Olivia Paoli


Olivia Paoli, born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, was a Puerto Rican suffragist, thinker, and activist who fought for the rights of women in Puerto Rico. She was the sister of Antonio Paoli, a world-renowned Puerto Rican opera tenor and of Amalia Paoli, a Puerto Rican soprano.

Civic career

She founded the first theosophist lodge in Puerto Rico on 31 December 1906. She was also the director of the magazine La Estrella de Oriente, which was dedicated to publishing the movement's philosophical, religious, and esoteric texts. In her work as an activist, Paoli was a contemporary of Ana Roque, Beatriz Lassalle, Carmen Gomez, and Isabel Andreu de Aguilar. She was also one of the architects of the Puerto Rico's suffrage campaign from the 1920s, participating in the Social Suffragette League, of which she was its vice president.

Family life

In 1875 Paoli married Mario Braschi, and they had nine children: Amalia, Selene, Julio, Estela, Mario, Aida, Poliuto, and the twins Angel and Angelino. Mario Braschi was a liberal journalist who suffered political persecution by the Spanish during the 1880s. On February 27, 1942, Olivia died in the Sagrado Corazon Hospital in San Juan. She is buried in the Puerto Rico Memorial Cemetery located in Carolina, Puerto Rico. The local government of San Juan, Puerto Rico named a street "Calle Olivia Paoli" in her honor.

Selected works