Between Torture and Resistance (Paperback or Softback)

Oscar López Rivera was born in San Sebastián, Puerto Rico on January 6, 1943. His family moved to the U.S. when he was an adolescent, and--like many young Latino and African American men--he was drafted into the U.S. army; his service in Viet Nam earned him the Bronze Star. When he returned from the war in 1967, he immediately set to work organizing to improve the quality of life for his people, helping to create both the Puerto Rican High School and the Puerto Rican Cultural Center of Chicago, Illinois. Eventually, however, Oscar and other young Puerto Ricans--inspired by heroic guerilla movements throughout the world--decided that their work for the independence of Puerto Rico could best be conducted in clandestine fashion. López Rivera was arrested in 1981, and ultimately sentenced to 55 years for the thought crime of seditious conspiracy; his release date is 2027, when he will be 84 years old. From 1986 to 1998, he was held in the most super maximum security prisons in the federal prison system, in conditions not unlike those at Guantanamo under which "enemy combatants" are held--conditions which the International Red Cross have called tantamount to torture. Over López Rivera's long years behind bars, he has become a talented and prolific artist whose drawings and paintings form part of an itinerant exhibit, Not Enough Space, along with fellow independentista Carlos Alberto Torres. He has also authored a chapter, "A Century of Colonialism: One Hundred Years of Puerto Rican Resistance," in Joy James' Warfare in the American Homeland.

Dr. Luis Nieves Falcón, renowned lawyer, psychologist, and sociologist, is professor emeritus of the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) and a longtime advocate for Puerto Rican human rights. A founder of the UPR's Department of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Dr. Falcón has been at the intellectual and activist forefront of every major modern campaign for Puerto Rican sovereignty. As chairman of the Puerto Rico Committee for Human Rights, the Puerto Rican PEN Club, and the International League for the Rights and Liberation of the Peoples, he has convened international tribunals on various issues concerning the Puerto Rican condition in Barcelona, New York, Vieques, and San Juan. Dr. Falcón is presently the president of the Nilita Vientós Gastón Foundation. His recent books include Un siglo de represión política en Puerto Rico: 1898-1998 [A Century of Political Repression in Puerto Rico: 1898-1998], and La Luz Desde La Ventana: Conversaciones con Filiberto Ojeda Ríos [The Light from the Window: Conversations with Filiberto Ojeda Rios].

Desmond Mpilo Tutu is Archbishop Emeritus of the Anglican Church of South Africa. The recipient of the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize, Archbishop Tutu has long spoken out for human rights for all, and for the release of all political prisoners. He was the Chair of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and now chairs The Elders, a group committed to dealing with the world's most intractable challenges, including Nelson Mandela, Jimmy Carter, and Mary Robinson.

Matt Meyer is author and editor of six books, including four titles on contemporary Africa, and PM Press' Let Freedom Ring: A Collection of Documents from the Movements to Free U.S. Political Prisoners. He is a New York City-based educator and activist, and a founder of the anti-imperialist collective Resistance in Brooklyn. Meyer has served as national chair for both the War Resisters League and the Peace and Justice Studies Association, and has been called a natural coalition-builder who "provides tools for today's activists" by Argentine Nobel Peace laureate Adolfo Perez Esquivel.

Rev. Dr. C. Nozomi Ikuta has served as pastor of Denison Avenue United Church of Christ, on Cleveland, Ohio's west side, since 2003. She is the national coordinator of the Interfaith Prisoners of Conscience Project, which has been affiliated with the Racial Justice Working Group of the National Council of the Churches of Christ, USA.