Maria Cristina Rodriguez

When María Cristina Rodriguez was born on September 15, 1925, women in the US had been regular voters in elections for five years. The eldest child of Francisco and Rafaela Rodriguez, had, in her father’s words, the sky as the limit for a woman of her generation. The key was education. In conversations among the family, Francisco counseled career choices as being a secretary or a teacher. A product of the Puerto Rico public school system of the time, her significant advantage came when her parents took the bold, unusual and daring step to send her to Mary Washington College of the University of Virginia in Fredericksburg. All the way from Puerto Rico. It changed her life completely. She decided that if she was going to be a teacher, she would be a teacher, but at an undergraduate institution.

Right after her 1945 Mary Washington graduation, she married Rene Aponte, and began working, as a high school teacher, to help support a growing family. While holding two teaching jobs, she continued her graduate work, spending summers in New York City at NYU and earning an MA in Education in 1951. In 1964, having divorced, she enrolled in a Ph.D. Program at Universidad Complutense in Madrid. Accompanied by her youngest daughter, Maria Teresita, she completed her course work and defended her thesis, in May, 1966.

Her thesis, “Teaching of Languages in Puerto Rico in the Nineteenth Century”, earned her academic honors and accolades.

Upon her return to Puerto Rico, in 1966, she accomplished her dream of becoming a professor at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras campus. She taught courses in English and Education at the University until her early retirement in 1980. María Cristina moved to Springfield, Virginia, to be near her two daughters in 1985.

In 2012, after meeting Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, María Cristina told the Secretary she planned to stay alive to Vote for a woman for President of the US. “I have lived too long waiting for this opportunity.” And so, in a span of almost a century.... María Cristina, a daughter of Puerto Rico, and a hard working academic, witnessed and experienced the evolution of a woman’s role in the United States.

She is survived by her two daughters: Mari Carmen Aponte, and Mari Tere Aponte Aloma, her son in law Arturo Aloma, her grandchildren Daniel Aloma and Bianca Aloma Aiello and their spouses Kristen Aloma and Larry Aiello as well as her great grandson Harrison Sebastian Aloma all from Springfield,VA.