Rincón de Gautier, Felisa, 1897-1994

Felisa Rincón de Gautier (born Felisa Rincón Marrero) (also known as Doña Fela) (January 9, 1897 – September 16, 1994) was the first woman to be elected as the Mayor of a capital city in The Americas.

Rincón de Gautier was born on January 9, 1897 in Ceiba, Puerto Rico. She went to school in Fajardo, Humacao and Santurce although she did not graduate from high school; in the summers she visited her uncle in San Lorenzo where she learned how to prepare medications pharmacy and became a pharmacist. Of Spanish descent; her direct paternal grandfather Francisco Rincón Martín came from Salamanca, Spain.

An expert seamstress, Felisa set herself the goal of creating employment in Puerto Rico by launching a local clothing factory. In order to master necessary skills she worked for two years in New York City during the Great Depression, living with relatives, including her sister Josefina.

Upon her return to San Juan, she entered the wholesale/retail business and opened Felisa's Style Shop on Calle Fortaleza in Old San Juan. She also managed a flower shop called Miles de Flores. Throughout her lifetime, she remained closely tied to the Roman Catholic Church as she directed her efforts to raising the standards of living for impoverished Puerto Ricans.

Rincón de Gautier was a firm believer in the women's right to vote and was an active participant in the suffragist movement, motivating many women to register. When the law allowing women to vote was passed, Rincón de Gautier was the fifth woman to officially register. In 1932, she joined the Liberal Party of Puerto Rico, which believed in Puerto Rico's independence, and was named representative by the party's president Antonio R. Barceló. 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, Rincón de Gautier 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 no children.

In 1946, she was elected mayor of San Juan - the first woman mayor of a capital city in the Americas. Under her leadership, San Juan was transformed into a Latin-American urban center. Rincón de Gautier designed innovative public services and established the first preschool centers called "Las Escuelas Maternales", which would eventually become the model for the Head Start programs in the United States. She also renovated the public health system and was responsible for the establishment of the School of Medicine in San Juan.

Rincón was mayor of San Juan for 22 years, from 1946 to 1968. Upon retiring, she served as the American Goodwill Ambassador for four United States Presidents. She served in Latin America, Asia, and Europe promoting friendship between those regions and the United States. 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. Felisa Rincón de Gautier was buried at the Capital Municipal Cemetery in Río Piedras, Puerto Rico.