Carmen Vazquez Rivera of Tallahassee: War veteran, nurse, Latina pioneer

AI-assisted summary
• Carmen Vazquez Rivera, a World War II and Korean War veteran, recently passed away at 103 years old.
• Vazquez Rivera was a pioneering Puerto Rican woman who served as a nurse in the Women's Army Corps and Air Force.
• She had a varied and accomplished life, working as a private detective and physical therapist, and was married to a prominent Puerto Rican politician.

The life of Carmen Vazquez Rivera – a World War II and Korean War veteran who died recently at 103 – could be the makings of a telenovela.

The Puerto Rican native, who adopted Tallahassee as her home later in life, was a Latin woman born to humble beginnings but unabashedly unafraid to push boundaries.

She stepped up when her country and island needed her, her friends and family say, but found time to provide love and comfort to her growing family. Her husband, Dr. Leopoldo Figueroa, was a political pioneer who advocated for independence and statehood for the island nation.

Vazquez Rivera died March 8 in Florida's capital, roughly 1,500 miles away from her home of Cidra, Puerto Rico.

Her story lives on because of legacy consultant Antonio Permuy, who heard of Vazquez Rivera through her cousin, Lucia Ayala, who lives in St. Petersburg. He met her and her family and worked to get Vazquez Rivera some long overdue recognition from several national organizations, as well as create a Wikipedia page about her.

While much of her life is saved in the many papers she kept, there is still much unknown due to the change in recordkeeping in Puerto Rico some years after the turn of the century and the loss of records over the years.

But what is known paints a portrait of a remarkable life.

Serving for her island

Born to Maria Engracia Rivera y Rodriguez and Nicasio Vazquez Noguera on Feb. 15, 1922, Vazquez Rivera was one of six children. She inherited both last names of her parents, a Puerto Rican custom in which children receive both their father's last name and mother's maiden name.

Permuy said not much was known about her childhood outside of stories from Vazquez Rivera. But at just 16, around 1938, she began studying nursing at the Escuela del Distrito de Bayamón (School of the District of Bayamón) where she graduated in 1942.

She continued her studies, focusing on obstetrics at the Hospital de la Capital de San Juan (Hospital of the Capital of San Juan), later joining the Red Cross.

As Vazquez Rivera went to school, Puerto Rico (as part of the United States) got involved in World War II. Puerto Ricans joined the military, though many served in segregated Hispanic units.

Puerto Rican nurses tried to volunteer but were turned away until 1944, when the Army sent recruiters to the island searching for 200 women for the Women's Army Corps, or WACs.

Vazquez Rivera joined in 1944 but was a part of a different group of Puerto Rican nurses, used for her bilingual skills.

She served at San Juan's Fort Brooke in Fort San Felipe del Morro, Puerto Rico's equivalent to St. Augustine's Castillo de San Marcos. The fort existed since the days of conquistadors, but was phased out towards the end of the war. It is still standing to this day and can be toured.

While serving at Fort Brooke, Vazquez Rivera was the head nurse in charge of the orthopedic department though she held other roles: An auxiliary operating room supervisor and an instructor of auxiliary nurses. She delivered over 100 births.

She rose to the rank of second lieutenant and around 1946 she was transferred to the hospital of Trinidad until she was honorably discharged.

"In a time when women didn't have a lot of options ... they were not allowed to enlist in the army at that time and she was among the first waves (of women) that did," Permuy said. "The phrase that I keep thinking of with her is pioneering spirit...(to) be not just a nurse, but a head nurse, training others."

She received three medals for her service during World War II: The American Theater Campaign Medal, the WWII Victory Medal and three Overseas Service Bars. She also received a signed letter from President Harry S Truman thanking her for her service.

After the war she headed up to New York, which was seeing a large migration of Puerto Ricans, leading to the phenomenon of what came to be called "Nuyoricans."

She continued her medical studies, attending Columbia University for physical therapy, marking her as an Ivy League grad, a milestone for Latinas at the time. But she switched gears too, receiving a certificate in criminology from the Bolan Academy of New York, leading to a stint in the 1950s when she was a private detective.

In 1953, she received her New York nursing license and practiced at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center until she was recruited back to the military to serve during the Korean War. This time, she enlisted with the Air Force and was promoted to the rank of first lieutenant.

