Cuba remembers its first woman pharmacist

HAVANA, Cuba, Mar 9 (ACN) The Pharmaceutical Museum of Matanzas, formerly Botica Francesa, dedicated the reopening of its events and concerts hall on Monday to Dr. María Dolores de Figueroa, Cuba's first woman pharmacist, in honor of International Women's Day in this city.

Graduated in the United States in 1896, María Dolores played an important role in the pharmacy founded by her father and husband in 1882. She was the owner of the institution for several decades and maintained its original characteristics, explained Marcia Brito, director of the current museum.

The young woman, a widowed mother of three children, never remarried, remained in charge of the pharmacy and managed to get her descendants to devote themselves to useful tasks, Alfredo became a forensic doctor, Ernesto a pharmacist and Celia dedicated herself to the arts, she explained.

Brito stressed that the Triolet Figueroa family is an example of how women took space in science and the arts in Cuba, and remembering María Dolores is a worthy gesture of gratitude for her contribution to the original state of the late 19th century French Apothecary, a National Monument.
With the performance of the Atenas Brass Ensemble quintet, the space dedicated to the realization of events in the Pharmaceutical Museum of Matanzas was officially reactivated with a new furniture, the historian said.

In alliance with the Municipal Directorate of Culture, the meeting became a propitious occasion for the union recognition of outstanding female workers, who received plaquettes manufactured by Ediciones Vigía, a prestigious literary label in the so-called Athens of Cuba.
Ernesto Triolet and Juan Fermín de Figueroa founded in 1882 the Botica Francesa, which in 1964 became the Pharmaceutical Museum of Matanzas, to bequeath to the world the opportunity to visit an institution of high patrimonial value.