of her adolescence, Like, I don't know
of any record of what those conversations were like. It's
just that in the sources I've seen from the scholars
and the historians who worked on uncovering her legacy have
(11:02):
said that she was a precocious child and that her parents,
because of their background, they came from Europe, and this
was in the eighteen hundreds. You know, the times that
they grew up in Spain and France were obviously very turbulent,
and so they had clearly some sort of social and
class consciousness coming over from Europe. And also I believe
(11:24):
they weren't wealthy, so I'm not sure if they were poor,
but they weren't wealthy. And they were also already thinking
about labor and thinking about their economics and their social status,
and they were migrants, so I guess in my mind
(11:46):
these are really big topics. And it seemed like Luisa
was pretty young. And I'm not saying that people who
are that age can't like internalize these things, but I
don't know how do y'all feel about that? Were these
are kinds of conversations you were having with like any
adult figures who were in your life, like in your
(12:08):
adolescent times, about like anarcho cynicalism, and like, I don't
know what do y'all think about that?
Speaker 1 (12:14):
I would say, I am like a very I was
not at that level at all, but my family was
very political. My dad was a professor, so we would
like over the dinner table, have these debates isn't even
the right word, just like discussions about it. But of
course I was quite young, so I'm sure I don't
(12:37):
know how educated I sounded, or like how great the points.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
I was making were. But we were having like political.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
Discussions when I was at least middle school, and my
older brother was way more into it than me, so
not the same level, but kind of.
Speaker 4 (12:59):
No answer is just no, I'm like I would still
have to look up some of those words today.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
Oh, it's just being very honest.
Speaker 4 (13:07):
We didn't talk about politics much, and because I come
from a very conservative family that wasn't highly educated, it
was mainly just of like, don't talk about it, talk
about Jesus only in the story.
Speaker 5 (13:18):
Yeah, I could imagine, like just between the two of y'all,
that's a huge range on the spectrum of the kinds
of conversations that y'all were having when you were children.
And I just think about it because I try to
imagine the context of like someone like this who was
involved in organizing and who has a political consciousness across continents,
you know, and across a certain period of time, Like
(13:41):
how were they thinking when they were young, and like
what kinds of conversations did they have with the people
who were in their lives, whether they were peers or
they were.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Like older than them.
Speaker 5 (13:52):
So it's interesting to see the kinds of works that
she was reading and imagine those conversations, because we don't
have audio of those kinds versations, we don't have documentation
of them. So I think it's just something interesting to
ponder as we think about how Luisa Capetillo the organizer
came into being. At some point when Luisa was young,
(14:22):
her father left and didn't come back, and her mother
mostly raised her from then, and sometimes she even went
to work with her mom, and this is how she
met Monuel Ledesma. Manuel was the son of the leader
of the Unconditional Spanish Party, which was a loyalist conservative party,
(14:44):
and she had two children with Monuel in the late
eighteen nineties, and their names were Manuela and Gregorio. And
Manuel is of a higher class than Luisa is, and
there were of course these conceptions around gender and around relationships,
(15:05):
and Luisa was expected to care for her children, but
the children lived with Luisa's mother, while Louisa kind of
went back and forth between households and someone of Manuel's
stature he was higher class. He was in this kind
of upity family that was involved in politics, and he
(15:26):
wasn't supposed to mix with someone of the working class
like Luisa, especially with the kind of arrangement that they
had and their relationship ended, but he did keep supporting
the children financially, and Luisa also worked as a seamstress
to support her children. So one thing that I've seen
(15:51):
brought up in sources too, is about how the children
had to deal with the different, like kind of political
ideologies between the two of them, because Louisa was not
a loyalist in the Conservative Party. And I don't really
know how the children responded to that. I know that
(16:13):
they were pulled in different directions because of their different
ideologies and what they would have imagined for their futures.
But I am also curious like about, like in that
moment at the time, as they were growing up, how
they reconciled the information that they were getting from their parents,
because Manuel and Louisa weren't together, but Momuel seemed like
(16:38):
he did stick around for Manuela and Gregorio and was
still in their lives even beyond when they separated. But yeah,
Louisa starts to get into her organizing life. So she
starts writing her first articles for local newspapers. Around nineteen
oh four, she starts working in garment factory and she
(17:01):
goes to strikes and she becomes involved with the Free
Federation of Workers of Puerto Rico. And I'll call that
the FLT from here on because that remains in her story.
