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ezreaadingo's review
5.0
This is a shortened biography of one of the great Boricua leaders in the struggle for independence. The suffering and sacrifices made by him and his comrades to fight for something much bigger than themselves is put on display and much of it through excerpts of his own writings.
This is a simultaneously painful and uplifting book. I recommend it for anyone who considers themselves to be a freedom fighter, a believer in justice, and any aspiring anti-colonialists! This book gives a good taste of the lengths one might have to go to in order to fight for truth and justice!
This is a simultaneously painful and uplifting book. I recommend it for anyone who considers themselves to be a freedom fighter, a believer in justice, and any aspiring anti-colonialists! This book gives a good taste of the lengths one might have to go to in order to fight for truth and justice!
lo_a_scott's review
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical trauma, Confinement, Physical abuse, Racism, Emotional abuse, and Colonisation
biancachristine's review against another edition
5.0
Oscar López Rivera has been in the U.S. prison system since 1981 for “seditious conspiracy in attempting to overthrow American government on the island of Puerto Rico.” Throughout the course of his life, he worked towards making America a better place for all Latinos and Black people. He organized countless educational programs in Chicago and got involved in his community in any way that he could. After serving in the Vietnam War, he started to ask questions about his own homeland. He couldn’t understand why he was being awarded for killing people in a war that wasn’t his own. When he returned back to the States, he picked a new fight: end United States colonial rule over Puerto Rico.
Between Torture and Resistance is a heart wrenching read. Through Oscar’s letters to his family and close friends, we learn of the unthinkable conditions he has had to suffer in prisons throughout the country. It was very hard to read. And it was even more difficult to grasp how we can call ourselves a democracy while ruling over other nations and torturing those who only want freedom.
Between Torture and Resistance is a heart wrenching read. Through Oscar’s letters to his family and close friends, we learn of the unthinkable conditions he has had to suffer in prisons throughout the country. It was very hard to read. And it was even more difficult to grasp how we can call ourselves a democracy while ruling over other nations and torturing those who only want freedom.
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