This week has focused on the accomplishments of prominent Afro-Latinos. Today’s open thread will focus on Eusebia Cosme, Dr. Evangelina Rodriguez, Dr. Pilar Barbosa de Rosario.
Eusebia Cosme (1911-1976) is an Afro-Cuban woman who relocated to the United States during the late 1930s. She was a renowned performer of Afro-Antillean poetry and designed costumes and scenery for her enactments of prominent poets such as Luis Pales Matos and Langston Hughes. She became an actress in 1950 and starred in Mexican movies and telenovelas. She is most known for her role in Mama Dolores.
Dr. Evangelina Rodriguez (1879 – 1947) was an Afro-Dominican and the first woman in the Dominican Republic to become a doctor. She graduated from the University of Santo Domingo in 1909 and went on to study and graduate from University of Paris-Sorbonne where she specialized in gynecology and pediatrics. She returned to the Dominican Republic in 1925 and opened up her own practice where she treated women and children while providing education on family planning. She lived during the time of Trujillo, whom she openly denounced, where the harassment and discrimination of blacks were open and even encouraged. She became a victim of mental illness late in life before she passed away in 1947. Today the Dr. Evangelia Rodriquez clinic exists in San Francisco de Macoris providing the same services that she provided just a century ago.
Dr. Pilar Barbosa de Rosario (1898 – 1997) was the daughter of Jose Celso Barbosa. She established the History and Social Sciences
Department at the University of Puerto Rico in 1929 and was named the first modern Official Historian of Puerto Rico in 1993. After Dr. Barbosa de Rosario’s death, the senate of Puerto Rico established the Pilar Barbosa Education Internship Program, a which provides training for public school educators on the island.