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March 12, 202515 min readEvangelina Rodrguez Led an Extraordinary Life as the Dominican Republics First Female DoctorBorn into poverty and abandoned by her parents, Andrea Evangelina Rodrguez Perozo rises from a life selling sweets in the street to become the first female Dominican doctor in 1911 Lily Whear (composite); Nathaly Lerma (image)In the early 1890s Andrea Evangelina Rodrguez Perozo was just another poor girl trying to survive in the provincial town of San Pedro de Macors in the Dominican Republic. Her life took an extraordinary turn when two brothers, both poets and essayists, arrived from the capital. They noticed something special about the young girl who lived nearby. With their help, Rodrguez went to school and, against overwhelming odds, decided to become a doctor. She was the first woman to enter medical school in the Dominican Republic, and when she graduated in 1911, she became the country's first female doctor. But just as she was about to start her career, an unexpected tragedy changed the course of her life.LISTEN TO THE PODCASTOn supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.TRANSCRIPTLaura Gmez: Picture this. We're in the early 20th century, in a small village off the southeast coast of the Dominican Republic. Sugar cane fields surround a cluster of rectangular huts with roofs made of palm leaves. Beyond them, the turquoise waters of the Caribbean stretch as far as the eye can see.In one of the huts, a small girl lies on a mattress, limp with fever and pain. A doctor is sent for.Soon afterwards, a dark-skinned woman with tightly braided hair arrives at the doorstep. Shes wearing simple clothes and mens shoes. The father of the sick child is confused. Whos this? he asks. Is this a nurse?To his astonishment, the woman replies. No. Soy la doctora. Im the doctor.The woman is Andrea Evangelina Rodrguez Perozo Evangelina for short. She's the first Dominican woman to graduate from medical school. The island's first woman doctor.Mercedes Fernndez Asenjo (Voiceover): It was unheard of at the time for a woman like her to get the title of doctor; I mean, I see it as a really incredible thing.Claudia Scharf (Voiceover): I think Evangelina is a great example of transcendence in the field of medicine.Laura Gmez: This is Lost Women of Science, where we tell the stories of groundbreaking women who never got the recognition they deserved... until now. I'm Laura Gmez.I was raised in the Dominican Republic, but until recently, I'd never heard of Evangelina Rodrguez Perozo. When I did first hear about her, I immediately wanted to know more. How did this woman, born into poverty in the Dominican countryside, become not just the first but one of the most innovative doctors of her time? And why didnt I know her name?In this five-part series, well explore the life of Dr. Andrea Evangelina Rodrguez Perozo. We'll hear how she traveled all the way to Paris to learn the latest in medical advances, and how, later, she found herself on a collision course with her countrys new dictator, Rafael Leonidas Trujillo. His regime did all it could to erase her legacy. But today, with the help of historians and others who've worked for years to piece together the puzzle of Evangelina's life... we can finally tell her story.This is Episode 1: La Doctora.Our story begins in the mid-1880s, on the southeast coast of the Dominican Republic, in an up-and-coming town called San Pedro de Macors. Horse-drawn carts clatter down newly paved streets, lined with food stalls and street vendors. Its hot and humid, and the streets buzz with conversations in Spanish, English, Creole, and French.A blossoming sugar industry has drawn in migrants from all over the Caribbean and beyond, in search of opportunity. Among them is an old lady standing on the street selling homemade gofio, a Dominican sweet made of cornmeal and sugar. And beside her, looking shy, is a small dark-skinned girl of about six or seven: Evangelina Rodrguez.Like many of the people around them, Evangelina and her grandmother are newcomers to this town, here to try their luck in a place thats brimming with possibility.April Mayes: She would have grown up in an environment that was becoming cemented. I mean, quite literally, concrete was coming in and cement streets are being paved.Laura Gmez: That's April Mayes. She's Associate Dean of Pomona College in California and a professor of Afro-Latin American history.Despite all the hustle and bustle, for people like Evangelina and her grandmother, the prospects were slim.By the mid-1880s, the Dominican Republic was still pretty young as a nation. It had only been independent from Spain since 1865. And hundreds of years of slavery had only ended four decades earlier. Dominican society was still deeply divided by class and race.April Mayes: That really decided your fate to a certain degree, because if your family had access to wealth, had access to land, had been educated, then your chances were really good. But being impoverished, being darker skinned, being landless, and not coming from generational wealth really mattered. And Evangelina falls there.Laura Gmez: Evangelina was born in 1879 in Higey, a rural town back then about 40 miles northeast of San Pedro de Macors. And from day one, she had many strikes against her. In addition to being poor, female, and dark-skinned, she was born out of wedlock.Mercedes Fernndez Asenjo (Voiceover): She was the illegitimate daughter of a woman named Felipa Perozo and Ramn Rodriguez, who was an officer in Pedro Santana's army.Laura Gmez: Thats Mercedes Fernndez. Shes an assistant professor at the Catholic University