Pilar Jorge de Tella

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Pilar Jorge de Tella (24 August 1884 – 26 April 1967) was a leading Cuban suffragist who helped win women’s right to vote in Cuba. She was born in Pinar del Río and co-founded the Club Femenino de Cuba in 1917, serving as its first secretary. The club started as humanitarian work—night schools, training for nannies, help for women prisoners, and milk programs—but it soon pushed for political rights for women.

In the 1920s, Jorge de Tella led campaigns for suffrage, testified to Congress about working women’s conditions, and helped form the Committee for the Defense of Women’s Suffrage, which merged into the National Feminist Alliance (ANF) in 1928. The ANF, mainly made up of upper- and middle-class women, pressed for a constitutional right to vote and other protections. She spoke at international events, including the Pan-American Conference in Havana, and supported birth control, which caused tensions with the Catholic community.

She faced arrests during protests, including a 1931 jail visit after demonstrating against President Gerardo Machado. After Machado left power and Cuba underwent political changes, women’s suffrage was granted on 3 February 1934. Later that year, she was criticized for an anti-communist editorial and gradually stepped back from politics. Pilar Jorge de Tella died in 1967.