Colombia: María Luz Amorocho Carreño

Born in 1922 in Bogotá, Colombia, María Luz Amorocho Carreño was the first woman to earn a diploma in architecture in Colombia (1945), graduating from the School of Architecture at the National University of Colombia in Bogotá. She worked as the director of the Architecture Draftsmen Program at the Colegio Mayor de Cultura Femenina de Cundinamarca (c. 1945/1946) and contributed to the magazine Proa.  During her career she also worked for the Ministry of Public Works (c. 1948-1950) and in the private sector for the architecture firm of Cuellar Serrano Gómez in Colombia (c. 1950–1960). María Luz Amorocho Carreño relocated to Paris, France, and designed with Nicole Sonolet (1960). She returned to Bogotá (1966) where she was employed as the director of the Physical Planning Office at the National University of Colombia (1970). She published a book titled Universidad Nacional de Colombia: Planta Física, 1867–1982, Bogotá (1982). María Luz Amorocho Carreño died in 2019 in Bogotá.