of America whose research focuses on Hispanic literature. She wrote her Ph.D. on Evangelina Rodrguez.Mercedes Fernndez Asenjo (Voiceover): Her dad abandoned her when she was little, and her mom never took care of her.Laura Gmez: Abandoned first by her mother and then by her father, Evangelina fell under the care of her paternal grandmother. And when Evangelina was young, they moved to San Pedro de Macors in search of a better future.But in years of selling gofio on the streets, they never seemed to get ahead. They earned just enough to feed themselves and keep a roof over their heads. At that point, Evangelinas future seemed written for her.Mercedes Fernndez Asenjo (Voiceover): Social expectations were that she would have to either become a servant or find herself a husband. Either way, it was bound to be a life of hardship. And Evangelina saw different versions of her future all around her.Girls who worked themselves to the bone in a strangers home just for a roof over their heads.Girls who spent their lives hawking sweets in the street.Lucky girls who married but then struggled to raise their many, many kids in families crushed by poverty and often sickness.But this girl, handing over gofio in exchange for a few coins, wouldnt follow any of those paths. And thats because, in the early 1890s, when Evangelina was about 12 years old, her small world suddenly opened up. It started when two brothers from the capital, Santo Domingo, moved into a house down the street. Their names were Rafael and Gastn Deligne.April Mayes: Both of them are poets, essayistsLaura Gmez: April Mayes again.April Mayes: They are touted as two of San Pedro's greatest literary cultural achievements, and unfortunately, both of them at different, slightly different times, are struck with leprosy.Laura Gmez: Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease that affects the skin, the nerves, the eyes, and the upper respiratory tract. It causes skin lesions and numbness that can lead to limb loss, paralysis, and even death. Today, leprosy can be treated and cured with antibiotics. But up until the early 1980s, it was considered incurable. And in Evangelina's time, contracting leprosy often made you a social pariah. Here's Mercedes Fernndez.Mercedes Fernndez Asenjo (Voiceover): Having leprosy was seen like having the plague. People thought that leprosy was spread simply through touch.Laura Gmez: But Evangelina didnt react like most people. She didnt avoid being near the brothers or touching them. In fact, she offered to care for the sickest one, Rafael. She began visiting him daily, tending to his lesions. And over the years, as he lost mobility, she began to help him with everyday tasks like bathing and getting dressed.Mercedes Fernndez Asenjo (Voiceover): To me, it shows a really incredible sense of compassion from an early age. I mean, it seems to me that she sees this as a calling. Because she does it purely altruistically. She never receives any money for helping Rafael Deligne.Laura Gmez: Rafael Deligne became Evangelina's friend and mentor. He gave her books to read, he taught her poetry. And little by little, in her daily visits, Evangelina got glimpses into a very different world than the one shed always known. Heres April Mayes.April Mayes: San Pedro really is coming into its own as this cultural space. They have a variety of literary groups they organize poetry contests, and essay writing contests, and all sorts of contests. And so the Delignes are right at the epicenter of this.Laura Gmez: Most afternoons, Rafael sat under a tree in his courtyard and received visits from San Pedros burgeoning intellectual elite. And on most days, the young Evangelina was there too. Mercedes Fernndez again.Mercedes Fernndez Asenjo (Voiceover): The topics of conversation revolved around literature and philosophy, and I think Evangelina must have been sitting there with her mouth hanging open, listening and marveling at everything these people were discussing. And Evangelina began to absorb that intellectuality, and began to read on her own.Laura Gmez: Rafael could see how bright Evangelina was, and he saw promise in her. She was intelligent, she was capable, and she was clearly a gifted caregiver. So he encouraged her to look beyond her typical prospects. But the truth was, there just weren't many options open to women in the Dominican Republic at the time.But then, another chance encounter came along. April Mayes.April Mayes: It's one of those moments in history that you go, wow, if it had, you know, if someone slept in that day or something didn't happen and just it was one pivot in a different direction, right, this would be a whole different story we'd be telling. Its that relationship that seals the deal, in a way.Laura Gmez: What happened next, after the break.[Mid-roll]Laura Gmez: When Evangelina was a child at the turn of the 20th century, schools were mostly run by the Catholic church. So girls who did go to school usually got religious educations, which didn't really prepare them to do more than go home and be homemakers. Heres Mercedes Fernndez.Mercedes Fernndez Asenjo (Voiceover): The idea was to educate women so that they could read their prayer books I mean, its a very poor education, and an education that does not allow them to leave the home.Laura Gmez: For someone bright like Evangelina, who was interested in things like philosophy and poetry and science, an education wouldnt have offered much, even if she could have afforded it.But there was a new type of school system taking hold at the time. In 1880, a Puerto Rican educator named Eugenio Mara de Hostos established the first so-called normal school in the