Sylvia del Villard

Sylvia Luz del Villard Güilbert was born on 28 February 1928 in Santurce, Puerto Rico, to an African father, Agustín del Villard, and a Puerto Rican mother, Marcolina Guilbert, and entertained her parents with dance from early childhood.

Awarded a scholarship by the Puerto Rican government, del Villard studied at Fisk University in Tennessee, but after facing blatant racism attending college in the segregated American South, she returned to complete her studies at the University of Puerto Rico, later continuing at the City College of New York, where she traced her ancestry to the Yoruba people of Nigeria.

In 1968 del Villard founded the Teatro Afro-Boricua El Coquí, which became recognised as the authority on Afro-Puerto Rican culture, performing in productions across Puerto Rico and internationally that showcased the African influences at the heart of Puerto Rican identity.

For over three decades del Villard worked as an actress, dancer, choreographer, singer and orator, taking great pride in her dark skin and African heritage at a time when Afro-Puerto Rican culture was often marginalised, and she became an outspoken critic of racist casting practices and the use of blackface in Puerto Rican television.

In 1981 del Villard became the first and only director of the Office of Afro-Puerto Rican Affairs at the Puerto Rican Institute of Culture, a role in which she continued advocating for Black Puerto Rican artists until her death from lung cancer on her 62nd birthday in 1990.