1945. The director of the orchestra told her that according to the hotel's rules, she had to enter through the kitchen door like all other black musicians (a de facto integration rule, illegal at the time in Puerto Rico, but still in place at the time out of concern for American patrons of the hotel). Ruth however, did not follow the instructions and entered through the main entrance, driven by a chauffeur on a Packard automobile. She went on stage and performed before the astonished audience. When asked in a documentary years later how she felt about the incident, she replied: "Me llamaron negra. ¿Negra? ¿Y qué?" ("They called me a negro. Negro? So what?"). She was particularly proud about how well dressed she was that day, "wearing more decorations than Douglas MacArthur". From that point on she proudly and constantly referred to herself (even in songs such as "Soy la que soy") as "La Negra de Ponce" ("The Black Woman from Ponce)", making reference to her racial heritage and her city of origin. She often also joked that she considered herself "Insoportablemente Ponceña" ("unbearably Ponceña"). During World War II and the Korean War, she traveled overseas to entertain the soldiers of Hispanic descent. When she returned to Puerto Rico, she decided to go solo. In 1954, at age 41, Fernández participated in the first televised musical television show in the history of Puerto Rico, "El Show Libby's". She also had many other "firsts": she was the first woman to sing in a Puerto Rican orchestra; the first Puerto Rican woman to sing "popular" music at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City; the first Latina singer of romantic music to sing in the Scandinavian countries (with some notable success in Norway), and the first Latina to record with a North American band. She had a long-standing musical partnership with Lito Peña; she recorded two albums with his Orquesta Panamericana, and he wrote and arranged many of her most famous songs. One of these songs includes what has since become a Puerto Rican folk standard, the bomba song "(La Bomba) ¡Ay, qué rica es!". She also recorded with Machito Grillo's orchestra and with Los Hispanos as backup singers. Fernández' performances in the United States were transmitted coast to coast under her contract with the CBS radio network. She also performed at the Carnegie Hall in New York in 1960.