Dominican Republic. These were secular schools intended to train future generations of teachers and educators. And for the first time, Hostos proposed opening such schools for women, too.April Mayes: Hostos, he understood that you need women to help build the nation.Laura Gmez: April Mayes.April Mayes: And women had been left so behind because they had been denied education that Hostos said, well, we got to get them up to speed because you can't have a national project that only includes one half of humanity, it has to include women.Laura Gmez: Leaders in the Dominican Republic were undertaking a national project to rebuild the country, which was still emerging from a long period of power struggles and unrest. After being colonized first by Spain, then by French Haiti, then by Spain again until 1865, the Dominican Republic finally became independent for good. But a few decades later, the country was still struggling to establish a stable and peaceful government. Heres Mercedes Fernndez.Mercedes Fernndez Asenjo (Voiceover): So, the woman is seen as a pacifying force. And its thought that the woman must educate her children at home, and in doing so, shell be able to pacify all these future citizens.Laura Gmez: Hostos school, known as the Institute for Young Women, focused on teaching subjects like history, philosophy, and science. And the idea was that the women who graduated would not only raise model citizens, theyd also go on to found their own schools to educate more women. So so-called normal schools were beginning to pop up around the country.Even though these schools still prepared women for a traditional life in the home, the idea of establishing a whole system devoted to womens education was a radical one.And one day, one of these newly educated women found her way into the Delignes circle. Here's April Mayes.April Mayes: Anacaona Moscoso was among the first generation of seoritas who graduated from the Institute for Young Women in Santo Domingo, the capital.Laura Gmez: She then moved to San Pedro de Macors and founded a new secondary school for young women.And so, the day that she showed up in the Delignes courtyard for a visit, Gastn and Rafael recognized what an opportunity this was for Evangelina. So they immediately introduced her to Anacaona.April Mayes: The Deligne brothers, her friends, said, this is a person we see potential in. If you can get her educated, she will be taken care of for life.Laura Gmez: Evangelina, of course, couldnt afford it. But she wasnt just a poor girl selling gofo in the streets anymore, invisible to anyone who was anyone. She was a friend of the Delignes.April Mayes: To people who might have seen her on the street selling sweets and would have just ignored her, passed her by, oh, now that she's connected to the Deligne, something must be different about her.Laura Gmez: And Anacaona must have thought so too because she went all in for Evangelina. She found her an evening job teaching literacy classes to adults so Evangelina could pay for her studies, and that paved the way for her to go to school.In 1898, at age 19, Evangelina became one of four young women to join the first class of Anacaona Moscoso's new school.Laura Gmez: Evangelina thrived at the Institute for Young Women. For the first time ever, she had some financial stability. She was learning subjects like science, mathematics, and French. She was making friends with the other driven, smart, like-minded students, known as "Normalistas.April Mayes: And these were among the first generation of Normalistas produced in San Pedro de Macoris, who would then go on and continue the work.Laura Gmez: The plan was for Evangelina and her classmates to one day become teachers at their own schools and also to marry, have children, and raise good, moral citizens.But Evangelina... well... now that shed made it this far, shed set her sights even farther. On something that no woman on her island had ever achieved before.Its hard to know exactly what was going through Evangelinas head back then. There are no diary entries or newspaper articles that offer us any glimpse into her mind. We dont know if it was something she decided suddenly or had contemplated for a long time.All we know is that when she graduated secondary school, she announced to her peers that she intended to go to medical school.Medical school.It was a preposterous goal. For one, the medical profession was only just starting to emerge as a formal field in the Dominican Republic. There was only one medical school, in Santo Domingo. The few professional doctors on the island were mostly educated abroad, in places like Paris. Not to mentionClaudia Scharf (Voiceover): At that time, the practice of medicine was limited to men.Laura Gmez: Thats Claudia Scharf, a pediatrician and medical professor in Santo Domingo.Claudia Scharf (Voiceover): Forget about women participating as anything other than midwives or maybe nurses.Laura Gmez: But none of this seemed to discourage Evangelina. Maybe she was driven by her desire to help the Delignes or stricken by Rafaels death, which happened the same year she graduated from school. Maybe she was haunted by the stories of women she grew up with, trapped in cycles of sickness and hardship.Either way, now armed with an education and a newfound knowledge of science, she knew what she wanted to do. Mercedes Fernndez again.Mercedes Fernndez Asenjo (Voiceover): She has a lot of faith in science. Being a good Normalista, she thinks that science will be the solution to many of the problems that exist around her. So shes no longer satisfied with just being a teacher. She wants more.Laura Gmez: One by one, a network of