Born: 14 September 1843, United States (Puerto Rico)
Died: 10 November 1924
Country most active: United States (Puerto Rico), Cuba
Also known as: Dolores Rodríguez de Astudillo y Ponce de León
The following bio was written by Emma Rosen, author of On This Day She Made History: 366 Days With Women Who Shaped the World and This Day In Human Ingenuity & Discovery: 366 Days of Scientific Milestones with Women in the Spotlight, and has been republished with permission.
Lola Rodríguez de Tió was a pioneering Puerto Rican poet celebrated across Latin America. She championed women’s rights and fought for Puerto Rico’s independence.
After marrying Bonocio Tió Segarra, she published her first poetry book, titled “Mis Cantos,” which became a great success.
In 1867 and 1889, Lola Rodríguez de Tió and her husband were exiled from Puerto Rico by Spanish-appointed Governors. They first went to Venezuela during the first exile, then New York, where she supported José Martí and Cuban revolutionaries. Later, they settled in Cuba until they died. Their home became a meeting place for politicians, intellectuals, and fellow exiled Puerto Ricans.
Inspired by Ramón Emeterio Betances’s quest for Puerto Rico’s independence and the 1868 Grito de Lares uprising, she wrote patriotic poems to the tune of La Borinqueña. In 1901, Rodríguez de Tió founded and became a member of the Cuban Academy of Arts and Letters. She was well-known in Cuba for her patriotic poetry about Puerto Rico and Cuba.
Some of her most famous works include “Cuba y Puerto Rico son…” (Cuba and Puerto Rico are…) and “Mi Libro de Cuba” (My Book about Cuba).
The following is excerpted from “400 Outstanding Women of the World and the Costumology of Their Time” by Minna Moscherosch Schmidt, published in 1933.
Lola Rodriguez de Tio is justly claimed as daughter by both Puerto Rico and Cuba. She herself declared in one of her most popular quatrains that “Cuba and Puerto Rico are the two wings of one bird.” Born in San German, second oldest Puerto Rican town, in 1843, Lola Rodriguez attained early renown for the pure singing quality of her lyrics.
She married Don Bonocio Tio, writer and patriot, and their home in Mayagiiez became a center both of poetry and of patriotic revolt against the injustices of some of the Spanish Governors.
During this period, llola Tio wrote her famous Hymn to Borinquen, Borinquen being the Indian name of the island, which has since been popularly adopted as the national song of Puerto Rico. When in 1887 a group of her fellow patriots were under sentence of death in Morro Castle, Lola Tio was one of the prime agents in appealing to the central government in Spain against the sentence pronounced by the Governor of the Island; and in obtaining their release. Each of the patriot group acknowledged her deed in burning words of affection and admiration. “Our beloved island does not so much need men as more women like you, incomparable Lola!” wrote one of the patriot prisoners, Don Ramon Marin. It is told of her that while she was interviewing officials, rousing public spirit, demanding on every occasion the release of the patriots, a friend cautioned her, “Lola, be prudent!” “The more we are enslaved, the more need for being brave!” she retorted. She and her husband were exiled to Cuba in 1889, and Havana, her second home, became no less dear to her than the first. She was exiled again, from Cuba, for her revolutionary activities in 1895. When, with independence, she returned to Cuba, she was elected a member of the National Academy of Arts and Letters.
In the United States; in Venezuela; wherever exile took her and her husband; Lola Tio wrote her ardent lyrics; and when the Republic was established in Cuba, she devoted herself to long years of labor for its civic betterment and in particular to enlarging die opportunities of women. Of her poetry, the great Spanish critic, Menendez y Pelayo, said, in the first volume of his monumental Hisioria de la Poesia Hispanoamericana, ‘’The country which at the present time is honored with the sure and delicate
inspiration of the author of La Vuelta del Pastor, has a right to be judged at its real worth: Puerto Rico, the Antilles, America itself, have honor in being the birthplace of this gifted poet, Lola Rodriguez de Tio.” Her works include Mi Libro de Cuba, Mis Cantares, and Claras y Nieblas — My Book of Cuba, My Songs and Lights and Shadows, respectively. Mis Cantares was the first published volume of verse by a Puerto Rican woman poet. Her death, in 1924, was the occasion of a demonstration of popular love and grief in the two islands to which she had dedicated her life and her art.