“31 Days for 31 Years”
Over 75 university students, community residents, family members and special guests gathered Tuesday evening, May 29th, at the Batey Urbano, to celebrate the culminating event for “31 Days for 31 Years”. The ambitious joint effort of the Latin@ Coalition, Batey Urbano, and NBHRN began Saturday, April 28th when Alejandro Luis Molina, prisoner #1, entered the makeshift cell to begin his voluntary “incarceration” of 24 hours. Every subsequent “prisoner” was also watched by a “guard”. While every guard wrote a letter to Oscar, some went further and reflected publically before the crowd on their experience in the cell.
One of the most moving reflections was made by Minister Abel Muhammad, the Latino Community liaison from the Nation of Islam, who made the observation, “How could a man this beautiful, who has brought so many people together here and all over the world in the campaign for his freedom, be a terrorist?”
The reflections were interspersed with original poetry by Casandra Figueroa and Jessie Fuentes, Judy Diaz and Marisol Velez, also known as “Pinqy Ring.”, all about Oscar. Many of the reflections that were written by the prisoners, as well as the artistic posters used to bring the message of Oscar’s freedom to the anti-NATO march, were affixed to the surrounding walls, along with Oscar’s paintings.
Lourdes Lugo and José E. López spoke, and while both are members of the family, Lourdes spoke as someone who had helped cater the meals for the “prisoners” in the cell and as someone who has been involved in the campaign for Puerto Rican political prisoners freedom for close to 20 years, and José as a person who the NBHRN asked to reflect on what was he doing the day Oscar was arrested and how that impacted the movement.
Laura Ruth Johnson, a Network member that has been visiting Oscar for many years, read his message, a message that you can read in its entirety here, and that also traveled throughout the Puerto Rican Diaspora and Puerto Rico.
One can the find 31-second videos of each “prisoner’s” reflection and photos on NBHRN’s youtube and flickr sites, respectively.