Among the early feminists and suffragettes in Puerto Rico, Silva de Cintrón's legacy is international. Born in Caguas in 1885, her long and active life prioritized civic, political and cultural causes. Along with a select group of women who attended the University of Puerto Rico, Silva de Cintrón earned a Normal School degree making her one of the island's earliest teachers. Before leaving Puerto Rico for New York in 1927, she collaborated in the publication of an important journal, La Mujer en el Siglo XX, and struggled to gain voting rights that were secured for educated women in 1929, and universally in 1935. In New York, she founded and edited Revista de Artes y Letras (1933-1945) a publication promoting Hispanic writers, women's and community issues for an international audience. The journal provided substantial evidence of the cultural vitality among Puerto Ricans and other Latinos in the New York communities by including creative literature, as well as information on theater, cinema, and musical activities by prominent Spanish-speaking performers. It also promoted a sense of hispanismo (Hispanicism) in the U.S. metropolis, and highlighted the work of women as columnists, authors, and on the editorial staff. Not limited to engaging solely the interests of a learned reading public, Artes y Letras also denounced discrimination against the growing Puerto Rican population in the city.

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