Adelaida Rivon de Otheguy was born in Havana Cuba on April 24t, 1918. Daughter of a prominent society couple, she was supposed to learn to play piano as most well-to-do girls were taught. Yet having no musical ability whatsoever, she had the good fortune that the husband of her piano teacher, who was himself a painter, convinced her father, Don Ricardo Rivón, that the girl had artistic talent, though she would never be able to play piano. Thus started her career in oil painting, which she continued all her life, including her university studies, (a rarity at that time for women), her marriage and raising of six children, the exile from her country, her job being a teacher of Spanish and Ethics in Puerto Rico and finally her retirement.  

Besides oil over canvas, she also did a lot of drawings, but few of those survived her exile.  Her favorite themes were landscapes, both urban and natural, some of the places she visited, but mostly of her native Cuba.

Adelaida rarely sold a painting because her husband, Luis, would fall in love with them, and never wanted her to part with any of them. Over time, her children and grandchildren succeeded in acquiring some of her paintings. The most astute of them would take a blank canvas to her, which she would paint, and since the finished product already had an owner, Don Luis would not object.

A remarkable and profoundly spiritual woman, Adelaida left her mark on many of Puerto Rico’s young women, in addition to her ample body of artistic work.  She passed away on Sept. 2016 at the age of 98.

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Part of this description, as well as the artwork, is from a self-published book by her daughter María (Marilay) Otheguy.

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