But the organization followed anarcho Synicolas principles, and Luisa also
(17:21):
joined the Tobacco Workers Union and she became a reader
or what was known as electora in a cigar factory
and she was paid to read to people while they worked.
Could you like that sounds like a great job? Like
I mean, just from my bias perspective, like showing up
(17:42):
and reading to people is amazing, but like honestly, practically
like it was really good because there were a lot.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
Of people who couldn't read.
Speaker 5 (17:51):
And obviously this is a service that she like loves
doing and has clearly had a background through how her
parents raised her and her education that she got in
the home, and she wasn't just reading anything to them,
so she would read to them while they were she
got paid for it, but she would read things like
news and political theory, and so people's consciousnesses were raising
(18:16):
through the work that she was doing. She would be
seated on this raised platform, surrounded by these workers, and
she would start reading newspapers, and then she would also
read chapters from novels, so if there was she could
like serialize a novel over time and read a novel
to a person by reading chapters every time she was there.
(18:37):
So people are learning about labor organizing around the world.
They're learning philosophy while she's there, and they're also getting
to enjoy fictional narratives while they're working. So Luisa also
publishes articles in progressive publications like the flt's newspaper Union Operera,
(19:00):
and folks get familiar with her work as electora and
as a journalist. She participates in more agricultural strikes and
ramps up her organizing work, so people are listening to
what she's saying. They're rallying as she tries to bring
farmers together in factory workers together, and she's writing and
(19:22):
lecturing about workers' rights, about women's rights, and about collective liberation.
So in nineteen oh seven she published her first book
in SCIOs Libertarios and here is part of the beginning
of that book, education is the basis of happiness for
all people. Teach under the canopy of truth, tear off
(19:43):
the veil of ignorance, and show the true light of progress,
free from all rights and dogmas. Practice fellowship in order
to tighten the bonds that should unite humanity from one
end to another, regardless of race or belief. Ignorance is
the cause of the worst crimes. And in just this
is and that's the end of that quote. So in
(20:04):
that book she talks about the workers struggles and how
they're up against the greed and exploitation of these wealthy capitalists.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
She began traveling across Puerto Rico.
Speaker 5 (20:17):
She was lecturing on behalf of the FLT, and she
was writing articles for labor papers, and she also edited
a publication called La Mujer which means the Woman. And
don't think any of the work that she edited for
that publication or that publication is available to read today,
(20:41):
but there is a lot of her other work that
you can read. In nineteen ten, she published her second book,
Humanity in the Future, and in that book, she advocates
for free love, she advocates for vegetarianism, health reform, education.
These are things that'll come up across her work as
her philosophy continues to expand and as she continues to organize.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
In nineteen eleven, she.
Speaker 5 (21:07):
Published My Opinion about the Freedom's Rights and Duties of
the Woman, And some folks have considered that kind of
like the first feminist treatise published in Puerto Rico, but
it's definitely an early one. And she talks about sex work,
she talks about religion, and she talks about sexual oppression
(21:28):
and marriage, and she advocates for the comprehensive education of women.
And that same year, nineteen eleven, she has a child
with a pharmacist who happened to be married, and.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
That child's name.
Speaker 5 (21:45):
Was Louise, and the pharmacist doesn't recognize Louis as his
child unfortunately, and Louise goes back to live with his
siblings and Louise's mom, and his situation is a little
different from Mamuela and Gregorio's because you know, their father
was in their life, but in this case, Luis's father
(22:06):
is not in his life.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
So he.
Speaker 5 (22:10):
Forms a lot of his consciousness around Louisa alone, and
he gets to travel with her sometimes as well, but
he does spend time with his siblings and Luisa's mom.
So Luisa herself she believed that motherhood is important, but
that women's role should extend beyond the domestic sphere. So
(22:31):
she recognizes oh motherhood and how that plays a role
in how people develop their consciousnesses and how they're raised
and how society works. But she doesn't believe that women's
work should just stop right there. And she also advocated
for women's voting rights as part though of this larger
(22:55):
working class agenda. So a lot of other people in
Puerto Rico at the time were more so thinking about
women's voting rights going to educated women versus Luisa thought
about it more and fellow anarcho syndicalists who were in
(23:15):
alignment with her and her ideals, as this is something
that all women should, no matter the stature, should be
involved in. If we're going to use voting as a
means to power, then all women should have access to voting.
