Isabel Rosado (November 5, 1907 – January 13, 2015), also known as Doña Isabelita, was an educator, social worker, activist and member of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party.
[4] The Insular Police, a force somewhat resembling the National Guard, answered to orders of the U.S. appointed governor of Puerto Rico, General Blanton Winship.
[5] The outcome of the Ponce massacre served as an influential factor in her decision to join the Nationalist Party and to become a follower of Pedro Albizu Campos.
[7] Under this new law it became a crime to print, publish, sell, or exhibit any material intended to paralyze or destroy the insular government; or to organize any society, group or assembly of people with a similar destructive intent.
According to Dr. Leopoldo Figueroa, a non-PPD member of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives, the law was repressive and was in violation of the First Amendment of the US Constitution which guarantees Freedom of Speech.
[9] The uprisings occurred in various towns, among them Peñuelas, Mayagüez, Naranjito, Arecibo and Ponce, of which the most notable occurrences being in Utuado, where the insurgents were massacred, Jayuya, the town where the "Free Republic of Puerto Rico" was declared, and which was heavily damaged by the military in response to the insurrection, and in San Juan where the Nationalists made an attempt against then-Governor Luis Muñoz Marín at his residence "La Fortaleza".
[citation needed] On March 1, 1954, four Puerto Rican nationalists, Lolita Lebrón, Rafael Cancel Miranda, Andres Figueroa Cordero, and Irvin Flores Rodríguez, shot 30 rounds from semi-automatic pistols from the Ladies' Gallery (a balcony for visitors) of the House of Representatives chamber in the United States Capitol.
[12] Isabel Rosado Morales died on January 13, 2015, of natural causes at the Sagradas Misiones de la Misericordia (Sacred Missions of Mercy) hospice in Fajardo, Puerto Rico, where she resided.
Nationalist leader Rafael Cancel Miranda made the following statement:[13][14] A national heritage such as Doña Isabelita, will live forever in the hearts of her people.