Felisa Rincón de Gautier (1897–1994), affectionately known as “Doña Fela,” was a trailblazing Puerto Rican leader and the first woman elected mayor of a capital city in the Americas, serving San Juan from 1946 to 1969. A close collaborator of Luis Muñoz Marín and an influential member of the Popular Democratic Party of Puerto Rico, she helped lead a transformative era of modernization focused on public health, housing, education and dignity for the most vulnerable communities.
This monologue invites audiences into the intimate moment before her historic 1946 swearing-in as mayor. Through memories, prayers and reflections on women’s struggles and the poverty she witnessed in San Juan’s neighborhoods, Rincón de Gautier reveals the personal convictions that shaped her extraordinary leadership. Elegant, passionate and fiercely compassionate, she embraces a vision of politics grounded in service, in which the city’s people become the family she vows to protect. The piece offers a powerful portrait of the woman behind the legend, whose courage, faith and determination forever changed Puerto Rican history.
Dr. Monica Torres is a native Puerto Rican pediatrician and a driving force in the Cleveland arts community. Her medical career includes a degree from San Juan Bautista School of Medicine and a fellowship in genetic epidemiology at Case Western Reserve University, but her heart has always belonged to the stage. A former member of the Yagüez Theater Company and a student of dramatic arts at the University of Puerto Rico, she has early credits including Dollhouse and the XXXII Puerto Rican Theater Festival.
In 2018, Torres transformed her passion into a lasting cultural institution by co-founding LatinUs Theater Company, Ohio’s first independent Latino theater company. As executive director, she has served as the visionary behind every production to date, including La Casa de Bernarda Alba, Tu Ternura Molotov and Quiéreme hasta la Locura, and has worked as producer, actress and director.
Her dedication to Hispanic representation in the arts has earned her numerous honors, including recognition as a 2023 Hispanic Influential Leader by The Plain Dealer and inclusion on the “100 Latinos Cleveland Must Know” list.
