Maria Rivas

Peruvian educator who created Latin America's first women's university and literacy campaigns

Maria Rivas (1905-1975) revolutionized education in Peru by founding the Universidad Católica de Santa María in 1947 - the first university in Latin America granting degrees exclusively to women. Her Radio Escuela project used radio broadcasts to teach literacy to 200,000 rural women in the 1950s, a model later adopted by UNESCO.

Rivas developed the Bilingual Education Program for indigenous communities, creating teaching materials in Quechua and Aymara. Her 1963 book Women's Education: The Key to Progress became a manifesto for feminist pedagogy. During the 1965 literacy campaign, she trained 5,000 teachers using her Methodo Rápido system which reduced learning time by 70%. The Museo Maria Rivas in Arequipa now preserves her 8,000+ handwritten lesson plans.