Puerto Rico: Gertie Yolanda Besosa Silva

Born c. 1923 in Santurce, Puerto Rico, Gertie Yolanda Besosa Silva is considered the first Puerto Rican woman to earn a diploma in architecture (1945); she was also the first Puerto Rican woman to obtain a license to practice architecture and work as a professional architect in Puerto Rico (1945). Besosa Silva studied at the University of Puerto Rico in San Juan, Puerto Rico before continuing her education at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where she was the first woman from Puerto Rico and Latin America to graduate from the Cornell School of Architecture (1945).

After graduation she returned to Puerto Rico and worked for the Housing Department of Public Works, where she was promoted to leader of the Site Planning Division, and she worked for the Department of Interior in Puerto Rico. She established her own architectural firm in Puerto Rico, where she concurrently worked. Besosa Silva eventually relocated to Brazil with her husband, Joaquín Servera Travieso (c. 1950). To honor her accomplishments, the Colegio de Arquitectos y Arquitectos Paisajistas de Puerto Rico (CAAPPR) in San Juan established a Beca Gertie Besosa Silva scholarship to support emerging women architects in Puerto Rico. Besosa Silva was also featured in the exhibition “Women architects of Puerto Rico, the Caribbean, and Florida: Their Work,” organized by the Puerto Rico Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (1991). She died in 1983 in Brazil.