Paseo Boricua, Chicago: Carlos Alberto Torres is Free! July 26, 2010

by Luis Alejandro Molina

Carlos Alberto Torres, Puerto Rican revolutionary nationalist and member of the FALN (Armed Forces of National Liberation), was released on parole from the Federal Correctional Institution in Pekin, Illinois, on July 26, 2010 after serving 30 years of a 78-year sentence for seditious conspiracy.

Carlos Alberto was arrested, along with 10 other compañeros,/as on April 4, 1980, in the Chicago suburb of Evanston. His release was the result of a broad-based campaign rooted in Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rican diaspora in the US, albeit with international support.

Shown here are a series of collages celebrating this occasion. The first one was created for this occasion and is meant to be seen with these two videos:

Credit: Chicago Independent Media Center (CIMC). Video is 5:19.

The second is the actual welcome in Pekin, IL, shopping mall parking lot by a small group of his family, loved ones, and supporters who drove three hours to pick him up, and culminating in the joyous homecoming on July 26, 2010, to Chicago’s Paseo Boricua.

Courtesy of CAN-TV. Video is 15:55.

Complete-final-three-collages-CAT-7-26-2026-web

LEGEND TO COLLAGE 1

July 26, 2010, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT:

1. audience at La Estancia reception
2. road at La Casita event
3. La Casita stage: José E. López, Jan Susler, Carlos Alberto Torres
4. La Casita Stage: Carlos Alberto Torres, Michelle Morales
5. Myrna Torres, Kathy Ortiz, Carlos Alberto Torres, and Luis Alejandro Molina
6. Former Political Prisoners Alberto Rodriguez and Ricardo Jimenez
7. José E. López and NY State Representative José Rivera
8. Drs. Michele Kelly, Rev. Nozomi Ikuta, José E. López, and James Watson.
9. Pg. 4 of Chicago’s La Raza newspaper. It published a section on Carlos Alberto’s history, struggle, and release.
10. Carlos Alberto Torres stepped out of the van, his family and lawyer picked him up from Pekin, IL, Federal Prison.

LEGEND TO COLLAGE 2 (Published in the “Not Enough Space” Catalog)

1. At FCI Oxford, 2005.
2. Oak Park/River Forest High School Graduation picture, circa 1970
3. At FCI Oxford with grand-niece Lali.
4. At the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, circa 1960s.
5. In Monterey, Mexico, with Rev. Angel Luis Jaime, childhood friend of Rev. Torres with, 1966
6. In Guayanilla, Puerto Rico, with church friends, circa 1964
7. Family portrait in Chicago, from left to right: Rev. José Alberto Torres “El Viejo”, Alejandrina T, Norma, Nidza, Carlos Alberto, sitting: Liza Beth, circa 1968
8. With daughter Clarissa at FCI Oxford, circa 1990s
9. Rev. Torres with wife Alejandrina.
10. At FCI Oxford, with Rev. Torres and his sister, (Carlos Alberto’s aunt), Maria Antonio Fernández, circa 2001
11. At Menard State Prison, IL, with “El Viejo,” Alejandrina and Liza Beth Torres, circa 1982.
12. In Peñuelas, Puerto Rico, circa 1964.
13. Traveling “La Piquiña”, Puerto Rico, circa 1966.

LEGEND TO COLLAGE 3 (Published in the “Not Enough Space” Catalog)

14. Rev. Torres with his first wife, Norma, while pregnant with Carlos Alberto, circa
    1952.
15. Carlos Alberto in first grade, circa 1959.
16. Nidza, Carlos Alberto, and Norma at Viejo and Alejandrina’s wedding, circa 1964.
17. Carlos Alberto in a Boy Scout uniform on a family trip to Washington DC Pictured also
    are Angel Luis Jaime and his wife, Hilda, circa 1963.
18. Carlos Alberto with sister, Lisa Beth, circa 1967.
19. Puerto Rican political prisoners in Pleasanton FCI: Stepmother Alejandrina Torres,
    Haydee Beltrán and Ida Luz Rodríguez, circa 1993.
20. With sister Nidza, niece Noemi, and Rev. Torres at FCI Oxford, circa 1996.
21. Carlos Alberto and Haydée Beltrán at their wedding, circa 1975.
22. Carlos Alberto, Ida Luz Rodríguez, and Oscar López Rivera at church camping trip,
    circa 1975.
23. At the University of Illinois, circa 1973.
24. At FCI Oxford arts & crafts workshop, circa 2005.
25. BBQ’ing “lechón asado” at a church picnic at Pleasant Valley camp. Circa 1964.
26. Carlos Alberto and Haydée at the Pleasant Valley Camp church picnic, circa 1975.
27. At FCI Talladega, circa 1995.
28. Carlos Alberto in Boy Scout uniform on a family trip to Washington, D.C., pictured also
    are Angel Luis Jaime and wife Hilda, circa 1963.

“Not Enough Space” was a traveling art exhibition featuring paintings by Oscar López Rivera and ceramic works by Carlos Alberto Torres. Coordinated by the National Boricua Human Rights Network and in Puerto Rico by the Puerto Rican Human Rights Committee, the exhibition toured over 15 U.S. cities, including Chicago, New York City, and Los Angeles, and cultural institutions in several countries, such as Puerto Rico and Mexico, highlighting the artists’ decades-long imprisonment as Puerto Rican political prisoners.

The exhibition launched in 2005 to mark the 25th anniversary of their arrests and imprisonment. Its core themes were: Captivity, physical confinement and isolation, human rights, and the ongoing struggle for Puerto Rican independence.

View or download the original catalog below:

NES_combo_small