Gumercinda Páez

Gumercinda Páez (1904–1991) was a teacher, women's rights activist and suffragette, and Constituent Assemblywoman of Panama. She was the first woman deputy to serve the National Assembly for the Panamá Province and was a vice president of the Constituent Assembly of Panama in 1946, being also the first woman to serve in that position. As a woman of mixed heritage, she was acutely aware of bias and strove for policies of inclusion.

Biography

Early life Gumercinda Páez was born on 13 January 1904 in Panama City, Panama to Jose Antonio Páez, a Venezuelan of African descent and Mercedes Villarreal, a Panamanian with indigenous roots. Growing up in the Santa Ana neighborhood, she attended the Escuela Santa Ana No. 2, which was directed by Tomasa Ester Casís. She attended high school at the National Institute of Panama, where she obtained a diploma as a securities trade expert, going on to study science and earning a certificate to teach primary education. In a 1985 interview, Páez explained that when her father died, she became the primary support of her mother and two brothers, working as a teacher by day and going to school at night. She did not complete her bachelor's degree in science due to work interruptions in her studies. At night school, she studied piano, Wanting to ensure that women's issues were included in the discussions, Páez wrote around 30 educational, theatrical dramas, about social issues, which were broadcast over the next three years on Radio Chocú and the Voice of Panama with the backing of the Ministry of Education. The productions were not presented as propaganda, but rather as educational entertainment, though they earned Páez a large following as well as name recognition. In 1951 she participated as the guest of honor in the General Conference of UNESCO, held in Mexico. In 1980 the Inter-American Commission of Women of the OAS inscribed her name in the "Golden Book". At the national level she was awarded the Order of Manuel Amador Guerrero, the Order Vasco Núñez de Balboa (Grade of Grand Officer), the Order Manuel José Hurtado, and received the keys to Panama City.

Later she retired to Veracruz, Panama, where she wrote plays and theater productions which were discovered after her death. In 2011, the National Institute of Culture (INAC) recognized her work and installed an exhibit in her honor at the Afro-Antillean Museum of Panama acknowledging her work in fighting for the rights of West Indian American and indigenous children. In addition there are public monuments and schools which bear her name.