La Casa de Don Pedro was named after Puerto Rican Nationalist, attorney, activist, and revolutionary, Don Pedro Albizu Campos. After growing up in poverty, Albizu worked hard to defy the odds and became the first Puerto Rican to graduate from Harvard University. He then volunteered to serve the United States in World War 1 as a first lieutenant in the 375th Puerto Rican Colored Regiment. After being honorably discharged, Albizu returned to Harvard University’s Law School, graduating in 1921.

Though he was offered several official posts within the U.S. government following law school, Campos decided to return to his beloved Puerto Rico, where his powerful oratory skills and education gained him popularity in the island’s Nationalist movement. By 1930, Albizu rose to the position of President of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party as he led the movement for self-determination.

Throughout the following 35 years of his life, Albizu devoted himself to the anticolonial struggle, initiating mass political and revolutionary organizing against the United States. A fearless leader and immortalized symbol of freedom fighters far and wide, it is in Albizu’s name that La Casa de Don Pedro carries on the legacy to empower and revitalize our people and communities.