She started wearing pants too, so these helped her moves
(23:39):
around all the spatusem so she was traveling a lot,
she was going through fields, she was going through factory
so the pants probably just as I said earlier from
a practical standpoint, made a lot of sense for her
to wear, but it also may have helped her blend
in better with the men who were leaders in the FLT.
So there were a lot of men who were part
(24:01):
of these organizations, and she was one of the fewer
number of women who were leaders in the labor organizations,
and so this helped her kind of assimilarly in a way,
or be like less and more conspicuous at the same
time in an odd way, because she wasn't dressing like
(24:22):
other women, but at the same time she was like
blending in. So that's where the pants story starts. And
you can see pictures of her wearing these outfits too,
which is pretty cool. So she visited the US and
Cuba in nineteen twelve, and she went to New York,
(24:42):
she went to Tampa, Florida, and she went to Havana, Cuba,
and she was moving through these intellectual and political circles
and writing for local anarchists and labor papers in New York,
working as a journalist, and she was working as electora
in a cigar factory in Aybor City in Tampa, and
(25:06):
she began writing her last book while she was there
in ay Boar City in nineteen thirteen, and Abor City,
which is the neighborhood in Tampa, was a hub for
diverse anarchists and socialists. So it wasn't like she was
like one of a kind while she was there. There
were a lot of people from different places who were
involved in that manner of political ideology. So there were
(25:29):
also anarchists. There were also socialists who were there who
were involved in labor organizing. There were also other electorists
forgive me Spanish for those of y'all who speak Spanish.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
But yeah, who were there.
Speaker 5 (25:45):
There were mostly men, and that was the case in
Puerto Rico as well, and that was the case here
in Tampa. So it was mostly men who did this job.
It was fewer women who did it. And so she
was introducing these feminist ideas to the ideas they were
bringing to the table. But she wasn't the only one
who It was not like something necessarily they had.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
Not heard before.
Speaker 5 (26:08):
They might not have her her specific brand of like
how she was bringing her ideology as a suffragist into it.
But she she was in good company, so to say.
And by nineteen thirteen she published a second edition of
her nineteen eleven book My opinion. She continued doing her
(26:28):
organizing work, but by nineteen fifteen she had moved to
Cuba and she was working with the Anarchist Federation and
she helped sugarcane workers during a strike, and she supported
a manifesto that denounced the government for trying to suppress
labor uprisings. And on July twenty fourth, nineteen fifteen, in Havana, Cuba,
(26:52):
she was arrested for what they considered dressing like a
man in public, which meant that she was wearing a
jack get, a tie and a hat. So she was
back in Puerto Rico by nineteen sixteen, and that year
she published her fourth in her last book, Influencias de
(27:15):
las Adillas modern and Us. And there are plays, stories
and letters in this last book as well. So she
helped lead strikes, walkouts and protests now that she's back
here in Puerto Rico, and of course she gets pushed
back from authorities from the work that she was doing.
(27:36):
In nineteen eighteen, she was arrested in jail for what
they considered in citing a riot, and she was fined,
but her supporters raised the money and she got out
and from nineteen nineteen to nineteen twenty, she traveled between
the Caribbean and the US. She was running a boarding house,
and she was participating in political debates, and by nineteen
(27:58):
twenty one she was back in Puerto Rico though, so
she was campaigning for candidates for the Socialist Workers Party.
But at some point during all this moving around that
she was doing, she got tuberculosis and she was struggling
with her health and she died in Puerto Rico on
April tenth, nineteen twenty two. So she did a lot
(28:21):
in her life, even though she died when she was
relatively younger. But her organizing, you know, really crossed borders,
coming from the Caribbean to the United States. And also,
just like her upbringing, took place at a time when
a lot was changing in Puerto Rico. So I think
her story is very fascinating. And clearly she was also
(28:42):
a stylish person, so I appreciate that too.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
Yes, she was those pictures listeners, look them up.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
She was fashion forward.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
She was fashion forward, but also yeah, practical. It just
made sense. There's so much I love about her story.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
She has a lot of great quotes, and you know,
we love quotes over here, so also go look that
up listeners. Just a lot of interesting thoughts about religion
and anarchy that I thought was that was fascinating because
you know, we like talking about religion here. Yeah huh,
but yeah, like you said, it's the perspective of this
(29:32):
is really useful because we are having so many of
these conversations still, but seeing it from her viewpoint, similar
things from her viewpoint, I think is incredibly valuable. And
also I kind of love she called her book My Opinion.
