by Rod Hughes
For Bernadina Vazquez of San Carlos, July 30, is a special day. No, it is not her birthday—she’s had 87 of those and they’ve grown a little stale.
It was the day in 1950 that she was the first woman in Costa Rica to cast a ballot, following passage of a landmark law.
The Costa Rica was a conservative country in those days and women’s suffrage came late, even for machista Latin America. Even at that, many men considered giving women the vote was risky business.
It seems a long time ago in today’s Costa Rica where the percentage of women in congress is among the highest in the world, as is the proportion of women in universities. But the National Institute for Women, which organized a special event in her honor, realizes that women have come a long way, baby.
In recognition of Bernardina’s special place in history, the social welfare institute IMAS gave her a check for 800,000 colones, which would have been a huge sum in 1950 but is valued at about $1,680 in today’s inflated colones.