Amelia Chopitea Villa

Amelia Chopitea Villa (born March 20, 1900 in the Municipio Colquechaca , Department Potosí ; † January 26, 1942 ) was a Bolivian medic and the first female doctor in her country.

Life

María Amelia Chopitea Villa was born as the daughter of Adolfo Chopitea and Amelia Villa in the Potosí Department. She grew up with her sister Elia Chopitea, who later also studied medicine and became the second doctor in Bolivia after Amelia Chopitea Villa.

After completing her bachelor's degree in Sucre , Amelia Chopitea Villa became the first Bolivian to study medicine at the Universidad San Francisco Xavier de Chuquisaca (USFX) in Sucre, Bolivia. On June 25, 1926, she received her doctorate with the degree Doctora en Medicina y Cirugía ( Doctor of Medicine and Surgery). Her doctoral thesis Causas de la mortalidad infantil was Bolivia's first graduate study in the field of pediatrics . In it Chopitea examined the high infant mortality rate of the time and the causes of death. This included a statistical study of infant mortality from 1920 to 1925 which showed that 39% of children died. In the course of one year, 870 were born, of which 490 died. Up to this point in time, there were no figures on the level of child mortality in Bolivia.

In order to continue her studies, she was sent to Europe by resolution and with the support of the Bolivian National Congress in September 1926. She went to Paris for further studies, where she studied with numerous doctors, such as Roger Couvelaire, Jean-Louis Faure and Antoine Marfan , and worked in several hospitals in order to acquire further knowledge, such as the Hôpital Cochin , Hôpital Necker-Enfants malades, Hôpital Tarnier , Hôpital Hérold, Hôpital Saint-Vincent-de-Paul, Hôpital Broca and Hôpital Beaujon. She specialized in gynecology , obstetrics and pediatrics .

During her stay in Paris, the first congress of the International Association of Medical Women (Association internationale des femmes médecins) took place there, in which she participated in April 1929 for Bolivia as the only South American representative. After her return to Bolivia, she settled in Oruro and founded a children's department at the local hospital. As a doctor, she worked on an honorary basis and free of charge in several social institutions, such as old people's or war orphanages, and treated the families of soldiers during the Chaco War .

Amelia Chopitea Villa was a member of several scientific institutions. She was a member of the International Medical Association based in London, was President of the Red Cross in Oruro and of the Lions Club from 1930 to 1935 , a member of the Asociación de Mujeres Universitarias y Profesionales en París and was a pioneer in the recognition of civil and political rights by women.

Honors

Amelia Chopitea Villa is one of 999 women commemorated as part of Judy Chicago's art installation The Dinner Party at the Brooklyn Museum . Your name is inscribed on one of the floor tiles of the Heritage Floor .

She was also included in the Spanish-language book Quién es quién en Bolivia (Who is Who in Bolivia), published in 1942, the year of her death.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} José María Alvarado: Breve semblanza de la primera médica boliviana: Dra. María Amelia Chopitea . In: Archivos bolivianos de historia de la medicina, Volume 4, Issue 2, July – December 1998, pp. 135–139. Retrieved March 19, 2018
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Antonio Dubravcic Luksic: Chopitea Villa María Amelia . In: Revista del Instituto Médico Sucre. LXXV, No. 134, July-December 2009. Retrieved March 19, 2018
3. ^ ^{A b} Laura Lynn Windsor: Women in Medicine: An Encyclopedia . ABC-CLIO Verlag, 2002, Santa Barbara, ISBN 978-1576073926 , p. 204
4. ^ Pan American Union: Public Instruction and Education Bulletin . The Union Verlag, 1919, Volume 48, p. 469
5. ↑ Quién es quién en Bolivia (Who is Who in Bolivia). First published in 1942, digitized in 2010, University of California, p. 74