Educator and Political Activist
Barbosa earned her Bachelors Degree in Education and then went on to Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts where she earned her Doctorate Degree in History. In 1921, she returned to the island and was offered the position of history professor at the College of Liberal Arts of the University of Puerto Rico, thus becoming the first woman to teach in that institution.
In 1929, she established the Department of History and Social Sciences in her Alma Mater and was its director until 1943. She continued to teach at the university until 1967, the year she retired. Barbosa was also very active in her father's cause and served as political advisor and mentor to many of the politicians who shared her fathers dream, most notably those from the pro-statehood New Progressive Party, including former Resident Commissioner and now Governor Luis Fortuño and former Senate of Puerto Rico President and current Puerto Rico Secretary of State Kenneth McClintock. Her goal for the party was that it become known as the party of statehood and social justice.
Read more about this topic: Pilar Barbosa
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