It was the 1950s in Puerto Rico, and everything was normal on the island of perpetual heat, except for the laughter of thousands of children that could be heard from a park in San Juan. What happened? The minors enjoyed and participated in a snow war, in much the same style as a typical American Christmas.
What happened that year was not an extraordinary natural phenomenon. The snow reached the Caribbean territory thanks to the work of a politician known for her eccentricities but also for her social work.
Felisa Rincon de Gautierthe first female mayor of San Juan, persuaded a powerful US airline to ship snow to the island in 1952, according to the US National Museum of Women’s History.
Felisa Rincón de Gautier, the first female mayor of San Juan. Photo: Felisa Rincón de Gautier Museum
What was your goal?
She wanted Puerto Rican children unfamiliar with the United States to experience snow for the first time, like she did when she was living in New York when she was growing up. To its critics, it was just an act of cultural emulation, at a height when Puerto Rico’s status as an associated state of the United States would be approved.
For her followers, on the other hand, it was nothing more than a disinterested action by the mayor, aka lady fela.
“It was the most successful event imaginable. They grabbed the snow, they threw it on him. There were children but also adults, they were happy,” says Hilda Jiménez Fiol, a 97-year-old Puerto Rican woman who was personal assistant at Rincón de Gautier and director of social development for the Puerto Rican capital.
Eastern Airlines brought snow to Puerto Rico for three years beginning in 1952. Photo: Felisa Rincón de Gauter Museum
This unique act helped her establish herself in power for 24 years and also received many awards from governments and academic institutions around the world.
Doña Fela took office in 1946 following the resignation of a San Juan mayor. Among the works he carried out during his tenure, he organized the distribution of food and shoes to poor children, founded old people’s care centers and kindergartens. During the years that he ruled the city, the population grew from 180,000 to over 600,000.
How did snow get to Puerto Rico from the US?
The snow was offloaded at a small airport in San Juan and transported in refrigerated trucks to a park where the public gathered. “The planes had the luggage down in a kind of canoe; That’s where the transported snow was put down,” says Hilda, who remembers the happy faces of those present, even though the snow in her hands melted quickly.
The activity featured police, firefighter, or nurse costumes for the children. There were also people who dressed up as the Three Wise Men, says Hilda. The next 2 occasions took place in January, on the eve of Epiphany, a typical public holiday in Puerto Rico.
The snow was transported in a kind of “canoe” that was right on the bottom of the two planes that flew to the island. In this part the suitcases were placed. Photo: Felisa Rincón de Gautier Museum
Who was Dona Fela?
Doña Fela was born in 1897 in the center of a wealthy family. As an adult, she had to stand up to her father and husband, both attorneys, when she decided to run for mayor of San Juan.
Back then, Fela was a well-known businesswoman in town. She owned a clothing store, a craft she learned in New York, where she was a seamstress in her youth. According to the Times, the woman has worked hard, for better or for worse, to please her constituents.
“My opponents campaign just before the election and then disappear. (…) I start campaigning the day after the elections and never stop,” he concluded.