Nov 04, 2019
Virginia Gutiérrez de Pineda’s 98th Birthday
This Doodle’s Key Themes
Today’s Doodle celebrates Virginia Gutiérrez de Pineda, the acclaimed Colombian anthropologist and educator whose pioneering research reshaped traditional family structures and folk culture of Colombia.
Born in the town of El Socorro on this day in 1921, she was among the first generation of Colombian women allowed to pursue higher education. After studying at Bogotá’s Universidad Pedagógica Nacional, Gutiérrez then traveled to attend the University of California, Berkeley, where she earned a master's degree in Social and Medical Anthropology before returning home to Colombia to complete her Doctorate of Social and Economic Sciences.
Making the most of her educational opportunities, Gutiérrez went on to author a dozen book-length studies that laid out a fundamental understanding of the lives of Colombia’s people, including women and children of lower social and economic status. Her study of the street children of Medellín led to an interest in solving social problems by focusing on the family unit.
In books like La familia en Colombia, Gutiérrez explored different cultural nuances within the various communities of the Andean, Santandereano, Antioqueño, and coastal-mining regions. She also undertook academic surveys of popular medicine in Colombia and traditional remedies known as curanderismo.
Other than studying families, Gutiérrez also raised a family of her own after marrying fellow anthropologist Roberto Pineda Giraldo, whom she met at university. For her invaluable contributions to Colombian society, Gutiérrez was awarded Colombia’s Woman of the Year award in 1967, as well as the 1983 Gold Medal for Scientific Merit from the Inter-American Family Congress.
Early concepts by artist Ben Tobias
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