In the heart of the National Historic Site of San Juan stands the statue of the first female mayor of the city, the legendary politician Felisa Rincón de Gautier, also known as Doña Fela (1897-1994).
Rincón de Gautier was born in a small town in Puerto Rico, the oldest in a family of 8 children. After her mother passed away when she was 11, she helped raise her siblings and did not finish high school. She was a skilled seamstress and a fashionista, and in her thirties, she opened a retail business, wishing to generate employment in the city.
She was a women’s rights activist who encouraged many women to register to vote. She was the fifth woman who registered to vote. In 1940 she married the San Juan lawyer and politician Genaro A. Gautier. Her activism work and disappointment with the government’s support during hurricane San Calixto led her to politics; she became involved in the Liberal Party and later in the Popular Democratic Party of Puerto Rico.
In 1946 she made history when she was elected mayor of San Juan, the first woman mayor of a capital city in the Americas. She served for 22 years, worked for the people selflessly, transformed the city, becoming a celebrity.
Her many accomplishments in her 22 years as a mayor include establishing the first preschool centers, building schools, housing projects, and sports leagues, improving the health system and establishing the School of Medicine, and restoring and conserving the historical structures of Old San Juan.
The statue depicts Rincón de Gautier sitting on a bench, wearing her famous outfit with big glasses, hairstyle, and a fan. A few minutes walk from the statue leads to her mansion, which is now open to the public as a museum called Casa Museo Felisa Rincón de Gautier.
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