Oscar Collazo - Later Years and Legacy

Later Years and Legacy

In 1979, Collazo and the other nationalists were decorated by Cuba's President Fidel Castro. In the Puerto Rican Cultural Center of Chicago, Illinois, there is a mural painted honoring Puerto Rico's independence leaders which include the images of Collazo and Torresola.

Oscar and Rosa Collazo eventually were divorced. She continued to actively participate in Puerto Rico's independence movement and in 1984 a commemoration for her fifty years of patriotic work was held in the Bar Association Building. She was also given a recognition for her efforts towards the commutation of her former husband's death sentence. Rosa Collazo, who died in May 1988, lived the last years of her life by the side of her daughter Lydia Collazo Cortez.

There is a plaque, located at the monument to the Jayuya Uprising participants in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, honoring the women of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. Rosa Cortez Collazo's name is on the ninth line of the third plate.

Oscar Collazo continued to participate in activities related to the independence movement. On February 21, 1994, Oscar Collazo died of a stroke, having passed his 80th birthday by just over a month. The guns used by Collazo and Torresola in the assassination attempt are on display at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum in Independence, Missouri.