Amelia Chopitea Villa

María Amelia Chopitea Villa (20 March 1900 – 1942) was Bolivia's first female physician.[1]

Biography

Chopitea Villa was born in Potosí, Bolivia in 1900. Her parents were Adolfo Chopitea and Amelia Villa.[2]

Career

After receiving a bachelor's degree, Chopitea Villa entered the College of Medicine[3] at the University of Saint Francis Xavier in Sucre, Bolivia[1] in 1919, becoming the first Bolivian woman to study medicine.[3] Her doctoral thesis, Causas de la mortalidad infantil, advised by Professor Nicolas Ortíz Antelo, was approved on 25 June 1926.[4] It focused on the high infant mortality rate of the time, and was Bolivia's first graduate study in the field of pediatrics.[4]

Chopitea Villa went to Paris for further study,[1] where she studied under numerous doctors and worked for several hospitals. In April 1929, she represented Bolivia at the Congress of the Association internationale des femmes-médecins (Medical Women's International Association) in Paris; she was the sole South American representative.[4] She returned to Bolivia, where she became a prominent surgeon, specializing in gynecology and pediatrics.[2] She established the Pabellon de Niños (Children's Ward) at the Oruro Hospital.[1] The Bolivian government honoured her for her work.[1]

She was also listed in the Spanish-language book Quién es quién en Bolivia (Who is Who in Bolivia), published in 1942, the year of her death.[2] Her sister, Elia Chopitea, also studied medicine, becoming the second woman doctor in Bolivia.[4]

Legacy

Chopitea Villa is one of the 999 women commemorated in the Heritage Floor as part of Judy Chicago's 1974–9 art installation The Dinner Party at the Brooklyn Museum.[5]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Windsor, Laura Lynn (2002). Women in Medicine: An Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. p. 204. ISBN 9781576073933.
  2. 1 2 3 Editorial Quién es quién en Bolivia (2010) [originally published 1942], Quién es quién en Bolivia, University of California, p. 74
  3. 1 2 "Public Instruction and Education", Bulletin of the Pan American Union, XLVIII: 469, January–June 1919
  4. 1 2 3 4 Alvarado, José María (July–December 1998), "Breve semblanza de la primera médica boliviana: Dra. María Amelia Chopitea" (PDF), Archivos bolivianos de historia de la medicina, 4 (2): 135–9
  5. ↑ "Heritage Floor", Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Brooklyn Museum, retrieved 6 August 2015

See also

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