Matilde Hidalgo
Matilde Hidalgo de Procel (Loja, Ecuador, September 29, 1889[1] – Guayaquil, Ecuador, February 20, 1974) was an Ecuadorian physician, poet, and activist. Matilde Hidalgo was the first woman to exercise the right to vote in Ecuador (and Latin America), and also the first to receive a Doctorate in Medicine. Hidalgo fought for the recognition of women's rights and is now known as one of the most important women in Ecuadorian history.
Biography
Matilde Hidalgo Navarro de Procel became the first woman to graduate from a high school in Ecuador, the first woman to vote in an election in Latin America and the first woman to hold elected office in her country.[2] She was born in Loja, to a family of six children born to Juan Manuel Hidalgo and Carmen Navarro. After her father died, her mother had to work as a seamstress to support them. Matilde studied at the school the Immaculate Conception of the Sisters of Charity.
Upon graduating from sixth grade, Matilde told her older brother Antonio of her wish to continue studying. Antonio made the request to the secular high school Colegio Bernardo Valdivieso. The director of the school, Angel Rubén Ojeda, after thinking about it for a month, agreed. Reaction in the community was not very good: mothers prohibited their daughters from befriending her, the local priest forced her to listen to mass two steps outside the church’s entrance. Nevertheless, her mother staunchly defended her daughter. Eventually Matilde graduated with honors and continued her studies at the University of Cuenca, obtaining a Doctorate in Medicine in 1921, making her the first Ecuadorian woman to receive such a title.[3] Two years later, Matilde married the lawyer Fernando Procel, and they had two children named: Fernando and Gonzalo Procel, Fernando was a doctor while Gonzalo was an architect.
Professional life and suffrage
During the presidency of José Luis Tamayo, Matilde announced that she was going to vote in the next Ecuadorian presidential election. The issue was put under ministerial consultation, eventually ruling in her favor, and on June 9, 1924, Matilde Hidalgo became the first woman in Latin America to exercise her constitutional right to vote in a national election.[2]
In 1924, she was able to vote in Loja, making Ecuador the first country in the continent to grant women voting rights.
Matilde became the first elected councilwoman of Machala and, the first vice-president of the Council of Machala. In 1941, she became the first woman candidate and the first elected woman public administrator in Loja, the city that was once horrified by her ambitions, with the title "Assistant Deputy".
Hidalgo Navarro practiced medicine in Guayaquil until 1949, when she received a scholarship to study Pediatrics, Neurology, and Dietetics in Argentina.
Awards/recognitions
- First woman to receive a Bachelor's Degree in Loja and the country.
- First woman licensed in Medicine Universidad del Azuay (today Universidad de Cuenca)
- First Doctorate in Medicine Universidad de Quito
- First Academic Professional woman in the country.
- First woman to vote in Latin America.
- First female Vice President of a Municipal Council.
- First Deputy Elected to Congress.
- Teacher, politician, poet, professional, public official, wife, mother.
- National Merit Award, granted by Presidential Decree in 1956.
- Homage from the city of Loja, declaring her "Illustrious Woman" (1966).
- National Merit Award, from the Department of Public Health, granted by the Public Health Minister of Ecuador (1971).
Poems
Literary critic Cecilia Ansaldo Briones offers a compilation of twenty poems by Matilde Hidalgo in the book by Jenny Estrada, Matilde Hidalgo of Prócel, Biography and Poetry Book. From there it is known that Matilde Hidalgo Navarro wrote her first poems when she was in secondary school and in college, writing on topics such as "the cult of Science, the admiration of Nature, praise of people or dates, Marian devotion, little poetry about love, and the topic of women".[4]
Other known titles include:
- The woman and love.
- The goldfinch.
- Where is my happiness?
- In the apotheosis of Don Bernardo Valdivieso.
- The constant woman's plea.
- Forget me by God.
- To María.
- The Tenth of August.
- Proscription.
- My ideal.
- To Cuenca Jonah.
- Celicano patriotic hymn.
- Sacrifice.
- The poet.
- The drop of dew.
- By leaving we do not raise our store.
- Song of spring.
- In the agony of the evening.
Memberships
- Medical Federation of Ecuador (founding member)
- Surgical Association of Quito (founding member)
- Press circle of Quito
- Machala Feminine Institute of Culture
- Committee of Women of the Red Cross in the Gold Province.
- House of the Ecuadorian Culture, center of the Gold Province.
- Committee of Women Lions of Machala.
- Medical Society of Ecuador.
- Society of Women Physicians of Guayas.
- National Federation of Journalists.
- College of Physicians of El Oro.
- Union of American Women, UMA.
- National Union of Ecuadorian Women, UNME.
- Pan-American Medical Association (PAMA), Ecuador Chapter.
- Benemérita Surgical Society of Guayas.
Tribute
On November 21, 2019, Google celebrated her with a Google Doodle.[5]
References
- ^ "Matilde Hidalgo de Procel (1889-1974) | Municipio de Loja". www.loja.gob.ec. Retrieved November 21, 2019.
- ^ a b A. Kim Clark (August 9, 2012). Gender, State, and Medicine in Highland Ecuador: Modernizing Women, Modernizing the State, 1895-1950. University of Pittsburgh Press. p. 5. ISBN 978-0822962090. Retrieved January 16, 2014.
- ^ A. Kim Clark (August 9, 2012). Gender, State, and Medicine in Highland Ecuador: Modernizing Women, Modernizing the State, 1895-1950. University of Pittsburgh Press. p. 3. ISBN 978-0822962090. Retrieved January 16, 2014.
- ^ Estrada, Jenny (2005). Matilde Hidalgo de Procel, una mujer total. Quito: Editorial Voluntad. Grupo Santillana. ISBN 9978-07-653-0.
- ^ "Celebrating Matilde Hidalgo de Procel". Google. November 21, 2019.
External links
Media related to Matilde Hidalgo at Wikimedia Commons
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