Ana Irma Rivera Lassén addressed the group of journalists walking between the National Committee of the Citizen Victory Movement (MVC) on Paseo de Diego in Río Piedras and the committee of San Juan mayoral candidate Manuel Natal Albelo at the start of the promenade. It was 7 p.m. on November 5, the day of the general elections in Puerto Rico.

There was barely any light between the buildings of what was once one of the most important commercial sectors in the metropolitan area. Few people live in that stretch, and during the day, only a few businesses are open.

That night, at that hour, a handful of followers, mainly young people, held onto the hope that this social and commercial space could be revived and evoke what their grandparents had told them about.

The first election results, which had concluded two hours earlier at 5 p.m., were starting to come in, placing Rivera Lassén in third place, where she ultimately finished, in her race for the position of resident commissioner in Washington.

It was too early to establish a trend, Rivera Lassén repeated several times in response to journalists’ questions pressing for statements on the results.

For those who voted for the Alianza de País — the coalition between the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP) and the MVC — optimism was fading. But Rivera Lassén, used to fighting from the margins and minority groups, wanted to convey optimism.

“No matter what happens, we have made history,” she declared from Paseo de Diego.

On October 22, 2019, long before the idea of a coalition with the PIP took shape, the MVC set up a podium in front of the Ana Roqué de Duprey School in Río Piedras, which had been closed for some time, to announce that the newly created party would nominate women in at least 50% of its candidacies for the 2020 general elections.

Alexandra Lúgaro, as the gubernatorial candidate, led a diverse group that included Rivera Lassén and Mariana Nogales as candidates for senator and representative at-large, respectively.

The conference was deliberately held in front of that closed school. Roqué de Duprey was one of the Puerto Rican suffragists who, along with others, fought for women’s right to vote in Puerto Rico, in addition to being an astronomer, founder of feminist newspapers, and one of the most important botanists of her time.

“This school is closed, just as the path for women in politics is closed,” Rivera Lassén said at the time, flanked by around 40 women.

A little over five years have passed since that announcement. In the meantime, MVC, with Nogales and her, managed to ensure that 50% of its representation in the legislature was composed of women. More than just being women, both embraced the defense of women and LGBT+ communities and their sexual and reproductive rights in their agenda.

For the 2020 elections, Rivera Lassén presented herself to the island as one of the founders of the MVC and its president. In May 2024, she retook the party’s top position, that of General Coordinator, equivalent to what was previously the presidency.

“Spending this time in the legislature and now in the position I aspire to as resident commissioner, which is another point of view, seems to give me a much more complete vision, not country’s problems but also of the challenges this country faces to move forward,” Rivera Lassén reflected on the morning of November 5, on her way to her polling station, the Eleanor Roosevelt School in Hato Rey.

One of the challenges she named was corruption, and that was one of the key messages of her campaign as a candidate to represent Puerto Rico in Washington.

“This is a moment in which Puerto Rico has a lot of money, and it’s not being used. It’s not being used because there simply isn’t the government’s will to do what needs to be done, and it is using the money for contracts that aren’t necessarily for what it should be used for. Sometimes, it must be returned, and I think this is a moment when people have to say: ‘Enough! This can’t be,'” she stated.

The candidate proposed creating an app for people to track federal money.

At 10:15 a.m. on election day, the enthusiasm on her face and in her tone of voice was evident but concerns also surfaced. The candidate had already received information about long lines at polling stations and voters appearing on lists with old addresses.

“The important thing is that people don’t leave the lines, that they go to vote and demand to be added to the list by hand or however. I think we’ll be seeing those and other irregularities,” she shared in our first meeting of the day. “Obviously, it worries me,” she admitted.

These concerns were compounded by uncertainty or lack of confidence in the electoral process. But at that hour of the morning, Rivera Lassén’s message, and that of most politicians with a microphone and a camera broadcasting live, was one of calm, patience, and persistence in the lines until everyone could vote.

The Alianza de País, Rivera Lassén said, is a milestone.

It rained early. When Rivera Lassén arrived at her polling station, it had already cleared up.

She got out of the car driven by former New York City Councilwoman, Puerto Rican native Melissa Mark Viverito, with whom she shares an almost familial bond. Mark Viverito is the daughter of Elizabeth Viverito Mark, a feminist icon and one of the co-founders, in 1974, of the feminist magazine “El Tacón de la Chancleta,” of which Rivera Lassén was also a part.

