MATILDE HIDALGO DE PROCEL: BIOGRAPHY, CONTRIBUTIONS AND WORKS - LITERATURE - 2025

Matilde Hidalgo de Procel (1889-1974) was the first woman to exercise the right to vote in all of Latin America. Born in Ecuador, Hidalgo also became the first medical doctor in her country after overcoming social misgivings. Before, she had already had to confront macho customs when she began her high school studies.

From a liberal family, Matilde Hidalgo stood out from a very young age for her ease of learning. However, after finishing primary school, society expected her to follow the steps that were supposed to be obligatory for women: marrying and having children. Her tenacity and the support of her brother allowed her to continue with her vocation.

Source: National College of Plastic Arts «Dra. Matilde Hidalgo de Procel ». Machala - El Oro - Ecuador via wikipedia under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license

Later, Matilde Hidalgo forced the country's authorities to allow her to vote in the presidential elections. This paved the way for the legalization of women's suffrage. Hidalgo was also a pioneer in holding elected office.

Aside from his career in medicine, Hidalgo left a number of poetic works as part of his legacy. According to some authors, she began writing to cope with the ridicule she received in high school for her efforts to continue her studies as a woman.

Biography

Matilde Hidalgo de Procel, née Hidalgo Navarro, came to the world in Loja, Ecuador, on September 29, 1889. She grew up in a fairly liberal home, being the youngest of six siblings. Her father, Juan Manuel Hidalgo, passed away while she was still a child and her mother, Carmen Navarro, had to work as a seamstress to support the family.

His first studies were carried out at the Immaculate Conception of the Sisters of Charity. At the same time, she volunteered at the hospital run by the nuns. Those years were the beginning of her vocation for medicine and caring for those most in need.

According to her biographers, Matilde Hidalgo demonstrated from a very young age a great facility to learn all kinds of subjects. Before she was four years old, she was capable of reading, writing, playing the piano, and reciting classical poetry. The young woman benefited, as in other facets of her life, from the unconditional support of her older brother, Antonio.

High school studies

At the time when Matilde Hidalgo began to study, women only entered the primary stage. However, she had other intentions and when she finished sixth, her last year of primary school, she turned to her brother to help her continue to secondary school.

Antonio, defender of the equality of women, was in charge of making the request to the Director of the Bernardo Valdivieso School. This, after thinking about it for a month, accepted the young woman's admission.

Despite obtaining that permission, Matilde Hidalgo had to face the rejection of a good part of the society of her locality. Many mothers forbade their daughters to interact with them, the local priest did not forbid her to enter the church to listen to mass and the nuns of Charity took away the celestial ribbon of the Daughter of Mary.

Matilde's character allowed her to overcome all these pressures. On October 8, 1913, she graduated with honors from high school, becoming Ecuador's first female high school graduate.

Medical career

Once the title was obtained, Hidalgo wanted to continue breaking down barriers in order to achieve his vocation. He first tried to enter the Central University of Quito, but the dean of Medicine rejected his attempt. According to him, the young woman should focus on her destiny of forming a home and taking care of her future children.

The rector, for his part, tried to convince her to study other disciplines, such as Pharmacy or Obstetrics, since he considered that Medicine should be reserved for men.

However, Matilde Hidalgo did not give up. Again with the help of her brother Antonio, she went to the University of Azuay (today Cuenca) and applied to the Rector, Dr. Honorato Vásquez. This, after consulting with the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, decided to admit his request.

Matilde's performance was outstanding. In June 1919 she graduated in medicine, with the best grades of the promotion. Only the Argentine Alicia Moureau was ahead of her in Latin America.

Doctorate

Continuing with her training, Hidalgo received her doctorate in Medicine on November 21, 1921. She was the first Ecuadorian woman to do so.

Regarding her personal life, Matilde married two years later with the prestigious lawyer Fernando Procel, in which she found much support as she was also a strong defender of the feminist cause. The couple moved to Machala and had two children.

Political and feminist activism

In 1924, Matilde Hidalgo broke another social limit that had been imposed on women. During the presidency of José Luis Tamayo, the doctor announced her intention to vote in elections, something forbidden for women at the time.

Thanks to her efforts, she managed to exercise her right to vote in Loja, making Ecuador the first Latin American country to allow the female vote.

Deputy candidate

Within her political career, Hidalgo was a candidate of the Liberal Party for deputy for Loja. According to the experts, her candidacy was the winner, but the ballots were tampered with for her to appear as a “substitute” and for a male candidate to appear first. Despite this, she was the first woman to hold an elected position in the country.

In addition, he achieved some municipal positions, such as a councilor and the vice presidency of a City Council.

