Writer, educator, journalist, and activist of the Independence of Puerto Rico. Freire de Matos was the author of several books for children and was the husband of Francisco Matos Paoli, senior member of the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico. During her years as a student at the university, she became interested in the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico and was an advocate of the independence movement in Puerto Rico. She continued his postgraduate studies at the UPR, and then moved to Paris, France for a year studying comparative literature at the Sorbonne. There she met Matos Paoli, co advocate of independence, which in 1942 would become her husband. On November 2, 1950, police forces arrived at her home in Rio Piedras and looking for weapons and explosives. All they found was a flag of Puerto Rico, but due to Law 53 (Gag Law), this allowed them to arrest and accuse her husband of treason against the United States. The evidence used against him was the flag of Puerto Rico at home, and four speeches he had done for the independence of Puerto Rico. In 1968, Freire de Matos collaborated as co-author, with Ruben del Rosario, in the publication of Antonio Martorell “ABC of Puerto Rico”. This publication is used in primary schools in Puerto Rico. In 1971, she also collaborated with the publication of “Modern Mathematics in the Primary Grades” Faith Acosta Gonzalez. Francisco Matos Paoli died on 10 July 2000 at his home in Rio Piedras, San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Freire de Matos died four years later, on 30 September 2004.
Link to Wikipedia biography