Isabel Luberza Oppenheimer (23 July 1901Funeraria Jackie Oliver. Museum. Avenida Las Americas, Ponce, Puerto Rico. 15 February 2012. – 4 January 1974), better known as "Isabel la Negra", was a Puerto Rican brothel owner and madam in barrio

Maragüez Maragüez (''Barrio Maragüez'') is one of the 31 barrios of the municipality of Ponce, Puerto Rico. Along with Magueyes, Ponce, Puerto Rico, Magueyes, Tibes, Portugués (Ponce), Portugués, Montes Llanos, Machuelo Arriba, Sabanetas, Ponce, Pue ...

Ponce, Puerto Rico Ponce (, , , ) is both a city and a municipality on the southern coast of Puerto Rico. The city is the seat of the municipal government. Ponce, Puerto Rico's most populated city outside the San Juan metropolitan area, was founded on 12 August 1 ...

. Her name and her brothel, Elizabeth's Dancing Club, became part of Puerto Rican

folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...

both during her life and posthumously.

Early years and youth

Sign marking Isabel la Negra Street in Barrio San Antón in Ponce, PR (DSC00329)

Isabel Luberza Oppenheimer was born in the San Anton neighborhood of

, on 23 July 1901 to Joselino Luberza and María Oppenheimer. Apart from her business as a madam, well documented in many Puerto Rican newspapers such as '' El Dia'' and ''

El Vocero ''El Vocero de Puerto Rico'' is a Puerto Rican free newspaper that is published in San Juan. Published since 1974, ''El Vocero'' was at first the third of the four largest Puerto Rico newspapers, trailing '' El Mundo'' and '' El Nuevo Día'' and ...

'', not much is known about her early life. One widely circulated version is that Isabel left home as a young teenager to live with a wealthy man only to find out that he was married. Another version says she dated and married a much older man, a wealthy American. A well researched and documented story of her life is presented by the prominent criminal attorney and businessman José Ángel “Chiro” Cangiano. In his legal documentary ''"Receso del Tribunal: Vivencias Judiciales of Jose Angel Cangiano"'' ("Courtroom Recess: Judicial Experiences of Jose Angel Cangiano"), he debunks those stories and documents Isabel's true story: As a young girl of the poor lower class in Ponce, Isabel fell in love with the son of a wealthy upper class homeowner in the city where her mother worked as a housemaid. The elegant gentleman, a young attorney, returned her love in various ways, including purchasing her a home where he would later enjoy her cooking and would occasionally also invite his professional friends, including attorneys, judges, and prosecutors, for socializing with their wives. Their romance, however, ended abruptly when Isabel, walking downtown with her cousin Norma, recognized her wealthy boyfriend as the groom in the nuptial caravan that passed her during her boyfriend's unannounced marriage to another girl, also a member of Ponce's upper class. Emotionally affected by the experience and "in a bath of tears", Isabel told her cousin Norma that "the man that from that day hence wants to enter my house has to pay a charge." Thus developed the beginnings of Isabel as a brothel owner.Jose Antonio Cangiano. "The People of Puerto Rico v. Isabel Luberza Oppenheimer." In, "Receso del Tribunal: Vivencias Judicales". Dominican Republic: Editoria Centenario. First Edition. 2007. page 5.

Business and career

From the late 1930s to the mid-1960s, she owned and operated her

bordello A brothel, bordello, ranch, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in sexual activity with prostitutes. However, for legal or cultural reasons, establishments often describe themselves as massage parlors, bars, strip clubs, body rub pa ...

in the municipality of Ponce. At that time prostitution was tolerated in Puerto Rico. Her bordello was allegedly visited by politicians, businessmen, and clerics, although this remains unconfirmed.Frances R. Aparicio
''Listening to salsa: gender, Latin popular music, and Puerto Rican cultures''
Wesleyan University (1998), pp. 3, 45, 52, 54. Dubbed by the public ''Isabel la Negra'', she declared herself "

Madame Madame may refer to: * Madam, civility title or form of address for women, derived from the French * Madam (prostitution), a term for a woman who is engaged in the business of procuring prostitutes, usually the manager of a brothel * ''Madame'' ...

" of her brothel. Isabel had two brothels: one in Barrio San Anton and another one in Barrio Maraguez. Some sources claim that, while her brothel businesses made her quite wealthy, the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

did not accept her donations because of her past and the nature of her profession; but others state the she made many numerous well-received and significant contributions to the Catholic Church in Ponce.