Rivera Lassén walked to her polling station accompanied by her wife, sociologist Elizabeth Crespo Kebler, with whom she has been in a relationship for over 33 years; she greeted several voters who showed their support and enthusiasm and attended to the journalists waiting for her there.

After voting and facing the same problems that hundreds of Puerto Ricans denounced on social media — the slowness of the only machine at her polling location and its failure to read her marks — she returned home.

There, in the living room, was the evidence of the political activism that has marked the couple’s life in recent months: documents, books, banners, and posters with her photo and name. On the table, stickers showing her in her youth, proof of her feminist militancy from an early age.

Rivera Lassén sat on the couch, under a painting by Myrna Báez. Crespo Kebler did not overlook the symbolism of the artist who placed women at the center of her work. Crespo Kebler, a professor at the University of Puerto Rico in Bayamón, noted that “El Tacón de la Chancleta” was the first media outlet to interview Myrna Báez as a prominent figure in the arts. Rivera Lassén conducted the interview in 1974.

On the table next to the couch, there is a framed black-and-white photo of Rivera Lassén and Crespo Kebler looking at each other. The beauty of that portrait of the couple is an opportunity to highlight the significance of Rivera Lassén’s candidacy, the first Black, feminist, and lesbian woman on the executive ballot.

During the closing of the Alianza’s campaign, which gathered thousands, when Rivera Lassén had the microphone in hand and addressed the supporters who had come, she gave a special thanks to her wife, whom she mentioned by name. The cheers from the crowd grew louder.

“I have been a very free person. In every space I have occupied, I have occupied from the freedom to express all my identities. This is no exception,” she shared. Perhaps that’s why the response to the simple act of being a woman saying, in front of thousands of people, the words “my wife” was something she didn’t expect.

“All politicians always talk about their husbands and wives. I always talk, but I wanted her to be known by name, so there was no doubt about who I was talking about,” she explained.

“I know people took it very well because I heard the applause. In that audience, there were not only people from the community but also families with relatives from the community (LGBT+), people who are open to these issues, and it was a message of inclusion. That, for me, is one of the things that had to be done,” she affirmed.

Rivera Lassén established the contrast between herself and the current resident commissioner, Jenniffer González, now governor elect.

“I am a Black woman, I am openly from the LGBTTIQ community, and I am receiving endorsements that were not previously given to people in this position,” she emphasized. During her campaign, Rivera Lassén received support from Puerto Rican Democratic Congresswomen from New York, Nydia Velázquez and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Additionally, she was supported by Democratic Congresspeople from Illinois, Delia Ramírez and Chuy García, as well as California Democrat Ro Khanna.

But in a still sexist, racist, and homophobic society, Rivera Lassén also faced obstacles that her running mate, Juan Dalmau, did not have to face. The vote count on the night of the event showed that 370,904 people voted for Dalmau, 33% of the votes for governor. Rivera Lassén received 107,888, 10% of the votes for the Resident Commissioner candidacy.

Her campaign carried the slogan “My Cause is Puerto Rico.”

“That sums up what I have done all my life, fighting for the human and civil rights of all people in the context of working toward an inclusive society,” she assured. The phrase, she said, is also an evolution of her previous campaign as an at-large senator: “Strength in Diversity.”

Rivera Lassén emphasized that support for the Alianza did not have to be conditioned by a preference for political status. Her work would focus on obtaining the federal funds that belong to Puerto Rico, ensuring their proper use, and being accountable. She also included the diaspora in her campaign because, although Puerto Rico does not have a vote in the United States Congress, Puerto Ricans living in the United States — an estimated 6 million — do have congressmen representing them who could put Puerto Rico on their agendas.

The candidate continued to defend the human and civil rights that have made her known as an activist and lawyer. She faced the candidate from the ultraconservative party Project Dignity (PD), Viviana Ramírez, an administrative and human resources consultant who defined herself as a conservative Republican and is aligned with the policies of United States President-elect Donald Trump. Ramírez received 5% of the votes.

Rivera Lassén knew from the beginning of MVC in 2019 that, along with the birth of the party she co-founded, another very conservative party was emerging, which would need to be “watched.”

“I wonder if they realize that as they continue with that [anti-gender and anti-abortion] discourse, they erase themselves. If you don’t recognize the gender perspective, you are denying the struggles that lead to women’s political participation. They are denying the reasons why they’re there [on the political stage], even if it’s to speak against women’s rights,” she reflected.

