Lola Rodriguez DE Tio

None of the other great women in the history of Puerto Rico was as acclaimed more by her  contemporaries than Lola Rodríguez de Tió. She is the Puerto Rican woman with the highest intellectual renown of her time...All the great men that knew her judged her, unanimously, as an extraordinary woman and even perhaps as a heroine. Her fame went beyond the island's limits. Her life presented with three defined phases: her devotion to her home, her intelectual work and her political activities.

Lola Rodríguez was born in San Germán on the 14th of September, 1843. Her father was a famous lawyer and one of the founders of the Puerto Rican College of Lawyers, Don Sebastián Rodríguez de Astudillo. Her mother was Doña Carmen Ponce de León, descendent from a noble family.

The girl is reared in a home full of elegance and a certain poetic atmosphere that favoured her emotional formation. She grows in the shadow of her mother, a woman of delicate spirituality, who would stimulate in her the love for beauty and the arts.

Rebellious from early childhood, she resists going to school at San Germán because no school there is judged good enough for her--her father starts home tutoring. A man well prepared in the studies of the Humanities, he conducts her education from her first letters to the most complete  studies necessary for an ample education.. An avid reader, she reads history, moral, religion and travel books. She learns to love the Spanish literature classics and is particularly seduced by the writings of Fray Luis de León. She writes her first verses under the influence of Fray Luis. Later she starts to distinguish herself in gatherings at her home, where she recites her poetry and interprets both classical and national music on the piano.

In 1863, at the age of 20, Lola Rodríguez married Bonocio Tió Segarra, a well educated writer and a man of liberal ideas who was politically active against the Spanish regime. Lola and Bonocio make their home a center of gatherings and political reunions.

In 1867 she writes lyrics for La Borinqueña,  of Félix Astol,  revolutionary lyrics that get to flame the ardor and patriotism in the followers of Betances. In 1876 she writes her first book, Mis Cantares, a collection of poems. In 1877 both Lola and her husband left for Caracas, Venezuela, being banished from the island due to their political activities against the tyrannical governorship. They returned to Mayagüez in 1878 collaborating in literary and political activities, stating " I'm the same Lola!". Lola Rodríguez was known for her defense of women's rights. Her hair style seen on her above drawing is an example of her decision to break traditions and conventionalisms that tied women at the time.

In 1883 her father dies; his disappearance affects Lola tremendously ...

In 1885 she publishes her second poem book, Claros y Nieblas . Reviewers point to the literary value of her work.

In 1889 Lola and Bonocio were again forced to leave the island after an era of horrible political persecussions known as the "era de los compontes". She had voiced for the freedom of various Puerto Rican patriots jailed at El Morro. From the exterior they continued their campaign to have Palacios removed from the governorship. During some time they lived in New York, later setting up residence in Habana where they help the cause of Cuban independence. They were considered as Cubans in that island. In 1892 she receives the news of her mother's death.

Lola publishes in Cuba in 1893 her third book, Mi Libro de Cuba. It is in this book where
a famous verse appears, now known to practically every Cuban and Puerto Rican:
 
     " Cuba y Puerto Rico son
       de un pájaro las dos alas,
       reciben flores y balas
       en un mismo corazón".

Lola and Bonocio make active propaganda towards the independence of Cuba and are forced to leave that island in 1895, setting residence in New York. In 1898 after the Cuban independence she returns gloriously to Habana. There she lives, with the affect and admiration of all Cubans.

In 1912 and 1919 she makes trips to the island; it is in the latter trip where she responds to an immigration officer asking for her papers: "I am Lola Rodríguez de Tió and I am returning to my homeland". She was honored with a great banquet at the Ateneo Puertorriqueño where she recited her Canto a Puerto Rico.

In 1924, after a trip to Europe her health declines. She died on the 10th of November,1924 at La Habana where her remains rest still.