Ana Roqué de Duprey

Ana Roqué de Duprey, born in Aguadilla Puerto Rico in 1853, was known as the Flower of the Valley. She became the youngest teacher’s assistant in Puerto Rico at the age of 11 and founded her own school just two years later, in her house. The geography textbook she wrote was later adopted by the Department of Education of Puerto Rico. She married Luis Enrique Duprey in 1872, and their home became a meeting place for discussions on astronomy, botany and music. She was made an honorary member of the Paris Society of Astronomers. In 1885, she earned a bachelor’s degree in science and philosophy. In 1894 she founded La Mujer, Puerto Rico’s first women-only magazine, the first of many revolutionary publications she would launch during her lifetime, in addition to writing many books, articles, and essays. In 1899, she began teaching English and then founded a college in Mayagüez. In 1903 she became one of the principal founders of the University of Puerto Rico (of which Mayagüez was a campus). In 1917, she helped to found the Feminine League of Puerto Rico in which would become the Suffragist Social League in 1921 when it began focusing on securing women the right to vote. Roque died two years before all Puerto Rican women were granted the right to vote, in 1935.