Like I know it's the longer title, but I like
(29:53):
that it's called my Opinion. I actual really appreciate that. Yeah, yeah,
because it just feels so confident in a way. I guess,
like because if you're getting the book, you're you're like saying,
I want to get my opinion.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
It feels very right.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
She's going to influence you with the her thoughts and
the way she's thought about them and written about them.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
I love it, but not in an evangelizing way.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
No, no, no no, because.
Speaker 5 (30:21):
It's like I have authority, but I'm still telling you
this is like from my particular viewpoint, so I'm not
trying to force this down your throat. I'm just saying
I have a lot of these thoughts and they have
great basis, and I've done a lot of work in
these areas, and i have something to say about it.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
I'm gonna publish it.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Mm hmmm. I love it. I love it so much.
Speaker 4 (30:44):
And just thinking about about the first conversation we were
having when we were talking about did you talk about
politics like this as a child?
Speaker 3 (30:49):
And I was like, nah, so.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
Her dut she was my age, she died around my age,
And looking back at what she did, I'm like, damn,
I'm behind.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
Oh my goodness, this Samantha stop it just all the time.
Speaker 4 (31:03):
But the fact that she was such a force and
such an influence on unionizing as well as labor organization,
that's huge in itself, because that's still a conversation and
a big need that's happening.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
All around the world today.
Speaker 4 (31:15):
And the fact that it's still something is contentious like
that is something that we do need to talk about,
especially when we're talking about Puerto Rico in itself. In
the history of Puerto Rico and the US is not pretty.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
And the fact that that's.
Speaker 4 (31:27):
Still on the table and discussion and seeing what she
has done and what she has done to influence so
much in feminism and get unionization and all of that.
That's a lot, and that is a lot she's in
her short life that she has accomplished, and that's amazing
to see it. And I'm glad we've got those records
and also the pictures.
Speaker 5 (31:46):
And also the pictures, and speaking of the records, like
shout out to all the people who translated her work
from Spanish to English, because if it weren't for those people,
then people like me, silly Americans who can only speak English,
would not be able to access her work without having
like somebody else to help translate. So to the translators
(32:07):
who translated her work and who translate everything else to
allow us to learn more about people, because I think
outside of Puerto Rico, I mean I think maybe even
in Puerto Rico it could like it's been helpful the
work that scholars have done to uplift her legacy, but
like outside of Puerto Rico, outside of the Caribbeans, like
the work that the scholars and historians have done to
(32:30):
uplift her legacy, which seemingly deserve to be and was
like covered as many other people we talk about on
Female First have been that the work that they were
able to do to uplift it has been really helpful.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
Sure, yes, Yes, always appreciate translators who help us talk
about important topics around the world.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
And we always.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
Appreciate you Eve for bringing people we might not have
heard of and giving these stories and all of this context.
So thank you so much as always for being here.
Speaker 3 (33:09):
You're welcome, happy to be here, per usual.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Yay, Where can the good listeners find you?
Speaker 3 (33:17):
You can find me on the internet.
Speaker 5 (33:20):
You can just go to Eves Jeffcote dot com and
then you can find all the other things from there.
My name is spelled yvees j E F F co
A T. If you want to hit me up on
Instagram you can. You can go to Not Apologizing. You
can also hear me on on Theme, which is a
podcast about black storytelling that I co host with Katie Mitchell,
(33:43):
and also on many many other episodes of Female First
here on Sminty.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Yes, so go check out all of that stuff if
you haven't already, listeners, and if you would like to
contact us, you can you can email stuffing your mom
stuff at I Heart can find us on Twitter at
most of podcast or on Instagram and TikTok at stuff
I Never Told You. We're on YouTube, we have a
tea public store, and we have a book where, yes
we do talk about pantsuits and clothing you can get
(34:11):
wherever you get your book. Thanks, it's always to our
super producer Christina or executive producer May.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
And our contributor Joey.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
Thank you and.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
Thanks to you for listening. Stuff I'll Never Told You
is a production by Heart Radio. For more podcasts from
my Heart Radio, you can check out the Art Radio app,
Apple Podcasts or Revulus Send to your favorite shows.
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