Irma Nydia Vázquez


Irma Nydia Vázquez, was Puerto Rico's representative to the 1948 Miss America pageant. Although started Puerto Rico's annual participation in the event in 1937as "Miss Puerto Rico", and Zulma Caballero Lopez participated in 1938, Vázquez is nonetheless generally credited with being the first Puerto Rican contestant in the event, which required all contestants to sign a contract which then required that "contestant must be in good health and of the white race."

Life

The daughter of an industrialist and sister of a future Puerto Rico Secretary of State, she was the second wife of Puerto Rican singer and composer Bobby Capó, a marriage initially opposed by her family but which lasted 25 years during which they had 5 children. Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Pedro Vázquez, the founder of professional baseball in Puerto Rico, and Genoveva Vázquez, a seamstress who designed former First Lady Ines Maria Mendoza's dress during the White House gala hosted by President Kennedy at which cellist Pablo Casals performed.
She died May 2, 2019 in Hackettsown, New Jersey.