Figueroa, had changed political ideals and in 1948, was a member of the Partido Estadista Puertorriqueño (Puerto Rican Statehood Party).

Spain had lost its last colony in the western hemisphere, and the United States gained imperial strength and global presence.

[1] During his stay in Cuba, he resided with his uncle Sotero Figueroa and befriended various self-exiled Puerto Ricans like Lola Rodríguez de Tió and Sergio Cuevas Zequeira.

In the 1912 Union Party Assembly in Mayagüez, Figueroa presented a motion to expel the members who favored US statehood for Puerto Rico.

His motion was opposed by party leaders Herminio Díaz Navarro, Rafael Cuevas Zequeira and Martín Travieso and was not accepted.

The same year, Barceló, Muñoz Rivera and de Diego were members of an executive council that attempted to form an alliance between the Union and Republican Parties.

In 1915, Figueroa and José De Diego traveled to the Dominican Republic and Cuba with the intention of organizing a Union of the Antilles and to gather support for Puerto Rican Independence movement.

[1][5] Figueroa began to doubt that the United States would grant Puerto Rico its independence and that said ideals were more wishful thinking then realistic.

The Senate, which at the time was controlled by the Partido Popular Democrático (PPD) and presided by Luis Muñoz Marín, approved the bill that day.

[10] It now was 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 Figueroa, the only non-PPD member of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives,[1] the law was repressive and violated the First Amendment of the US Constitution which guarantees Freedom of Speech.

A result of the meeting was the creation of the political organization "Estadistas Unidos" (United Statehooders) which was renamed "Partido Nuevo Progressita" (PNP or New Progressive Party of Puerto Rico), presided by Luis A. Ferré.

[13] As a Head Nurse,[14] Vazquez and Figueroa shared a medical background and lived in the Santurce area of San Juan until his death.

[1] He is the subject of the 2012 book Dr. Leopoldo Figueroa, El Ideario de un Decano 1889 – 1969, published by the Office of the Official Historian of Puerto Rico.