Andrea Evangelina Rodríguez Perozo

Andrea Evangelina Rodríguez Perozo (1879–1947) was the first female medical school graduate in the Dominican Republic.^[1] She was born on November 10, 1879, in San Rafael de el Yuma, La Altagracia (Dominican Republic), in a poor family. Her mother, Felipa Perozo, was an illiterate peasant who was left pregnant by Ramón Rodríguez, a wealthy merchant of the area who was also an officer in the army of Pedro Santana.^[1] Her parents died when she was a child and her paternal grandmother took charge of her.^[1] In addition to Perozo's medical work, she was also an author and published her first book Granos de polen in 1915, and subsequently published some poems and articles in the magazine "Fémina."^[2] On her return from the French capital she published a second book, titled Le Guerisseur: Cuento Chino Bíblico Filosófico de Moral Social.^[3] Her biographer Antonio Zaglul also indicates that she prepared the manuscript of a novel titled Selene in honor of her adoptive daughter, but destroyed it in a fit of anger.^[4] Zaglul also states that she was seized for her opposition to the regime of Rafael Leónidas Trujillo and her strong criticism of the government, and that she was held in a fortress in San Pedro de Macoris and tortured.^[5] She was later abandoned on a road near the town of Hato Mayor.^[6] She died on January 11, 1947, after several days of agony.^[1]

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