Alicia Rodriguez was born on October 21, 1953, in Chicago, Illinois. She grew up during the turbulent decades of the 1960s and 1970s, witnessing first hand the atrocities committed against the civil rights and the anti-Vietnam war movements. These and other life changing experiences deepened her awareness and affinity with national liberation movements. They moved her to resist and participate in Puerto Rico's anti-colonial struggle, which has been waged for more than 500 years. On April 4, 1980 Alicia (along with her sister Lucy and other comrades) was captured and charged with seditious conspiracy. Throughout her capture, trial and incarceration, she maintained her position as an anti-colonial political prisoner resisting the illegal U.S. occupation of her homeland. Alicia was physically and verbally abused during her trial. In the first sixteen and a half years in prison, she was housed in maximum security and never allowed outside of her living unit without being escorted by a prison guard. Her mail was censored and she was never allowed to phone anyone on the island of Puerto Rico. Still, she remained an organizer in prison; she assisted in teaching a commercial arts and photography class, participated in an Adult Literacy program, and was recruited by the medical staff to be part of an AIDS educational mentor. She is one of eleven former Puerto Rican political prisoners granted clemency by President Clinton in September 1999, a move made possible by a victorious campaign which united the Puerto Rican people and mobilized international solidarity. The campaign to release the Puerto Rican political prisoners was so powerful that it served as a model and as a source of inspiration for the successful struggle to force the US Navy out of Vieques in 2003. It served as undeniable proof that when human beings exercise the right to struggle for the freedom of mind and spirit victory is achieved. Since her release Alicia has focused on establishing herself as a community potter. She designed and mobilized community support which helped build her pottery workshop. This process goes hand in hand with her participation in the campaign to release the remaining Puerto Rican political prisoners, Oscar López Rivera and Avelino Claudio González.