March 6, 2025
The Extraordinary Life and Tragic Death of Evangelina Rodríguez Perozo
Episode Description
A poor Afro-Dominican girl defies the odds to become the first female doctor in the Dominican Republic.
In the 1880s, a small Afro-Dominican girl spent her days selling sweets on the streets of San Pedro de Macorís, a bustling port town in the Dominican Republic. Born out of wedlock and abandoned by her parents, her horizons seemed narrow — in this deeply stratified society, few people ever broke free from the life they were born into.
But Andrea Evangelina Rodríguez Perozo had something that made people take notice. Two influential brothers, both poets and intellectuals, recognized a brilliant mind and a tenacious spirit. With the brothers’ support, Evangelina went on to chart a path that was unheard of for any Dominican woman at that time: she became her country’s first female doctor.
In this five-part season, we will follow Evangelina as she studies medicine, first in her home country, then in Paris, where she learns new medical techniques in the emerging field of gynecology and encounters radical ideas about women’s health: ideas that she hopes will transform her society back in the Dominican Republic. Little does she think her new approaches to women’s health will eventually lead to her tragic downfall.
Evangelina Rodríguez’s contributions as a reformer and pioneer in public health were all but erased by the dictator whose regime hounds her to death. Here, we piece together her life and her legacy.
Laura Gómez is an actress best known for her role as Blanca Flores on the Netflix hit series “Orange Is the New Black.” She has most recently participated in the Goya-nominated Spanish films “Upon Entry” and “Mariposas Negras,” as well as the award-winning Mexican film “La Cocina,” starring Rooney Mara. Laura has starred, written, and directed several short films, and is a podcaster herself, having narrated the critically acclaimed Spanish podcast “Corinna y el Rey.” She is also the host and producer of her own podcast, “Baraja Eso.”
Laura Gómez is an actress best known for her role as Blanca Flores on the Netflix hit series “Orange Is the New Black.” She has most recently participated in the Goya-nominated Spanish films “Upon Entry” and “Mariposas Negras,” as well as the award-winning Mexican film “La Cocina,” starring Rooney Mara. Laura has starred, written, and directed several short films, and is a podcaster herself, having narrated the critically acclaimed Spanish podcast “Corinna y el Rey.” She is also the host and producer of her own podcast, “Baraja Eso.”
Further Reading:
Episode Transcript
Laura Gómez: She was born in poverty, abandoned by her parents, and raised in the streets… But that didn't stop Evangelina Rodríguez Perozo from becoming not only the first, but one of the most innovative female doctors in the Dominican Republic.
Mercedes Fernández Asenjo (Voiceover): It was unheard at the time for a woman like her to get the title of doctor. I mean, I see it as a truly incredible thing.
Laura Gómez: I'm Laura Gómez, and I grew up in the Dominican Republic, but until recently, I'd never heard of la Doctora Evangelina. She devoted her life to caring for her society's outcasts — poor women, rural farmers, and even sex workers. And she made powerful enemies along the way. But she never bowed to any of them.
Milcíades Herrera (Voiceover): A woman capable of sacrificing herself for her community, for the country and who has been ignored ...
Laura Gómez: So... why does almost no one know her name? It's as if she'd been wiped from my country's collective memory. But today, with the help of historians and others who've worked for years to piece together the puzzle of Evangelina's life... we can finally tell her story.
Join me for this special five-part series of Lost Women of Science, The Extraordinary Life and Tragic Death of Evangelina Rodríguez, launching March 13. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.
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