Iris Violeta Santos Rivera (May 6, 1940 – September19, 2007)

Iris Santos Rivera was a dedicated activist in her community. A lifelong educator, she loved serving numerous communities with dedication and excellence throughout her career.

She served with distinction in a variety of roles. She worked as a teacher in the New York City Public Schools during the early bilingual education programs launched in the early 1970s.

She also worked as a parent organizer and teacher trainer for the Institute for Cultural Pluralism at San Diego State University from 1974 to 1980.

She later served as a university professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey from 1982 to 1984.

Iris also worked at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, as a civil rights coordinator.

During the 1980s, she collaborated with Native-controlled school boards based in Denver, Colorado. She served as the lead coordinator for seven states across the Southwestern and Western United States that had Native American school districts.

During the 1990s, she worked as a volunteer and consultant for Native American reservations that operated vocational training centers.

She also wrote articles for New York-based newsletters and publications such as Interracial Books for Children. She often collaborated with Native American educational systems on curriculum review and teacher training.

She volunteered with local organizations in Oklahoma City, including the NAACP, the American Red Cross, and numerous Latino nonprofit organizations. She also served as chair of the NAACP’s Education Committee.

She enjoyed helping Latino families and frequently spoke out against the death penalty while advocating for the civil rights of immigrant children and their families.

She joined organizations around the world that strongly advocated for human rights.

She was often interviewed on radio and television about developments in the educational fields in which she had expertise. Her statements appeared in the Denver Post, the Rocky Mountain News, and on radio programs in Denver, Colorado, and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Iris remained politically active throughout her adult life and professional career.

She worked for and was appointed to represent the Puerto Rican Independence Party in New York, where she served as president from 1971 to 1973.

She was a tireless advocate for the cause of Puerto Rican independence. She also deeply believed in an education system that took into account the backgrounds and needs of all students in the public education systems of the United States and Puerto Rico.

She frequently traveled to conferences held in Mexico City; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Havana, Cuba; and Managua, Nicaragua.

In Nicaragua, she participated in the 1980 literacy campaign aimed at Nicaraguan rural communities.

She often collaborated with organizations such as “Women for Guatemala” and many others that defended the human rights of Central American women.

In 2012, she was posthumously awarded a Human Rights Prize through the local United Nations delegation.

Iris also collaborated with prominent educators such as Paulo Freire, Jonathan Kozol, and many others who believed in fostering critical thinking among people who received the least attention and resources in many countries.

She advocated for tuition-free university education and universal education for children, adolescents, and adults across numerous communities.

Iris took part in many struggles, including the protests in Vieques, Puerto Rico, between 1993 and 2000.

The United States Navy had contaminated the beaches of Vieques and caused the death of David Sáenz on the island, while the military presence was causing cancer among children and longtime residents of Vieques.

The United States Navy left Vieques and stopped bombing the island in 2003.

Because of these depleted uranium contaminants, Iris developed an aggressive form of cancer that also affected Vieques protesters who participated in mass demonstrations on beaches where contaminants were present. She developed the disease and died from it in 2007.

The men who protested on the beaches developed prostate cancer, while the women developed breast cancer.

Iris was a tireless advocate for justice and respect for communities that were often ignored, disparaged, and treated disrespectfully by those in power.

This included both the United States and Puerto Rican governments, which were complicit in U.S. military plans for Vieques and the rest of Puerto Rico.

She was a natural leader and a prominent, tireless member of major organizations that