event details posted by: CISWSAT begins: Mar 6, 7:00 pm ends: Mar 6, 10:00 pm location: Taller Puertoriqueño, 2557 N. 5th Street, Philadelphia PA

On Saturday March 6th, long-time activists and former political prisoners Ricardo Jimenéz and Laura Whitehorn will be speaking at Taller Puertorriqueño. The event, titled Bring Them Home: 30 Years of Political Incarceration is part of a call for the release of two Puerto Rican political prisoners, Carlos Alberto Torres and Oscar López Rivera.

Ricardo Jimenéz began organizing as a high school student for Latino-relevant curriculum in Chicago area schools and universities. He also organized against drugs and gentrification in Puerto Rican communities. Arrested in 1980, he spent almost twenty years in prison on charges of “seditious conspiracy” for his involvement in the Puerto Rican independence movement. He was one of eleven independence activists granted presidential clemency in 1999. Since then, he has been an educator, lecturer, and AIDS activist.

Laura Whitehorn was a member of Students for a Democratic Society and the Weather Underground. She served 14 years in prison as part of the Resistance Conspiracy case. Since her release in 1999, she has been an editor at POZ magazine. She is a member of New Yorkers for Justice and Reconciliation (formerly the New York Task Force on Political Prisoners) and is the editor of Safiya Bukhari’s collected works, “The War Before” (Feminist Press, 2010).

Carlos Alberto Torres and Oscar López Rivera are the longest held political prisoners in Puerto Rican history. Both have been in prison for nearly three decades. They were charged with seditious conspiracy for their involvement in the Puerto Rican Independence movement.  It's time to bring them home!

Bring Them Home will also feature a special performance by PHILAREYTO, a Philadelphia-based Puerto Rican folk dance troupe.

This event is being put on by the National Boricua Human Rights Networks' Philadelphia Chapter. For additional information, visit their website at http://boricuahumanrights.org