Race and Ethnicity: Hispanic or Latin American - Starting with S

Sogandares, Lidia Gertrudis

Lidia Gertrudis Sogandares was the first Latin American woman to be accepted into the University of Arkansas School of Medicine (now the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences—UAMS). A pioneer in medicine, she was the first woman to become a physician in Panama and one of the first female doctors in Central America. Sogandares became renowned in the medical fields of obstetrics and gynecology. Lidia Sogandares was born on October 17, 1908, on the island of Taboga in the Gulf of Panama. She grew up in a large family with four brothers and a younger sister. During her childhood, her father went to work for the National Navigation Company in Panama and later moved his family to Panama City. She …