Alba Roballo | |
|---|---|
 Roballo, circa 1970 | |
| Born | Alba Rosa Roballo Berón 4 August 1908 Isla Cabellos, Artigas Department, Uruguay, Empire of Brazil |
| Died | 3 September 1996 (aged 88) |
| Occupation(s) | lawyer, writer, politician |
| Years active | 1939–1993 |
Alba Roballo (4 August 1908 – 3 September 1996) was a Uruguayan lawyer, poet, and politician, who served three consecutive terms from 1958 to 1971 in the Senate of Uruguay and a fourth term in the early 1990s. After graduating with a law degree from the Universidad de la República in Montevideo, she began to write. In 1942, her first book, Se levanta el sol (The Sun Rises), won first prize from the Ministry of Education. Later she founded two journals, Mujer Batllista (Batllist Woman) and El Pregón (The Town Crier). In 1954 she became the first woman to sit on the Montevideo Departmental Council and was elected Senator for the Colorado Party. A prominent Afro-Uruguayan, she was the first woman in South America to serve as a cabinet minister, appointed in 1968; she resigned this post following authoritarian actions by the government. She was a founder of the Frente Amplio in 1971 and though she ran for re-election, that year she was defeated.
After the 1973 Uruguayan coup d'état, Roballo became the target of numerous raids by the authorities for her outspokenness against the military regime which ran the country until 1984. When the dictatorship ended, she unsuccessfully ran for a Senate seat. She continued to serve on the directorate of the Frente Amplio, introducing legislation projects for social improvement through 1993, when she briefly served in the Senate again. Roballo died in 1996, but has been remembered by many memorials throughout the country including stamps issued in her likeness, streets and colonies named after her, as well as plazas and cultural centers.