Walking Duermevelas with Luisa

Abstract:Luisa Capetillo's revolutionary power was recognized in her time by allies and detractors alike, both in Puerto Rico and abroad. The scarcely examined archive of Puerto Rican and US-based newspaper coverage between 1911 and 1913 shows the significance of Capetillo's gesta (heroic feat) and gestos (gestures, movements), offering a powerful trace of her subversive walks and an instance of her own argument. Through her deliberately clothed and performed walks—as part of worker-led and anarchist manifestations and, on her own, as a de facto feminist statement—Luisa Capetillo became/was becoming an other woman. Not a single acera (sidewalk) or calle (street), nor any protest in the archipelago taking the form of a walk against power, has ever been the same after Luisa and her faldapantalón (skirt-pant). Attempting to reflect this premise, this essay traverses, on dreamy foot and bilingually, the author's past-and-present walking duermevelas with Luisa alongside the newspaper archive.