Colegio Bernardo Valdivieso, located in Loja

Loja, Ecuador

Loja is the capital of Ecuador's Loja Province. It is located in the Cuxibamba valley in the south of the country, sharing borders with the provinces of Zamora-Chinchipe and El Oro, and with Peru in the south...

 Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...

, is the oldest school in the country, founded in 1856. It is considered a true cultural icon of the South Region of Ecuador.

The school's directors and body of professors have been among the country's most illustrious men of letters and science.

The school also graduated the first female student in the country, Matilde Hidalgo

Matilde Hidalgo

Matilde Hidalgo de Procel became the first woman to graduate from a high school in Ecuador, the first woman to vote in an election in South America and the first woman to hold elected office in her country. She was born in Loja, to a family of six children born to Juan Manuel Hidalgo and Carmen...

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