Corina Rodríguez López
Corina Rodríguez López (1895–1982) was a Costa Rican educator, writer, feminist and housing activist. She founded Casa del Niño (House of Children) and helped start the Temperance League. She spoke up for the rights of women and children, and for this she was exiled twice.
She taught in Costa Rica and in Panama, and wrote many articles for newspapers and magazines criticizing politics at home and abroad. After returning from exile, she worked to improve housing for poor families in the southern parts of San José.
She studied in the United States, attending Mount St. Mary Academy in New Jersey and Northwestern University in Chicago, where she earned master’s degrees in English, education and psychology.
Back in Costa Rica, she taught at several schools, helped found the country’s first feminist organization, the Liga Feminista Costarricense (LFC), and published poetry and other works on social topics. She took part in major protests, including a large 1943 march against electoral reform, and attended the Inter-American Congress of Women in 1947.
During the Costa Rican Civil War in 1948, she was imprisoned and exiled to Panama. There she joined the feminist movement, taught Spanish and English, and studied ceramics and sculpture.
She returned to Costa Rica in the early 1970s and worked for the National Institute of Housing and Urbanism (INVU), helping provide housing for the poor. A neighborhood in San José was later named after her.
She was married three times and published many writings under the name Corina Rodríguez López de Cornick. She died on 8 November 1982 in San José, at age 86. In 2007 she was honored in the Costa Rican Gallery of Women.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 20:07 (CET).