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1879–1922 · Arecibo · Labor Activism • Literature

Labor organizer in Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and the U.S. Born on October 28, 1879 in Arecibo. A free thinker, a feminist, an anarchist and a workers' and women's rights activist, in the early 1900's. She believed that good wages were a worker's right and insisted that women should have the same right to vote as men. Although she is best known today for being the first woman to wear pants in public. In 1919, she challenged the mainstream society by wearing pants in public and sent to jail for what was then considered to be a "crime", but, the judge later dropped the charges against her. On April 10, 1922, Capetillo died of tuberculosis in Río Piedras, Puerto Rico, at the age of 42.