Ana Irma Rivera Lassén

Ana Irma Rivera Lassén (born March 13, 1955) is an Afro-Puerto Rican attorney who is a current Member of the Puerto Rican Senate, elected on November 3, 2020, and who previously served as the head of the Bar Association of Puerto Rico from 2012 to 2014. She was the first black woman, and third female, to head the organization. She is a feminist and human rights activist, who is also openly lesbian. She has received many awards and honors for her work in the area of women's rights and human rights, including the Capetillo-Roqué Medal from the Puerto Rican Senate, the Martin Luther King/ Arturo Alfonso Schomburg Prize, and the Nilita Vientós Gastón Medal. She is a practicing attorney and serves on the faculty of several universities in Puerto Rico; she currently serves on the Advisory Committee on Access to Justice of the Puerto Rican Judicial Branch.

Early life

Ana Irma Rivera Lassén was born on 13 March 1955 in Santurce, San Juan, Puerto Rico to Ana Irma Lassén and Eladio Rivera Quiñones, who were both educators. At the age of sixteen, she became involved with feminism, joining the Comité de Mujeres Puertorriqueñas (Puerto Rican Women's Committee) and then helping to found the Mujer Integrate Ahora (MIA) (Women Integrate Now) organization in 1972. She attended the Juan José Osuna de Hato Rey High School in San Juan and then began Hispanic studies at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus in 1971. Bored with that course of study, she changed to general humanities and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts. She was one of the founders of the Poetry Workshop led by Luis A. Rosario Quiles and Joserramón Meléndez at the university. She obtained her Juris Doctor degree at the same university.

Career

In 1974, Rivera co-founded and edited the feminist publication ''El tacón de la chancleta'' (The heel of the flip-flop). Originally it was published as part of the journal ''Avance'', but was independently published the following year. It was the organ of the MIA, but had an independent editorial board. Rivera has published essays, poems, and newspaper articles in various publications, including: ''Avance'', ''La Hora'', ''Luna Nueva'', ''Poemario de la mujer puertorriqueña'', '' El Reportero'', ''La sapa'', ''Sin Nombre'', ''El tacón de la chancleta'', ''Zse, Zse'', and ''El arte de morir y la pequeña muerte'' by Nemir Matos-Cintrón. In 1984, she published a regular column in ''El Reportero'' entitled "La mujer de siglo XXI" (Women of the 21st Century) and in 1988 co-founded the magazine ''Luna Nueva'' as a vehicle for Feministas en Marcha (Feminists on the March), for which she had been serving as spokesperson since 1983.

Rivera's legal career has focused on human rights law, including discrimination, gender violence, and socio-economic and cultural rights. Having faced discrimination personally, her goal was to protect others. In the 1980s, she was not allowed to enter court in pants and was told to wear a skirt. She sued the judge and won. In 1993, her testimony regarding rights violations and police dossiers kept on feminists in Puerto Rico was one of the presentations at the United Nations World Conference on Human Rights. This history, which retells the events of the feminist movement in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean, was detailed in her book ''Documentos del Feminismo en Puerto Rico: Facsímiles de la Historia'', co-written with Elizabeth Crespo Kebler.

In 2012, Rivera ran for and was elected as the third woman to preside as president of the Bar Association of Puerto Rico. She was the first Afro-Puerto Rican and first open lesbian to occupy the post. She defeated her opponent 948 to 341 for the two-year term. After her term ended, she returned to private practice and teaching. In 2015, she was actively involved in the assessment of a bill that proposed the merger of the Commission on Civil Rights and the offices of the Attorneys of Women of Persons with Disabilities, Elderly, Patients and Veterans into a single entity called the Department of Defense of Human Rights. The proposed new department was to cover legal issues on six target areas, including: aging, civil and constitutional rights, disability, gender equality, socio-economic parity, and veterans rights. In 2016 Rivera was appointed to serve on the Advisory Committee on Access to Justice of the Judicial Branch. In March 2024, the Citizen Victory Movement (CVM) selected Ana Irma Rivera Lassén as its candidate for Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico in Washington DC. Rivera asked the PIP to grant one of the seats to the MVC, as part of the Minorities Act in the Puerto Rico Legislative Assembly.

Awards and honors

Rivera has been recognized as an expert on gender, race, and human rights by the Gender Affairs Division of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. She is a member of the Latin American and the Caribbean Committee for the Defense of Women Rights (CLADEM). In 2003, Rivera was awarded the "Medalla Senatorial Capetillo-Roqué" from the Puerto Rican Senate for her contributions to women's rights in Puerto Rico. In 2006, she was the recipient of the "Martin Luther King/Arturo Alfonso Schomburg Prize" for her work against discrimination and for civil rights and the following year, received the Nilita Vientós Gastón Medal from the Puerto Rican Bar Association for her legal expertise. In 2009, Rivera was honored as the Collegiate of the Year.

Rivera was named as one of ''USA Todays Women of the Year in 2023, which recognizes women who have made a significant impact across the country.

Selected works

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Rivera Lassen, Ana Irma
1955 births
20th-century African-American women writers
20th-century African-American writers
20th-century American women writers
20th-century American writers
21st-century African-American lawyers
21st-century African-American women writers
21st-century African-American writers
21st-century American women writers
21st-century American writers
21st-century Puerto Rican LGBTQ people
21st-century Puerto Rican women lawyers
21st-century Puerto Rican lawyers
21st-century Puerto Rican women writers
21st-century Puerto Rican writers
African-American LGBTQ people
American lesbian writers
Feminist writers
LGBTQ legislators in the United States
Living people
Members of the Senate of Puerto Rico
Movimiento Victoria Ciudadana politicians
People from Santurce, Puerto Rico
People of Afro–Puerto Rican descent
Puerto Rican activists
Puerto Rican LGBTQ writers
Puerto Rican party leaders
Puerto Rican women activists
University of Puerto Rico alumni
Puerto Rican people of African descent
Candidates in the 2024 United States House of Representatives elections
21st-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico