Six Puerto Rican Women, undated

Writer, educator, and suffragist Isabel Andreu de Aguilar (born Isabel Andreu y Blanco) was born on November 15, 1887, in Fajardo, Puerto Rico, the daughter of Cristóbal Andreu Comendador and Blanca Irene Blanco Guzmán. Her father, who was originally from Majorca, Spain, eventually became the mayor of Fajardo. Andreu de Aguilar was part of the first graduating class of the Escuela Normal of the University of Puerto Rico, receiving her diploma in 1907. In 1917, she was appointed to the board of directors of the Carnegie Library and also became the vice president of the Puerto Rican Feminist League (Liga Femínea Puertorriqueña), which worked actively to gain women the right to vote. In 1924, Andreu de Aguilar, along with several other women, resigned from the League over ideological differences, with Andreu de Aguilar co-founding the Puerto Rican Association of Women Suffragists (Asociación Puertorriqueña de Mujeres Sufragistas) the following year. The ideological split was largely based on disagreement on whether the right to vote should be extended to all women, or only to educated women. Andreu de Aguilar felt that education was necessary before women were qualified to vote. In 1929, she became president of the Association of Women Suffragists; the Association succeeded in gaining the vote for literate women. In 1932, Andreu de Aguilar ran as a Senator for the Liberal Party of Puerto Rico, the first woman to do so. She lost the election and subsequently continued her studies, earning a Bachelor of Education at the University of Puerto Rico in 1935, and an MA in adult education from Columbia University. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, she gave speeches and wrote on topics including women's rights and education. Andreu de Aguilar died on April 7, 1948. A building on the campus of the University of Puerto Rico and a street in San Juan were named for her posthumously.