Abstract
In the first part of the interview, Anna Peña Hass discusses early life on her family’s farm and the decision to attend Pembroke despite wanting to get married and become a nurse. Hass describes the courses she took in her two years at Pembroke and some of the formative people she met during that time. In the second part of the interview, Hass elucidates the Brown dress code and describes political events, life in Cuba, and her arrest.
See also: Additional interviews with Hass available through the Tamiment Library at New York University.
Part 1
Part 2
Recorded on February 1, 1987
Interviewed by Joyce Tayvon
Suggested Chicago style citation: Hass, Anna Peña. Interview. By Joyce Tayvon. Pembroke Center Oral History Project, Brown University. February 1, 1987.
Biography
Anna Peña Hass was born in Providence, RI, but moved to Massachusetts at a young age. Engaged at the end of high school, and wishing to be married, Hass was persuaded by her mother to attend Pembroke for a few years before moving to Cuba with her husband. Upon leaving college, Anna slowly became involved with the Communist Party. She was eventually arrested and tried by the Supreme Court. The case resolved itself by 1957. Hass continued her political protesting, but eventually resigned to a quieter life running a bookstore.