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Now the election. As Felo mentioned, Sila María Cálderon, the mayor of San Juan, was just elected governor with 48.5%. She is the first woman governor in the history of Puerto Rico. She's not the first woman, though, to run for governor. That distinction befalls Victoria Muñoz Mendoza who in '92 ran. By the way, she is the daughter of Luis Muñoz Marín the founder of the pro-Commonwealth party and the commonwealth movement.
Sila María was not also the first woman mayor of San Juan. That distinction befalls to the famous doña Fela who ruled San Juan with an iron fist and was in many ways Muñoz right hand woman. She was also noted in Puerto Rican history for being the first Puerto Rican official to ever bring snow to the children of Puerto Rico. There's a famous story in -- I believe it was -- in the fifties, when using contacts in the military and federal agencies, she actually brought a big caseload of snow and dumped it in a park -- I think in El Moro. It lasted about ten minutes, but still she actually brought snow to the children of Puerto Rico.
Sila María not only did she win the governor's race but this was interesting -- a little trivia that I dug up. She won in 7 of the 8 senatorial districts in Puerto Rico and that included the San Juan senatorial district where I discovered -- I really didn't have an idea -- no Popular has won that since the late 1960's. And still she won. There's another distinction that Sila María Cálderon has that no one has talked about yet or not many people on the island or even on the mainland has talked about. She is the first true post Muñoz leader of the Partido Popular or leader who's won the governorship. What do I mean by that? The last popular who was governor was Hernàndez Colon, he stepped down as governor in '82. This man was politically active when Muñoz Marín was alive. They both were in the Puerto Rican Senate from '68 to '72. He had Muñoz's blessing to run for governor in '72. There were other Populares after Rafael Hernández Colon who tried. Muñoz daughter, she failed. Héctor Luis Acevedo, another mayor of San Juan, he failed. So Sila is really the first true post Muñoz leader of the Popular Democratic Party and to be in charge of the governor's race. Quickly, I want to talk about watermelons.
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in partnership with the Center for Puerto Rican Studies (CENTRO) at Hunter College 
