Felisa Rincón de Gautier
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Felisa Rincón de Gautier (also known as Doña Fela) (January 9, 1897 – September 16, 1994) born in Ceiba, Puerto Rico was the first woman to be elected as the mayor of a capital city in any of The Americas.
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Felisa, the oldest of 9 siblings, was influenced by her father who was very active in politics. Her mother died when she was only 11 years old. However, despite this her father was determined to give her the best education possible. She went to school in Fajardo, Humacao and Santurce where she graduated from high school; after this she studied pharmacy and became a pharmacist. Felisa later moved to New York City where she learned the art of high fashion design. When she returned to Puerto Rico, she opened a store called Felisa's Style Shop and a flower shop in San Juan.
Felisa was a firm believer that women should have the right to vote and was an active participant in the suffragist movement and motivated many women to register. When the law allowing women to vote was passed, Felisa was the 5th woman to officially register. In 1932, she joined the "Liberal Party", which believed in Puerto Rico's independence, and was named representative by the party's president Antonio R. Barcelo. Motivated by the political ideas of Luis Muñoz Marín, she left the Liberal Party and in 1938 helped organize the Popular Democratic Party of Puerto Rico.
In 1940, Felisa married the San Juan lawyer Genaro A. Gautier, who served as the Assistant Attorney General of Puerto Rico and Secretary General of the Popular Democratic Party. They had a long and happy marriage, but produced no offspring. In 1946, she ran for and was elected mayor of San Juan - the first woman to have been elected mayor of a capital city in the Americas. Under her leadership, San Juan was transformed into a great Latin-American urban center. Felisa designed innovative public services and established the first pre-school centers called "Las Escuelas Matemales", which would eventually become the model for the Head Start programs in the U.S.. She also renovated the public health system and was responsible for the establishment of the school of medicine in San Juan. She worked together with Ricardo Alegria to restore and conserve the historical structures of "Old San Juan" and provided housing and basic services to thousands of people. She often opened City Hall to the public and listened to concerns of the residents of the city. In 1959, San Juan was awarded the All American City Award.
Felisa started a Christmas tradition, which would be continued every year by the governors of Puerto Rico. On the Día de los Reyes (Three Kings Day), celebrated on January 6, she would give gifts and treats to the poor and needy children. Once, she even had a plane load of snow delivered to San Juan so that the children who had never seen or played in snow, would be able to do so.
She was mayor of San Juan for 22 years, from 1946 to 1968. Upon retiring, Felisa served as the American Good Will Ambasador for four United States Presidents. She served in Latin-America, Asia and Europe promoting friendship between those continents and the United States.
Among her many awards and condecorations were the following:
- "The Medal of Joan of Arc" from France
- The "Golden Medal of Honor"
- "The Don Quixote Medal" and the "Isabel the Catholic Medal" from Spain
- The "Simón Bolívar Medal" from Venezuela
- "The Order of Merit" from Israel
- The "Golden Medal of Honor" from Ecuador
- She was named "Woman of the Americas" in 1954 by the Union of American Women of New York
- The "Medal of the Sagrado Sepulcro de Jerúsalem" by Francis Cardinal Spellman of New York
- The "John Adams Medal" from the Federated Women's Club of America
- In 1961, Eleanor Roosevelt awarded her the "Madeline Borg Award from the Philanthropic Hebrew Federation of New York".
When Felisa Rincón de Gautier died in San Juan, aged 97, on September 16, 1994, she was given the burial honors of a head of state. Dignitaries from all over the world attended her funeral service.
Doña Fela's memory has been honored by Puerto Rico by the naming of public structures and avenues after her. There is a Felisa Rincón de Gautier Museum in San Juan and a school in Brooklyn, New York is also named in her honour.
