María Luisa Arcelay

María Luisa Arcelay (December 23, 1898 – October 17, 1981), was an educator, businesswoman and politician. In November 1932, she became the first woman in Puerto Rico and Latin America to be elected to a government legislative body, when she was elected to represent the district of Mayagüez in the House of Representatives of Puerto Rico.

Early years Arcelay was one of five children born to Ricardo Arcelay and Isabel de la Rosa in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. There she graduated as an elementary level English teacher from the Normal School in Rio Piedras, where she earned her teachers certificate.

Educator Arcelay began her career as an educator when she was hired as an English language teacher at Theodore Roosevelt High School. Later she taught at the Jose de Diego High School, both schools located in the city of Mayagüez. During her spare time she worked as a bookkeeper for various commercial firms in the area.

Arcelay used her position as president of the Agriculture and Commerce Commission, to continue her defense of the needlework industry before local and federal authorities. She also played an instrumental role in making the industry (both its prices, and it products) compatible with the United States market, by opposing any minimum wage legislation for seamstresses and common workers. Puerto Rican musician Mon Rivera wrote a song titled Alo, Quien Llama? (Hello, Who's Calling?), sometimes also referred to as Que Será. which describes the seamstress' strike and mentions Arcelay in the song.

In 1934, Arcelay presented a bill before the Puerto Rican legislature which established the Lottery of Puerto Rico. She was re-elected in 1936, during which time she introduced the bills to establish an orphanage and a juvenile court. She also presented bills to establish a teachers' pension and a School of Medicine at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez. There is a portrait of Maria Luisa Arcelay at the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America. It is located in the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study in Harvard University.

On August 22, 2005, the Chamber of Representatives of Puerto Rico, by the act R.de la C. 2631, named a portion of Puerto Rico's Capital Building as the Maria Luisa Arecelay hall, in her honor.