Death

Isabel la Negra was shot dead on 4 January 1974, an innocent bystander of a drug-related homicide which occurred near one of her establishments. She was 72 years old. She was buried at

Cementerio Civil de Ponce Cementerio Civil de Ponce (Ponce Civil Cemetery), a.k.a., Cementerio Municipal de Ponce, is a historic burial ground in Ponce, Puerto Rico. It was founded in 1901. It was designed by Manuel V. Domenech. Some of the people buried at Cementerio C ...

. The Catholic Church, which she had allegedly supported for many years, refused to accept her body into the

Ponce Cathedral Ponce may refer to: *Ponce (surname) * *Ponce, Puerto Rico, a city in Puerto Rico ** Ponce High School ** Ponce massacre, 1937 * USS ''Ponce'', several ships of the US Navy *Manuel Ponce, a Mexican composer active in the 20th century * British sla ...

as part of the ceremonies for her burial. In spite of, and some say as a consequence of, this over 13,000 people attended her funeral.

Literary and media representations

Several of Puerto Rico's most important authors and filmmakers have been inspired by Isabel Luberza Oppenheimer's life and made works based on her experiences. In 1975, Rosario Ferré and Manuel Ramos Otero published two stories about Isabel la Negra in the literary journal ''Zona de carga y descarga''. These stories were later reprinted in short-story collections by each author. In 1979, a film about her life was released, starring

Míriam Colón Míriam Colón Valle (August 20, 1936 – March 3, 2017) was a Puerto Rican actress. She was the founder and director of New York City's Puerto Rican Traveling Theater. Beginning her career in the early 1950s, she performed on Broadway and on ...

as Isabel, with

José Ferrer José Vicente Ferrer de Otero y Cintrón (January 8, 1912 – January 26, 1992) was a Puerto Rican actor and director of stage, film and television. He was one of the most celebrated and esteemed Hispanic American actors during his lifetime, w ...

Raul Julia Raúl Rafael Carlos Juliá y Arcelay (March 9, 1940 – October 24, 1994) was a Puerto Rican actor. Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, he took an interest in acting while still in school and pursued the career upon completion of his studies. After ...

Miguel Ángel Suárez Miguel Ángel Suárez (July 5, 1939 – April 1, 2009) was a Puerto Rican soap opera and movie actor. Early years Suárez and his sister were born into a middle-class family and raised in the Santurce section of San Juan, Puerto Rico. His fathe ...

and

Henry Darrow Henry Darrow (born Enrique Tomás Delgado Jiménez; September 15, 1933 – March 14, 2021) was an American character actor of stage and film known for his role as Manolito "Mano" Montoya on the 1960s television series ''The High Chaparral''. In ...

. The film was titled '' A Life of Sin'', and was directed by Efraín López Neris. In 2006,

Mayra Santos-Febres Mayra Santos-Febres (born 1966 in Carolina) is a Puerto Rican author, poet, novelist, professor of literature, essayist, and literary critic and author of children's books. Her work focuses on themes of race, diaspora identity, female sexu ...

published a novel based on the life of Isabel la Negra titled ''Nuestra Señora de la Noche''. The novel was published by Espasa-Calpe in Madrid, Spain ().

Legacy

There is a street in Ponce, crossed by Papo Franceschi street, and named to the memory of Isabel La Negra at Barrio San Antón, the community where Isabel la Negra was born and raised.''Isabel la Negra street''
Travel Ponce, 10 August 2009; retrieved 14 September 2012.

Notes

References

External links

''Se resolvió el Caso de "Isabel la Negra"!''
foro.univision.com 25 August 2006. (See also
''Commentary on 'Libres de pagar a Hacienda grupo herederos de "Isabel La Negra"' ''
Mayra Santos Febres. El Nuevo Día. San Juan, Puerto Rico. Retrieved 28 July 2012
Archived.
{{DEFAULTSORT:La Negra, Isabel 1901 births 1974 deaths 1974 murders in Puerto Rico 20th-century businesswomen 20th-century Puerto Rican people 20th-century Puerto Rican women Burials at Cementerio Civil de Ponce Businesspeople from Ponce Female murder victims People murdered in Puerto Rico Puerto Rican brothel owners and madams Puerto Rican folklore Puerto Rican murder victims Puerto Rican women in business