benefactors pulled strings on Evangelinas behalf. Some put in a good word with the university. One published an op-ed in a local newspaper arguing in favor of allowing women to enroll in medical school.And thats how, in 1903, the unthinkable happened: Evangelina Rodrguez Perozo, a young Black woman raised in the streets, became the first Dominican woman to enroll in Medical School at the University of Santo Domingo. She was 24 years old.Claudia Scharf (Voiceover): She probably had to overcome a lot of rejection, and many people against her, not only because she was a woman, but also because of her humble origins and her race.Thats Claudia Scharf. Heres Mercedes Fernndez.Mercedes Fernndez Asenjo (Voiceover): And if we think about where she started poor, with no mother, no father, nobody. So how would she have felt at that moment? Incredible! I mean, I bet she couldnt even believe what she had achieved all by herself.Laura Gmez: For the next five years, Evangelina attended medical school alongside an all-male cohort. Once more, she was a promising student. She studied anatomy, biology, medical chemistry, and more. It seemed like she was finally on her way to being able to help people like the Delignes, like the poor people she grew up with, who were constantly dogged by illness.And then, near the end of her schooling, in 1907, life dealt Evangelina a devastating blow. Anacaona Moscoso, Evangelina's former teacher turned friend and confidante, died soon after giving birth to her third child.April Mayes: She had been warned by the doctors during her last delivery that if she were to become pregnant again, she might not survive that pregnancy.Laura Gmez: April Mayes again.April Mayes: And sure enough, she did not.Laura Gmez: Evangelina was shattered.April Mayes: Evangelina adored Anacaona. And the frustration that she was not able to control her pregnancy. And then there was nothing that they could do to save her life It was devastating.Laura Gmez: And that likely brought into focus something that had been largely missing from Evangelinas medical education: women and womens health. Specifically: pregnant womens health. Even though childbirth was one of the biggest dangers to a womans life at the time, her professors werent focusing on this at all.Perhaps that was because gynecology and obstetrics were still largely undeveloped as a specialty in the Dominican Republic. And maybe it didnt help that all the doctors were menBut Evangelina became increasingly intent on learning about womens health. Learning techniques that would allow her, as a doctor, to save women in Anacaona's situation.April Mayes: This propelled her I don't think you get to obstetrics and gynecology with Evangelina without that loss.Evangelina was consumed with grief, but she pushed on with her studies.In 1911, at the age of 32, Evangelina defended her thesis and qualified as a doctor. Even then, she realized that she needed more knowledge and skills to help the women in her country. And she knew that she would have to look beyond her home country for that knowledge. In those days, any doctor in Latin America who wanted to specialize, dreamed of going to one place: Paris, France. Mercedes Fernndez again.Mercedes Fernndez Asenjo (Voiceover): Paris at that time was at the center of global medicine. If you look at different newspapers of the time, it's interesting to see the doctors degrees, because they all say doctor in such-and-such, graduate of Paris. They all put Paris, Paris, Paris, Paris, right? So she sees it as a goal that she has to achieve.Laura Gmez: In the next episode of this series: how Evangelina makes it to Paris a goal so ambitious for her it seemed almost crazy.Despite coming this far, the odds were still stacked against her. Evangelina had to raise a huge sum of money for her transatlantic journey and that was just the start.How she faced those odds thats next week.This episode of Lost Women of Science was produced by Lorena Galliot, with help from associate producer Natalia Snchez Loayza. Samia Bouzid is our senior producer, and our senior managing producer is Deborah Unger.David De Luca was our sound designer and engineer. Lizzie Younan composed all of our music. We had fact-checking help from Desire Ypez.Our co-executive producers are Amy Scharf and Katie Hafner. Thanks to Eowyn Burtner, our program manager, and Jeff DelViscio at our publishing partner, Scientific American. Our intern is Kimberly Mendez.Lost Women of Science is funded in part by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the Anne Wojcicki Foundation. We're distributed by PRX.For show notes and an episode transcript, head to lostwomenofscience.org where you can also support our work by hitting the donate button.Im your host, Laura Gmez. Thanks for listening, and until next week!Host: Laura GmezProducer: Lorena GalliotSenior Producer: Samia BouzidGuestsApril MayesApril Mayes is Associate Dean and Professor of Afro-Latin American history, Pomona College.Mercedes Fernndez AsenjoMercedes Fernndez Asenjo, PhD, is a foreign language educator at The Catholic University of America.Claudia ScharfClaudia Scharf is Director of the School of Medicine, Universidad Nacional Pedro Henrquez Urea.Further ReadingDespreciada en la vida y olvidada en la muerte: Biografa de Evangelina Rodrguez, la primera mdica dominicana. Antonio Zaglul. Editora Taller, 1980Motherhood by Choice: Pioneers in Womens Health and Family Planning. Perdita Huston. The Feminist Press at The City University of New York, 1992Granos de polen. Evangelina Rodrguez. 1915The Mulatto Republic: Class, Race, and Dominican National Identity. April J. Mayes. University Press of Florida, 2014
