Social Reformer Willie Matos – “The Beginning Of Community Power” – Dead At 84

There was a sweet toughness to Wilfredo “Willie” Matos, a gladiator in the pursuit of fairness, justice and equity going back 50 years. He passed away on Tuesday. He was 84.

Services for Matos will take place on Tuesday, October 22nd from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Funeraria Luz de Paz, 426 E Washington Avenue.

Matos, former Town Clerk Alma Maya and Cesar Batalla earned their community stripes as a young social irritants sticking it to powerful interests overseeing police, fire, education, housing. And that’s just the way they liked it. They utilized community organizing, force of will and the courts to deliver change. They did not surrender the pursuit of reform under any means.

The late 1960s and early 1970s in Bridgeport was a zeitgeist for slumlords preying upon newly arriving Puerto Ricans. Many in the community felt the fix was in with no accountability. Fires burned down a good chunk of the East Side, the slumlords cashed in their insurance policies, the tenants starved for new places to stay.

Clashes with police ensued.

Matos became the leader of the social reform group the Bridgeport Young Lords. Here’s how historian Andy Piascik explained it chronicling Matos and the Young Lords.

On May 20, 1971 tensions that had been growing between the Lords and the people they were organizing, on the one hand, and slumlords and police on the other, boiled over. With the East Main Street rent strike still ongoing, the owners of the property attempted to evict the Young Lords from their office. Local YLP leader Willie Matos was arrested for trespassing, the office was trashed and furniture illegally removed, all in the presence of Bridgeport police officers. An enraged group of several hundred supporters soon took to the streets and began throwing rocks at the police and the agents of the landlord.

More people were arrested when protesters blockaded a section of East Main. The police, meanwhile, patrolled the area with police dogs and officers armed with shotguns. Articles in the Bridgeport Post and Bridgeport Telegram were full of references to “rioters,” “violence” and other code words. Excluded from their stories (though it was included in the extensive coverage in Pa’lante) was the fact that the landlords involved were the same ones who owned a nearby property on Arctic Street where a catastrophic fire on Easter Sunday in 1969 killed eleven people.
“This is the beginning of community power,” Matos said after being released and returning to the site of the conflict. “We are sick and tired of police brutality.”

More about his life:

Wilfredo “Willie” Matos passed away suddenly on October 15, 2024. while participating on a panel about civil rights in the Puerto Rican community, the passion to which he had devoted his life, working for and founding many civic groups and advocacy organizations.

Born in Plantaje Toa Baja, what is now known as Levittown, in Puerto Rico, Willie moved with his parents Don Pedro y Dona Julia and his four siblings to Bridgeport, CT at the age of eleven in 1951.  Experiencing disrespect for his homeland and culture, from the teachers in his schools, Willie found support with other young Latino men through athletics and became a weight-lifter and baseball player and boxer, becoming a lifelong fan of both sports.

After graduating from Central HS in 1957, Willie worked alongside many other immigrants in some of the local factories. The work was hard and the working conditions were deplorable inspiring him to join the unions in fighting for Worker’s rights.

In 1962, Willie met and, in 1963, married the love of his life, Pilar Cabrera, who had recently arrived from Puerto Rico. They welcomed their only daughter, Carolyn in 1966. Pilar was from a large deeply rooted family and proud of her culture and traditional Puerto Rican values. These would encourage and temper Willie and root their marriage and their nuclear and extended family for the next 60+ years.

For over four decades, Willie devoted himself to expanding opportunity for Puerto Ricans in Bridgeport becoming a founder of and participant in numerous organizations. In the late 60’s and 70’s he was a leader in the Spanish American Coalition focusing on voter education and registration, highlighting discrimination in the Police and Fire departments and bringing lawsuits to address these issues. During these battles, Willie faced the outright racist comments and attitudes of his political opponents leading to his participation in SPIC (Spanish Power In Control) a militant, direct action organization that demanded civil, human and democratic rights, and then, in 1970 to his establishing the Bridgeport Chapter of the Young Lords Party where he served as the Captain of Defense in Bridgeport and a member of the Central Command in New York City.

After winning some battles the hard way, Willie decided in the early 80’s to make change from within the system, but still in his classic outspoken style. He went back to school, while working full time and earned a BS in Human Services from New Hampshire College in 1982 – the first in his family to do so. His work life included jobs at the State Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities investigating claims of housing and employment discrimination and as a Social Service Director for the Salvation Army. At the same time, he continued to co-found and participate in numerous civic organizations including the Puerto Rican Democratic Club, Nuestra Casa Del Pueblo, the Institute for the Advancement and Integration of People with Disabilities and the Community Clinic, known today as Bridgeport Community Health Center. He also served as parade coordinator for the Puerto Rican Parade and was later honored to be its Grand Marshall. Willie served one term as Councilman for Bridgeport’s West Side neighborhood, Chairing the Environmental Committee, but found the political process to be too constraining. In 1990, Willie was appointed by the Governor to the Labor Department where he distinguished himself as Executive Assistant to the Commissioner of Labor.

Motivated by a desire to inspire youth during the difficult years of the late 80’s and early 90’s, Willie was a key participant in establishing ASPRIA of CT, a Puerto Rican youth leadership development organization, where he served as Chairman for ten years, including service on the ASPIRA National Board in Washington DC.

Willie’s love for Puerto Rico, Puerto Rican Culture and Puerto Rican independence was evident to everyone who knew him. He was a co-founder of the Ateneo Latino, a cultural organization which promoted Puerto Rican and Latino public cultural events such as music, theater and poetry. Willie’s own poetry was a creative outlet for his own passions, including nature, justice, beauty and love. His poem, “El Legado de Clemente” is read yearly at an annual event commemorating the iconic baseball player and humanitarian.

In his retired years Willie became a realtor and an adjunct professor of the Puerto Rican Experience at Housatonic Community College, and continued to lecture about civil rights and to support organizations that reach young people directly, building self-esteem and fostering a sense of community. He credited organizations like these as ultimately having the most impact on today’s youth as they did on him when he needed support and direction as a young man.

Willie is remembered by his community as a man of conviction and passion, who loved the people he gave voice to and who served the cause of justice his entire life. His family and closest friends will also remember his loyal devotion and affection as a loving husband, father, brother, uncle and friend who inspired us all to love deeply, to read, to sing, to dance, to laugh, to smell the roses, to ask questions and to marvel at the beauty of the universe.

Willie’s last breath was in service to his community, reminding us all that the pursuit of justice and dignity for all people, and especially for Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans continues.