Unlike WWII, little is known about her service during the Korean War aside from the fact that she served in Texas and was one of 61,000 Boricuas who served in the war. It's another name for Puerto Rican people stemming from the indigenous name for the island 'Borinquen."

She remained in the reserves before finally retiring in 1973.

Married and family life after war

The next stop for Vazquez Rivera was Miami, which looked different from the modern Cuban-American flavored metropolis it is today; those first arrivals didn't come till 1959.

In 1955, she received her Florida nursing license and later practiced at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Miami Beach, now the largest, independent not-for-profit teaching hospital in the state.

"She was living in Miami Beach at a time when it was mostly a white population," said Permuy, who works with families to preserve their loved one's legacy.

Permuy said that when he got to meet her, Vazquez Rivera spoke highly of her time in Miami, being fond of its beauty. She finally returned home to Puerto Rico in the 1960s where she remarried Figueroa, a noted politician, doctor and journalist. Figueroa was one of her medical instructors in the 1940s; they got married the first time after WWII but divorced before she relocated to New York.

She had had her three children by then – Gabriel, Janice and her youngest Carol, daughter of her second husband Paul Giguere.

Figueroa was a leading political figure during the 20th century for the island, originally vying for the island's independence before turning to the still existing political party for statehood, Partido Nuevo Progresista, or PNP (New Progressive Party). (Unlike the mainland, Puerto Rico's political parties are not divided between Republicans and Democrats but rather between the ideas of Puerto Rican statehood and independence.)

According to Carol Giguere, their house in the Santurce District of Puerto Rico's capital, San Juan, was home to several get-togethers with powerbrokers during her stepfather's time in the Puerto Rican House of Representatives.

"I remember all the big figures. They came to his house where they had the meetings ... who was going to run for governor and who was (going for) the different (political) positions," Giguere said. "My house was not empty. There was always someone coming."

Permuy said that despite the noteworthiness of people in and out of their home, Vazquez Rivera was never fazed.

"The fact that he was the one training her in nursing, right? And then it comes full circle, and in the most beautiful way ... and they find each other again at the end of his life, remarry, and that she's now looking after his health," Permuy said.

The family stayed this way until 1969 – when Figueroa died.

Figueroa was honored with a room in the Puerto Rican capital being named after him. Vazquez Rivera and her kids stayed in Puerto Rico up even into Giguere's university years. She shared memories of her mother taking her to the beaches in Condado, which was near their family home with Figueroa, and how one of her favorite dishes her mother cooked was sancocho, a stew dish of meat and hearty vegetables.

While Giguere attended optometry school on the island, Vazquez Rivera helped in taking care of her grandkids, just three at the time. And once Giguere graduated and Vazquez Rivera retired, that's when she moved to Florida.

Quiet days in Tallahassee

In her later years, she lived at the Robert H. Jenkins Jr. Veterans’ Domiciliary Home in Lake City, which is where she celebrated milestones, such as her 100th birthday and a place Giguere said her mother loved.

"She was a party person. They had bingo and she liked to go to concerts and they would have many activities," she said.

Vazquez Rivera had macular degeneration, an eye disease that can blur vision, and used an electric wheelchair to get around. One day, she suffered a fall which convinced her to move in and live with her daughter in Tallahassee.

"It was like my little family, the three generations, my mother, my husband and then the kids," Carol Giguere said. She has five kids, two of which were raised in Tallahassee. "Then all the other siblings, and the family would come and get together for the holidays."

Her children loved hearing the many stories their grandmother told them, her memory still sharp despite her age.

Even in her final years, Vazquez Rivera continued to receive awards honoring her work throughout her life. Then-Congressman Charlie Crist put out a statement in 2022 recognizing Vazquez’s career and centennial birthday.

Her story was spotlighted by the Florida Department of Veterans Affairs as well as the American Latino Veterans Association (ALVA). She also received previous honors from the New York State Senate on Nov. 7, 2009, as well as the Senate of Puerto Rico on Feb. 23, 2012 shortly after her 90th birthday.

The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) awarded her with their Presidential Medal of Freedom at a dinner gala that was attended by her three children and one of her grandchildren.

The adventure hasn't stopped for Vazquez Rivera, even in death. She will head home to Puerto Rico where she is to be buried with Figueroa, uniting them one last time.

Arianna Otero is the trending and breaking news reporter for the Tallahassee Democrat. Contact her via email at AOtero@tallahassee.com and follow her on X: @ari_v_otero.