Ninety-one year old Ambassador Minerva Bernardino, the first woman in the world to be an ambassador before the United Nations, died on Friday, 28 August at 91. Mrs. Bernardino was the only survivor of the Dominican mission that traveled to San Francisco, California to sign the founding charter of the United Nations in 1945. She passed away at her home in the DR. She had the rank of ambassador and was inspector of consulates and embassies. During the Rafael Trujillo dictatorship, she was the Dominican ambassador before the UN and consul general in New York. She was a renown women’s right activist, using the United Nations as a forum. She was the sister of the infamous Felix W. Bernardino, who died several years ago, and who had been accused of several crimes during the dictatorship.
