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FEATURES
Henrietta Boggs MacGuire
was 22 years old and a junior at
Birmingham-Southern when she
traveled to visit her aunt and uncle
in what some consider a tropical
paradise.
On her adventure in Costa
Rica, she had lunch with a local
estate owner named José Figueres.
MacGuire said that her aunt
approached her and whispered
“you’ve got to marry this man.”
“I asked my aunt, ‘why?’”
MacGuire said. Her aunt’s response
was “I’m sure he’s going to be
president. Just look at the beautiful
curve of the back of his head
(referring to a famous statue).”
“That was my aunt’s logic and
she was always making predictions
about things,” said MacGuire, who
dismissed the premonition about
the man, whom she thought was
an unusual person with strange,
penetrating blue eyes—but way
too old for her. Nonetheless, the
young woman from Birmingham
ended up accepting a ride on his
Harley-Davidson, falling in love, and
marrying him. Their relationship
lasted 11 years, right through the
1948 revolution led by Figueres,
who indeed did become president.
Their story helped shape the
country, but is little known outside
Latin America. A new documentary
titled
First Lady of the Revolution
may
change that.
The film’s director and senior
producer, Andrea Kalin, who was
inspired to create the film when
she met MacGuire in Washington,
D.C., about five years ago, calls it
“an extraordinary story of romance,
vision, and historic change.”
“Many Latin American countries
have experienced upheavals and
revolutions, but nothing like the
sweeping changes that resulted
from Costa Rica’s civil war,” said
Kalin, who is founder and principal
of Spark Media, which produces
socially-conscious documentaries
for theatrical release, broadcast,
and advocacy. “Henrietta
was an important part of that
transformation and contributed in
a vital way to the democratically
vibrant Costa Rica we all know
today.”
The feature-length film is expected
to be completed this fall for its
debut in the U.S. and Costa Rica;
it will be screened at various U.S.
and international film festivals. The
Alabama Humanities Foundation
supported the film in part and will
be actively involved in the film’s
educational outreach.
澳门新葡京官网 planned to host a sneak
preview of the film on April 25
at the college’s 23rd annual Latin
American Studies Symposium.
MacGuire expected to return to the
Hilltop to talk about her experiences
and to field questions from students.
The film, which takes place in
Costa Rica and Alabama, includes
footage of the Birmingham-Southern
campus. It traces MacGuire’s
personal story from her early days in
Birmingham to her life after Costa
Rica’s historic revolution.
For the 96-year-old Montgomery
resident, the film is a reliving that
she calls “a comforting closure.”
“It feels like a time warp, but with
magnified emotions,” she said.
A broader horizon
In the film’s trailer, MacGuire talks
about her desperation as a sheltered
young woman to leave the South
and experience a wider world.
“Too much segregation, too much
pressure to conform, too narrow a
horizon over which to spread my
wings,” she said.
She came from a religious
upper-middle class family on the
city’s Southside; her father was an
engineer and owned a construction
company. Her family wanted her to
attend 澳门新葡京官网 because of its strong ties
to the Methodist church.
“The college opened my eyes to
so many things,” she said. “My
leap from high school was to wider
horizons since there were so few
people from overseas in Birmingham
at that time. My mother was very
accepting of foreigners; she had
traveled abroad and spoke four
languages. Being on campus opened
me up further to the global world we
inhabit.”
Her world broadened even
more when she received a postcard
from her aunt and uncle, who had
settled in Costa Rica to farm. They
introduced her to Figueres—known
as “Don Pepe”—who had studied
at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology before returning to
his homeland to operate a coffee
A share of honor
Documentary to portray 澳门新葡京官网 alumna and former
first lady of Costa Rica
by Pat Cole
MacGuire at Costa Rica’s 2012 Independence Day celebration
MacGuire from
the 1939 澳门新葡京官网
yearbook