Medical career

Hidalgo's political occupation did not mean that he put aside his true vocation: medicine. He practiced this discipline in Guayaquil until 1949, the year in which he was awarded a specialization scholarship in Pediatrics, Neurology and Dietetics in Argentina.

Upon returning to his country, Hidalgo dedicated himself to developing social works. Thanks to her popularity, she was appointed Vice President of the Ecuadorian House of Culture and president of the Red Cross in Gold for life. She was also decorated with the Merit of Public Health medal.

Death

Matilde Hidalgo de Procel died in Guayaquil on February 20, 1974, at the age of 84, the victim of a cerebral apoplexy.

Contributions

Matilde Hidalgo stood out for her work in medicine and as a poet, but her main contribution was her fight for women's equality. Their efforts achieved goals as important as the introduction of women's suffrage or the normalization of the presence of women in the university.

Education for women

From a young age, Hidalgo struggled to overcome social prejudices regarding female education. In his time, men occupied all positions of power, including the privilege of obtaining a higher education.

Hidalgo managed to study high school, obtaining a bachelor's degree. Likewise, he overcame the existing resistance to enter the Faculty of Medicine and obtain a doctorate in the same subject. In this way, she was the first academic professional in the country.

Vote in elections

Being president of the José Luis Tamayo government, Matilde Hidalgo began to question that women could not exercise the right to vote in elections. To change the situation, she decided to vote herself.

To do this, in 1924 he approached to register in the register for the elections to Congress and the Senate that were going to be held. She was, at that time, the only woman to try and, at first, the Machala Electoral Board refused to process her registration.

Matilde Hidalgo's response to this refusal was to read, in front of the members of the Board, the article of the Ecuadorian Constitution that regulated the right to vote.

It said that "to be an Ecuadorian citizen and to be able to exercise the right to vote, the only requirement was to be over 21 years of age and know how to read and write."

Hidalgo stressed that this article did not specify the gender of the person, so that a woman had the same constitutional right as men. Her request was taken to the Council of State, which accepted it unanimously. By extension, the extension of suffrage for all women in the country was approved.

Politics

In addition to being the promoter of the extension of the right to vote to women, Matilde Hidalgo was actively involved in politics for several years. In 1941, she became the first female candidate for public office, managing to be elected as a Deputy Deputy.

She was also the first Vice President of a Council and the first elected Deputy of Parliament.

Recognitions

Matilde Hidalgo's achievements earned her multiple awards in Ecuador.

Thus, the government awarded him the Medal of Merit in the rank of Grand Officer in 1956, the Public Health Medal in 1971 and, at the request of the Ecuadorian Red Cross, he was awarded the Service Medal in 1959. It was also, president of honor and life of the Red Cross in El Oro.

Literary works

Although they achieved less recognition than her work as a fighter for women's rights, Hidalgo was also the author of quite a few poems. Twenty of them were collected in a book entitled Matilde Hidalgo de Prócel. Biography and Poems.

According to the author of that work, Cecilia Ansaldo Briones, Hidalgo began to write while studying high school. In this way, the author tried to cope with the pressures she received as a woman.

The most common themes, according to Ansaldo Briones, were "the cult of Science, admiration for Nature, praise for characters or dates, Marian devotion, very little love poetry, and the theme of women."

Other titles

- Women and love.

Other precursors of the female vote in Latin America

Top left Paulina Luisis; bottom right Eva Perón. Big Elvia Carrillo Puerto. Images taken from wikimedia commons

Matilde Hidalgo was the leader of the women's movement in Ecuador in the 1920s, a decade in which other South American nations were also advancing in the recognition of the universal vote.

Some of the most prominent activists for the female vote were Paulina Luisi (1975-1950) in Uruguay, which was the first country to approve female suffrage; Bertha Lutz (1894-1976), in the case of Brazil; Elvia Carrillo Puerto (1878-1967), Mexican suffragette or Eva Duarte de Perón (1919-1952) and the aforementioned Alicia Moreau (1885-1986) in Argentina.

References

1. Hernández, Hortensia. Matilde Hidalgo Navarro, the first woman in Latin America to exercise the right to vote in May 1924. Obtained from heroinas.net
2. University of Cuenca. Matilde Hidalgo. Obtained from ucuenca.edu.ec
3. Barba Pan, Montserrat. Matilde Hidalgo, the first Latina woman to vote. Obtained from aboutespanol.com
4. Revolvy. Matilde Hidalgo. Retrieved from revolvy.com
5. Adams, Jad. Women and the Vote: A World History. Recovered from books.google.es
6. Kim Clark, A. Gender, State, and Medicine in Highland Ecuador: Modernizing Women. Modernizing the State. Recovered from books.google.es.