Pilar Barbosa: Political Advisor

Throughout history, countless women of color have broken barriers, uplifted communities, and shaped the world in ways that deserve lasting recognition. In 2020 I explored the stories of trailblazing women whose resilience, intellect, and leadership merit a place on our nation’s coinage. As part of Women’s History Month, I’m revisiting these editorials to celebrate their enduring legacies. These women persevered through adversity, educated the masses, and paved the way as the firsts in their fields. Their stories deserve to be told, remembered, and, perhaps one day, immortalized in metal.

The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is a self-governing island of the West Indies that is a freely associated state with the United States. Given this status, the rules it follows sometimes differ from those of the mainland. For example, universal suffrage has been in effect since 1932, 12 years after it was instituted in the continental United States. Prior to then, neither Puerto Rican women nor illiterate males could vote. Puerto Ricans were made American citizens in 1917.

Dr. Pilar Barbosa de Rosario was central to Puerto Rico’s political landscape in the 20th century. Despite never holding political office, she held the attention of countless lawmakers, intellectuals and government officials. Born July 4, 1898, in Bayamón, Puerto Rico, she was the daughter of José Celso Barbosa (1857-1921). Her father founded the Republican Party of Puerto Rico, which advocated for the island’s statehood. He was a member of Puerto Rico’s Senate from 1917 to 1921. Pilar was undoubtedly influenced by her father’s political career. As 40-year Senate member Kenneth McClintock noted in Barbosa’s New York Times obituary, “history was made at her dining room table.”

When she began instructing at the University of Puerto Rico in 1921, Barbosa was still an undergraduate student and became the first woman to teach there. She graduated in 1924 and enrolled at Clark University in Massachusetts. She earned master’s and doctoral degrees from the college in 1925 and 1926, respectively. 

The newly minted Dr. Pilar Barbosa spent the next few decades researching and writing books on Puerto Rican history. Her father’s letters and documents from his storied political career proved insightful. She returned to the University of Puerto Rico, where she established history and social studies departments. After her husband, economics professor José Ezequiel Rosario, died in 1963, she began meeting with her students for informal consultations on Saturday afternoons. Many of her protégés became senior government officials in Puerto Rico and continued to seek out her guidance. This made her an influential figure in politics and, by extension, the voice of the New Progressive Party, which had embraced many of her father’s ideals. Barbosa retired from teaching in 1967, and she was named the commonwealth’s first female historian in 1993.

On January 22, 1997, Barbosa passed away at a San Juan hospital. She was 99. Then-Governor Pedro Roselló instituted a three-day period of mourning. Although she would have received a state funeral, she instead chose to be buried during a private ceremony.

A version of this article appears in the November 2020 issue of The Numismatist (money.org)