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| First Lady Of The Revolution - 2016 |
On September 9, 2020, former Costa Rican first lady Henrietta Boggs passed away at the great age of 102. What is remarkable about her is that she was American born and witnessed the transformation of Costa Rica from its past into the modern era.
In 2016, a documentary film entitled "First Lady Of The Revolution" was released. It featured Henrietta as she talks about her memories of going to Costa Rica, meeting her husband, their struggle during the Revolution, and her eventual return to the United States.
At the beginning of the film, Henrietta Boggs talks about life in Alabama, growing up under the strict auspices of the Presbyterian faith. Sitting at her computer typing away, her voice is absolutely charming as her Southern drawl tells of life in Alabama.
She grew up in Birmingham. Her father made sure the family was in church with military punctuality and attendance. Henrietta found the atmosphere severely restricting and slipped away from church services as often as she could to get across the street to the drug store and sip Coca Cola and smoke forbidden cigarettes.
As a college student, Henrietta increasingly longed to break free of the stultifying society and segregated Alabama. "Anybody strange, anybody different, anybody who is
not a white, Southern Presbyterian, let me have them," she said.
Her chance at freedom came when she visited her aunt and uncle in Costa Rica. She was shocked at the poverty she witnessed when she first arrived. "It was not exactly the Land of Eternal Spring as I had imagined it," she recalled.
It was in Costa Rica that Henrietta met her future husband, Jose "Don Pepe" Figueres. She mentions how she was disappointed when she saw him, because she was expecting someone who looked like Rhett Butler. However, she was struck by his penetrating blue eyes.
They spent a lot of time getting to know each other while riding around Costa Rica on his Harley Davidson motorcycle. They eventually decided to get married with Pepe promising Henrietta that marriage to him would never be boring.
After a wedding in San Jose, they spent their honeymoon horseback riding through the countryside to get to Pepe's farm "La Lucha Sin Fin".
Over time, Pepe began to express dissatisfaction with the corrupt Costa Rican government. He made a radio address to the nation, during which he was arrested. He and Henrietta were forced to leave Costa Rica and go into exile.
Pepe decided that the only way to help Costa Rica was to institute a Revolution through arms. In El Salvador and Mexico, he planned and collected guns and munitions to be sent to Costa Rica. Meanwhile, Henrietta gave birth to their first child, a boy named Jose Marti.
Once they were allowed to return to Costa Rica, Pepe threw himself whole-heartedly into the Revolution. Henrietta tells of how she and her children were threatened by the government. She also tells of the army that Pepe raised and housed at his farm.
His success in helping to turn Costa Rica around came at the cost of his family. Henrietta felt that he was becoming increasingly distant as he became more obsessed with setting Costa Rica on the right path.
Eventually, Pepe's army was victorious and he was named the President of Costa Rica. Henrietta was now the country's First Lady.
As her husband became increasingly difficult to communicate with, members of his government would ask her to pass along thoughts or ideas. When she did, he became a little upset that people weren't talking with him directly.
One of the things that Henrietta helped to establish was the right for women to vote in Costa Rica. Her granddaughter is very proud of that fact. It is mentioned in the documentary that a lot of Pepe's policies came about as a result of his talks with his wife.
Henrietta, however, was feeling crushed by Pepe's attention to the country and lack of attention to his family. Eventually, she decided to leave him and return with the children to the United States. "You have dealt me a blow from which I will never recover," said Pepe.
Pepe and Henrietta remained friendly throughout their lives. And in later years, Henrietta was able to appreciate more of Pepe's qualities than she could during their married life.
During a talk with her family, Henrietta is asked about when she felt she knew she was part of Costa Rican history. Her voice cracks and she begins to cry as she talks of the moment when the Revolution was over and the army was marching into the capital in victory. It's a very moving moment.
Back in the USA, Henrietta founded a magazine, and she worked as a writer on it, tirelessly interviewing her subjects and typing out her articles on the computer.
She still had a place in her heart for Costa Rica, and she returned often. At the end of the film, Henrietta leaves a piece of advice: "People are divided into two different
groups. There’s this one group which
grows up and nothing much happens to them.
And then over here is this other group, and they’re the kind who’ve seen
there’s an opportunity over there. Let’s
go and see what’s on the other side of the hill. And so my advice is: always go."
And that's it for First Lady Of The Revolution. It's included on this blog as it had several big screen premiers, most notably at the Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival in Birmingham. After the premier, Henrietta and the director answered questions from the audience. The film also had a limited theatrical run in the USA, Mexico, and Costa Rica.
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