{news} Hector Lopez in New Canaan News

[David Bedell]

The New Canaan News published a very nice profile of Hector Lopez this week.

David Bedell

http://www.newcanaannewsonline.com/ci_12942840

Lopez continues to make his voice heard

By Vinti Singh
Updated: 07/30/2009 01:54:22 PM EDT


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Canaan resident Hector Lopez made a presentation on stopping U.S.
intervention in Latin America, especially in Puerto Rico, at the Green
Party's annual National Meeting at North Carolina Central University in
Durham, N.C., last weekend. His stance was adopted for consideration for the party's 2012 presidential platform. 
"Everybody applauded; nobody spoke against it," Lopez said. 
In 2002, Lopez circulated a petition through the Green Party that
called for the U.S. Navy to stop using Vieques, Puerto Rico, as a site
for military bomb training exercises. 
"Hector Lopez is a man of conscience," Richard Duffee, the Green
candidate for the 4th District of Congress in 2006 and 2008, said in an
e-mail. "He comes by his good-hearted, lifelong Puerto Rican patriotism
more dramatically, and probably more honestly, than the way the
Daughters of the American Revolution come by theirs. He is a committed
member of the Green Party. He gives freely of his time and energy in
collecting signatures for nominating petitions; there are fewer than 10
activists in the state who collect as many signatures."
Lopez is also an advocate for the environment and minority rights, but is most passionate about Puerto Rico's sovereignty.
"Puerto Rico is in my heart," Lopez said. "I read the Declaration of
Independence and realized that was not meant only for the 13 colonies,
it was meant for humanity. That alone gives me a reason to feel the way
I feel for Puerto Rico."
The retired subway mechanic visits his home country every year and said Puerto Rican culture is on the decline.  
"Our language is deteriorating and were very oppressed because we're
a colony," Lopez said. "Pollution, drugs, weapons, extreme taxation,
oppression of all sorts, a false democracy. We're governed by a foreign
corporation that we do not even elect. What we need is our own
factories, our own federal government, our own congress and own
senate." 
Puerto Rican roots
Lopez was born in 1942. As a child growing up in Ponce, Puerto Rico,
Lopez remembers his family gathered around the table at mealtime while
his father told stories about Puerto Rican history and great national
figures like Simon Bolivar and Jose Marti. 
"The motherland is valor and sacrifice," he would say to them,
quoting the national heroes. "To take away our country they must take
away our lives."
Along with childhood memories of pulling sugar canes off of trucks
and collecting grass to feed the chickens, Lopez remembers the armed
rebellion against the United States on the island. Puerto Ricans
revolted mainly in Jayuya and Utuado, but Lopez heard about the
uprising on the radio. 
Lopez's father had a business selling sewing materials and shoes
from door-to-door. As U.S. businesses arrived in Puerto Rico, they
pushed out local merchants, like his father, "since we have no means of
establishing laws or putting taxes on foreign products."
His family sold their house and moved to Waterbury, Conn., hoping to
find a job. They lived in the Long Hill Projects alongside Italians,
blacks and a few other Puerto Ricans. Lopez got a job setting up pins
in the bowling alley for about $15 a week. He was soon displaced by
automated machines.
Lopez picked up English quickly and was able to do his homework in
six months. He read a lot, devouring any book about Puerto Rican
history or foreign countries. 
His family stayed in Waterbury for a year-and-a-half, but everyone
hated the weather. In 1958, his family returned to Puerto Rico. His
father borrowed some money from a friend and tried to start another
business, but failed again. They moved back to the United States, this
time to New York City. 
Racism surfaced from time to time. Someone on the street once asked him, "why you people come here."
"Even though we were forced to be citizens in 1917, people still
looked at us like we weren't citizens," Lopez said. "In other words,
they were saying go back to Puerto Rico. I was young, so I don't think
I said much back."
He apprenticed as a tool and die maker and then got a job in a
machine shop. When he turned 21, he joined the army because he "didn't
have anything else to do." He wanted to escape from the poorest areas
of New York City. 
Combat was just beginning in Vietnam, but since Lopez failed a
helicopter flying test, he was stationed in Germany. He was
disappointed at the time, but now realizes he could have lost his life
piloting in Vietnam. 
Speaking out
Lopez's first foray into activism was a demonstration against the Vietnam War around 1969. 
"I felt that it was a waste of life in Vietnam, a waste of resources
that should be used for the well being of people in the United States
instead of being wasted to make profits for corporations."
He also advocated to close Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant in New
York, which is 50 miles away from New Canaan. That campaign was
unsuccessful. 
After returning from the war, Lopez got a job maintaining the
underground subway system for the Metropolitan Transportation
Authority. 
After getting married and having two daughters, Lopez decided to
move to New Canaan so his children could take advantage of the school
system. He volunteered in the schools' libraries. 
His daughters, now 24 and 20, know the basics of Puerto Rican
history and can read and write Spanish, but "they're like any other kid
born in the U.S.," Lopez said. 
New Canaan is a "very nice, orderly town," Lopez said. "The school system is Class A. You have very, very good people here."
About four years ago, Lopez stopped at an informational table for
the New Canaan Green Party and was intrigued by its platform on social
justice, non-violence and single-payer medical care. 
He also agreed with its views on the environment. 
"The environment is what sustains our life, the life of all
species," Lopez said. "That includes human beings. We're no better than
a microscopic living thing. We're not supposed to dominate the earth."
In 2005 and 2007, he was elected as a constable for the town so the party could be represented in government. 
Lopez, who will run for the position again this year, is still
active in his retirement. He goes to demonstrations in New York City,
Washington and Puerto Rico. He attends political conferences and sends
out educational e-mails. He always has a big stack of books on varying
subjects by his bed. 
"I believe my work is making a difference in the conscience of people I come in contact with," he said. 
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