Concepción Palacios Herrera (5 December 1893 – 1 May 1981) born in

El Sauce, León El Sauce () is a town and a Municipalities of Nicaragua, municipality in the León Department of Nicaragua. Located in the foothills of the Segovia Mountains, the municipality has a population of 31,750 and covers an area of 693 km2. El Sau ...

, was the first female physician in

Nicaragua Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...

. Her mother was a midwife and healer and her father was a medical

naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

. She was expelled from school for refusing compulsory communion, but the feminist Josefa Toledo de Aguerri supported her so that she was able to study in the Normal School for Young Ladies, from which she graduated in 1919. She went to Mexico in 1919, and in 1927 she graduated as a physician and surgeon from the National School of Medicine of the

National Autonomous University of Mexico The National Autonomous University of Mexico (, UNAM) is a public university, public research university in Mexico. It has several campuses in Mexico City, and many others in various locations across Mexico, as well as a presence in nine countri ...

(UNAM). In 1928 she returned to Nicaragua, where she supported

Augusto César Sandino Augusto César Sandino (; 18 May 1895 21 February 1934), full name Augusto Nicolás Calderón Sandino, was a Nicaraguan revolutionary, founder of the militant group EDSN, and leader of a rebellion between 1927 and 1933 against the United Sta ...

's fight against the American occupation of Nicaragua. President Jose Maria Moncada had her imprisoned for political reasons, and she went to Mexico when she was freed. She also worked in the U.S. as a specialist, surgeon, and obstetrician. She volunteered as a member of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe from 1945 through 1946, serving survivors of the Nazi concentration camps and people displaced by war.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Herrera, Concepcion Palacios 1893 births 1981 deaths National Autonomous University of Mexico alumni Nicaraguan feminists Nicaraguan women activists Nicaraguan physicians Obstetricians People from León, Nicaragua 20th-century women physicians Women surgeons 20th-century surgeons Nicaraguan expatriates in Mexico