Political Activist
During his years as a student, he became actively involved in the Puerto Rican independence movement. He became a member of the underground group called The Armed Forced of Puerto Rican National Liberation (FALN). After he earned his Bachelor's Degree in Visual Arts, he moved to New York City. In New York he attended the City College of New York. Escobar also taught art at the Museo del Barrio's School of the Arts from 1979 to 1980.
On April 4, 1980, Escobar was among eleven FALN members arrested by the FBI in Evanston, Illinois under the suspicion of plotting to bomb Federal installations. They were charged with seditious conspiracy and related charges. During and after the trail he sustained his position that he and the others were prisoners of war. Escobar was sentenced to a prison term of 68 years which was to be served in the federal prison of El Reno, Oklahoma.
Read more about this topic: Elizam Escobar
Famous quotes containing the words political and/or activist:
“Not being a K.N. [Know-Nothing] I am left as a sort of waif on the political sea with symptoms of a mild sort towards Black Republicanism.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“... two great areas of deafness existed in the South: White Southerners had no ears to hear that which threatened their Dream. And colored Southerners had none to hear that which could reduce their anger.”
—Sarah Patton Boyle, U.S. civil rights activist and author. The Desegregated Heart, part 1, ch. 16 (1962)