Isabel Freire de Matos

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Isabel Freire de Matos
BornFebruary 2, 1915
Puerto Rican
Occupations
  • Writer
  • educator
  • journalist
Political party
Puerto Rican Independence
SpouseFrancisco Matos Paoli
ChildrenSusana Isabel
María Soledad
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Isabel Freire de Matos

Puerto Rican Nationalist Party
.

Early years

Freire de Matos (birth name: Isabel Freire Meléndez

Bachelor of Arts degree in education.[1]

During her years as a student at the university she became interested in the

Puerto Rico's independence. She continued her postgraduate studies in the UPR and moved to Paris, France, for a year to study comparative literature at the Sorbonne. There she met Francisco Matos Paoli, a fellow independence advocate who in 1942 became her husband.[2]

Educator

After she returned to Puerto Rico, she began to work in the public and private school systems of the island. She co-authored a children's book titled El libro Isla para niños (The island book for children) with her husband.[1]

Nationalist revolts of the 1950s

On May 21, 1948, a bill was introduced before the

U.S. government
.

In September 1950, her husband traveled to the towns of

Río Piedras and searched for guns and explosives. The only thing they found was a Puerto Rican flag but, due to Law 53 (the Gag Law), this enabled them to arrest and accuse her husband of treason against the United States. The evidence used against him was the Puerto Rican flag in their home, and four speeches he'd made in favor of Puerto Rican independence.[2]

On the basis of this "evidence" her husband was fired from his professorship at the University of Puerto Rico, and sentenced to a twenty-year prison term, which was later reduced to ten years. In jail, her husband shared his cell with

ulcerations on his legs and body caused by radiation, and her husband tended to his needs.[6]

Her husband wrote patriotic poems on scraps of paper which were smuggled out of the prison by Freire de Matos. She tried to get them published and even though they were inoffensive, the context of the "Gag Law" and its intended effect, to silence all opposition made the poems take on a different meaning.[7]

Her husband was released on probation on January 16, 1952. However, on March 2, 1954, after the Nationalists attack of the

U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. government ordered the wholesale arrest of Nationalist Party members including her husband, who was not involved in the incident.[6]

In 1954, Freire de Matos founded the "Escuela Maternal Hostoniana" (Maternal Hostonian School) named after Eugenio María de Hostos".[1] On May 26, 1955, after ten months in jail and in poor health, her husband was finally pardoned by Puerto Rican Governor Luis Muñoz Marín.[6]

Author

Freire de Matos continued to teach and write. In her college she established a creative experimental method in which she explored the balance between freedom and nature among individuals. She hoped that with her methods her students would develop positive attitudes and love for education. She hoped that her students had would fully develop their talents.[2]

Written works

Among her written works are the following:[1][7]

  • La poesía en la escuela elemental, (Poetry in elementary school) 1962
  • Poesía menuda, (Poetry menuda) 1965
  • ABC de Puerto Rico, (ABC of Puerto Rico) 1968
  • La casita misteriosa y otros cuentos, (The mysterious house and other stories) 1979
  • La brujita encantada y otros cuentos, (The enchanted little witch and other stories) 1979
  • Juego para los dedos, (A finger game) 1980
  • Isla para los niños, (An island for children) 1981
  • Eugenio María de Hostos para la juventud, Eugenio María de Hostos for the young) 1989
  • Ritmos de tierra y mar, (Rhythms of the earth and sea) 1992
  • La poesía y el niño, (Poetry and children) 1993
  • El teatro y el niño, (Theatre and children) 1995
  • El pajarito feliz, (The happy little bird) 1996
  • Los derechos del niño, (The rights of children) 1996
  • El cuento y el niño, (Story telling and children) 1997
  • Liza en el parque de las palomas, (Liza in the Park of the pigeons) 2000

Later years

In 1968, Freire de Matos collaborated as a co-author with Rubén del Rosario, in the publication of Antonio Martorell's "ABC de Puerto Rico". The publication is used in Puerto Rico's elementary schools.[2] On 1971, she also collaborated with the publication of Fe Acosta de González's "Matemáticas modernas en el nivel elementa" (Modern Math at the elementary level.[2]

Francisco Matos Paoli died on July 10, 2000, in their home in

Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico. Freire de Matos died four years later on September 30, 2004. They were survived by two daughters, Susana Isabel and María Soledad, and four grandchildren.[1]

There is a plaque, located at the monument to the Jayuya Uprising participants in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, honoring the women of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. Freire de Matos' name is on the sixteenth line of the third plate.

Plaque honoring the women of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party

See also

19th Century female leaders of the Puerto Rican Independence Movement

Female members of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party

Articles related to the Puerto Rican Independence Movement

Notes

  1. family name
    is "de Matos".
  2. Spanish name, the first or paternal surname
    is Freire and the second or maternal family name is Meléndez.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Isabel Freire de Matos por Esther Rivera Torres
  2. ^ a b c d e f Francisco Matos Paoli, poeta Archived December 6, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ "La obra jurídica del Profesor David M. Helfeld (1948–2008)'; by: Dr. Carmelo Delgado Cintrón Archived March 27, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ "Puerto Rican History". Topuertorico.org. January 13, 1941. Retrieved November 20, 2011.
  5. ^ La Gobernación de Jesús T. Piñero y la Guerra Fría
  6. ^ a b c Francisco Matos Paoli
  7. ^
    ISSN 0034-9593

External links
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