His tour to thank those who supported his release will be long and will cover many places in the United States, but Oscar López Rivera will have his first international appointment when he speaks before the Committee of Decolonization of the United Nations (UN) on June 20.

His brother, José López Rivera, told NotiCel that on that day, after his release on May 17 at 8:00 am, his brother will go to the UN to ‘raise awareness of the situation in Puerto Rico.’

López Rivera, who spent about 35 years in prison, will continue working on his own foundation which will bear his name, and through which he will carry his message for the independence and social and community welfare for the island.

But before that event he will visit the Boricua neighborhood in Chicago, Humboldt Park, where a section of Mozart Street will now bear his name. When unveiled that afternoon, López Rivera will offer his message to residents of the ‘Boricua barrio’.

‘Not only is it welcoming the neighborhood he left almost four decades ago, but more importantly for us is the celebration of his legacy in that neighborhood that has 50 years of community action, to organize this community immediately after one of the, if not the most significant, Puerto Rican uprisings in the United States in 1966,’ Lopez Rivera’s brother said.

Near the area where the so-called ‘Division Street Riots’ occurred at that time, there will be a procession which will culminate with a party in the park of the largest Puerto Rican community in the ‘Windy City’.

‘La Casita de Don Pedro’ will be the meeting point. That space ‘turns 20 years and was to collect the memory of how children would see the house of their grandparents or great grandparents in the 1940s in Puerto Rico. The children (of the community) designed the entrance with the flag (in the fence and in the garden),’ Lopez Rivera explained.

After debates with detractors in the city, the people decided to raise a statue of Pedro Albizu Campos in the place, after not being allowed to place it in the central park of the Boricua neighborhood. It is a statue of a sculptor from Morovis with ‘a mystical Albizu because it wraps him in the leaves of the maga tree. Conferences are offered there and on Saturdays there are workshops of ‘bomba’ and ‘plena».

The political battle for the statue, however, made it possible for the city to award more than two million dollars for community projects, including the Puerto Rican flags that cross Division Street, where they will unveil the name of Oscar López Rivera, from Humboldt Park to the ‘Boathouse’ (community center).

Several murals in the house will be completed or retouched by May 18; that of the independence leader Lolita Lebrón, and of other political prisoners who were released in 1999, including Carlos Alberto Torres and Oscar López Rivera, because somehow all of them have arrived in Chicago after being released from prison.

Students at the Roberto Clemente School and Pedro Albizu Campos School will renovate Division Street with painted flower boxes with positive messages, and will join the celebration with their music until 8:00 pm, the ending of the event.

But for the celebration, Councilman Roberto Maldonado told NotiCel, that they will not maintain a police state, instead they will rely on the help of neighbors for security. Although the city police will provide surveillance, the organization of the event will allow it to pass without the need for a large deployment of uniformed personnel, as on other occasions.

López Rivera will only be in Chicago for about 24 hours. He will return to Puerto Rico for a celebration in his town, San Sebastián, on May 20. He will then visit New York, California (where he will spend a few days with his granddaughter). He will later return to the ‘Second City’ for the graduation of the Pedro Albizu Campos School (which helps young school dropouts or at risk), and will continue with visits to Massachusetts, Philadelphia and other states.