“The fact that they are women doesn’t surprise me,” she said, referring to Ramírez, as well as the re-elected PD legislators Joanne Rodríguez Veve and Lisie Burgos. “We must continue to convey the message that women should not be excluded from the process just for being women, but it’s not about demanding more from women than we demand from men. Everyone must have gender awareness and commitment to women’s rights in all our diversities,” she added.

Breaking the bipartisan system was one of the objectives the Alianza established at its inception. Although it did not win, it managed to push the Popular Democratic Party (PPD) to a third position in the race for the most important position on the island. Before the scrutiny was completed, the vote reflected that Dalmau won the race in 13 municipalities. In two others, the difference between Dalmau and González was less than 100 votes.

After attending to journalists at the MVC National Committee, Rivera Lassén walked to the corner with Ponce de León Avenue, where Manuel Natal’s campaign committee is located. There, a stage with sound equipment was set up, ready for a celebration that did not happen, as preliminary results showed the incumbent in the San Juan mayor’s office, Miguel Romero, as the winner.

Alianza supporters and Jenniffer González supporters also passed by.

Her message did not change. “We’re making an effort from hope, and for the love for Puerto Rico. And we can never forget that. We have each other,” Rivera Lassén said.

On the faces of those listening, it was increasingly evident that the context for putting that hope and love for Puerto Rico into practice would have to be different.

The numbers, she pointed out, were still very preliminary.

“The trend is that we are here today and that we have shown the people of Puerto Rico that we don’t have to vote as they have told us we have to vote, and we have dared to do something different,” she said.

“The Alianza is here to stay, and we are writing a book in our political history,” she said.

Three days later, Rivera Lassén had already begun planning what she anticipated would be an evaluation process within the MVC, both of the party’s performance she leads and the Alianza’s.

One thing is clear: “The Alianza continues.” It was the same message Dalmau conveyed through a live broadcast on Saturday on his social media.

In the end, MVC lost the four at-large legislative seats it had garnered in the previous elections. Before the general scrutiny, Adriana Gutiérrez from the PIP remained in the race for the House of Representatives for precinct 4 of San Juan, and Joel Vázquez Rosario and Eva Prados from MVC for precincts 2 and 3 of San Juan, respectively.

“We are the second political force in the country,” she said to emphasize that it is not just the PIP but the Alianza. “We have to position ourselves from there. From there, we will be making opposition. That is the mandate the people of Puerto Rico gave us.”

Analyzing the number of people who voted for Dalmau compared to her, she pointed out that Dalmau garnered many mixed votes — meaning PPD voters who chose him while casting their vote for the winning candidate, Pablo José Hernández, for resident commissioner.

“I am aware that I entered the race quite late. I spent my time fighting for my right to be on the ballot,” she said. “Those who took us off the ballots [from the MVC] were the people who took us to court,” she noted, referring to the lawsuit filed by PPD legislators, which was ultimately decided in favor of Rivera Lassén in the Supreme Court.

She added that many people who used to vote straight-ticket did not understand that voting for Dalmau did not automatically mean a vote for her.

As part of that evaluation, Rivera Lassén believes it is impossible to dismiss racism, homophobia, and misogyny.

“There are many reasons and many explanations. Many things we must look at for the future implementation of the Alianza, things that need to be made simpler. Very interesting evaluations will come out.”

Considering the results, the MVC general coordinator called for unity between her party and the PIP. “The PIP candidates are the Alianza candidates,” she recalled.

Some results, she also noted, were calculated risks: “We knew that the risk of not being registered was part of what we were putting on the table. We knew it was going to happen. Now, we have to see how much of what resulted is within the margin of what we had calculated and what lessons we need to apply for the future.”

For Rivera Lassén, the results must be viewed with optimism. Not only because they are historic but also because they show the possibility of a new way of doing politics. Also, because González’s victory as governor, at the same time Trump won the presidency of the United States, and the selection of Thomas Rivera Schatz and Carlos “Johnny” Méndez as President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives, respectively, allow for more policies detrimental to public education, health, the environment, and against civil and human rights.

“We must empower ourselves as the opposition we are now. We weren’t before. We have to assume that, and we can do it using the power this grouping of forces under the Alianza has given us. Things sometimes take a little time, but progress has been consistent. We will keep moving forward.”