Dolores Piñero

Dolores Mercedes Piñero, (1892–1975) was one of the first four Puerto Rican women to earn a medical degree. She was also one of the first civilian doctors, and the first Puerto Rican female doctor to serve under contract in the U.S. Army during World War I. During World War I, Piñero helped establish a hospital in Puerto Rico to attend soldiers who had contracted the swine flu.

Early years Piñero was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico at a time when the island was still a Spanish colony. There she received her primary and secondary education. Spain ceded Puerto Rico to the United States in accordance with the agreement reached in the 1898 Treaty of Paris, which officially ended the Spanish–American War. Piñero was sent by her family to Boston, Massachusetts where she became fluent in English and continued her college education. In 1913, she earned her medical degree from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Boston. Piñero was one of the first four women from Puerto Rico to earn a medical degree. The other three were María Elisa Rivera Díaz and Ana Janer in 1909, and Palmira Gatell in 1910.

Return to Puerto Rico After earning her degree, Piñero returned to Puerto Rico and set up her medical and anesthesia practice in what was then the town of Río Piedras (it is now a section of San Juan).

In October 1918, Piñero signed her contract with the Army. In this manner, and at her own insistence, Piñero contributed her professional skills to the war effort. The Swine Flu had swept through Army camps and training posts around the world, infecting one quarter of all soldiers and killing more than 55,000 American troops. After the flu epidemic ended, Piñero was ordered back to the Army base hospital at San Juan.

Little is known of Piñero's later years, with the exception that she was one of the leaders of the local Women's Civic Club and that she worked for the Puerto Rico Department of Health. Piñero was also the first Puerto Rican female to be named to the Puerto Rican Medical Examiners Board. Piñero resided with her husband in Monacillo, Río Piedras, Puerto Rico. She died in 1975 in San Juan, Puerto Rico.