Matilde Brandau

She was born in Los Ángeles, Chile, the daughter of Valentín Brandau Lapp and Emilia Galindo.

[1] With the enactment of the Decreto Amunátegui [es] in 1877, women had the power to pursue university careers in Chile.

She followed in the footsteps of Matilde Throup, who had become the first female attorney in Chile (and the third woman to obtain a university degree under the Decreto Amunátegui) one year earlier.

On two occasions she was sent by the government of Chile to Europe, in 1907 and 1927, to learn about women's education in Spain, Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy.

During the first trip, her husband José Luis Ross Mujica (whom she had married in 1907, and who was serving as Chile's consul in Spain) died of appendicitis.