{{Short description|Costa Rican writer}} {{family name hatnote|Carvajal|Quesada |lang=Spanish}} {{Infobox person | name = Carmen Lyra | image = Carmen Lyra 2.png | alt = | caption = Lyra's depiction in the 20,000 colones banknote | birth_name = María Isabel Carvajal Quesada | birth_date = {{birth date|1887|01|15|df=y}} | birth_place = [[San José, Costa Rica]] | death_date = {{death date and age|1949|05|14|1888|01|15|df=y}} | death_place = [[Mexico City]], Mexico | other_names = | occupation = Writer, communist, Women's Rights Advocate | years_active = 1918–1948 | notable_works = }}
'''Carmen Lyra''' (January 15, 1887 – May 14, 1949) was the [[pseudonym]] of the first prominent female [[Costa Rican]] writer, born '''María Isabel Carvajal Quesada'''. She was a teacher and founder of the country's first [[Montessori]] school. She was one of the earliest writers to criticise the dominance of the fruit companies. She won many prizes.
==Biography== María Isabel Carvajal Quesada was born on 15 January 1887 in [[San José, Costa Rica]], and attended the Superior School for Girls, graduating in 1904.<ref name="Jiménez (2009)">{{cite book|last1=Jiménez|first1=Diana|title=Carmen Lyra: A Political Existence|date=2009|location=Sara Lawrence College, Yonkers, New York|isbn=978-1-109-18824-0|page=7|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yrDXYZtaKUQC&pg=PA9|accessdate=22 July 2015}}</ref> She began working at the San Juan de Dios Hospital in 1906 as a novice, but decided religious life was not her calling, and instead began working as a teacher and writer. She started sending articles to newspapers<ref name="ANEP bio" /> such as ''Diario de Costa Rica'', ''La Hora,'' and ''La Tribuna'';<ref name=Sorbonne /> and magazines like ''Ariel'', ''Athenea,'' and ''Pandemonium;''<ref name="ANEP bio">{{cite web|title=María Isabel Carvajal Quesada(Carmen Lyra) h3. 1887–1949|url=https://www.anep.or.cr/carmen-lyra|website=Asociación Nacional de Empleados Públicos y Privados|date=10 August 2012 |accessdate=22 July 2015|location=San José, Costa Rica|language=Spanish}}</ref> and teaching throughout the country.
In 1918, she published her first novel, ''En una silla de ruedas'' (In a Wheelchair), which portrays national customs and manners through the eyes of a paralysed boy who grows up to become an artist, with a strong dose of sentimentalism and intimations of the bohemian life of San José.<ref name="En una silla de ruedas">{{cite web|last1=Quesada Villalobos|first1=María Patricia|title=En una silla de ruedas o la doble conformación del héroe|url=https://pendientedemigracion.ucm.es/info/especulo/numero40/siruedas.html|website=Universidad de Costa Rica|accessdate=22 July 2015|location=San José, Costa Rica|language=Spanish|date=2009|archive-date=20 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160420134742/http://pendientedemigracion.ucm.es/info/especulo/numero40/siruedas.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1919, during a teacher's protest against [[Dictatorship of the Tinoco Brothers|the dictatorship]] of [[Federico Tinoco Granados]], Lyra galvanized the crowd, and in their anger, they burned the government news office. She managed to escape the police manhunt disguised as a news seller.<ref name="INAMU biography">{{cite news|title=María Isabel Carvajal Castro, Carmen Lyra|url=http://www.inamu.go.cr/web/inamu/maria-isabel-carvajal-castro-carmen-lyra|accessdate=22 July 2015|publisher=Institute Nacional de las Mujeres|location=San José, Costa Rica|language=Spanish|archive-date=8 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171108093920/http://www.inamu.go.cr/web/inamu/maria-isabel-carvajal-castro-carmen-lyra|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1920, she published her best-known work, ''Los Cuentos de Mi Tia Panchita'' (Tales of My Aunt Panchita), a collection of folk tales.<ref name="Jiménez (2009)" />
When the dictatorship crumbled, she was given a scholarship to study abroad, at the [[University of Paris|Sorbonne]], in Apex and also visited schools in Italy and England to evaluate pedagogical methods in use in Europe. She returned in 1921 to manage the Department of Children's Literature at the Normal School of Costa Rica. In 1926, Lyra founded and directed the first [[Montessori]] pre-kindergarten, teaching the poorest students of San José.<ref name=Sorbonne>{{cite web|title=Carmen Lyra |url=https://www.editorialcostarica.com/escritores.cfm?detalle=1018 |website=Editorial Costa Rica |accessdate=22 July 2015 |location=San José, Costa Rica |language=Spanish |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150723034945/https://www.editorialcostarica.com/escritores.cfm?detalle=1018 |archivedate=23 July 2015 }}</ref> Lyra's home became a gathering place for intellectuals and writers,<ref name="ANEP bio" /> and her politics increasingly moved to the left. In 1931, she and [[Manuel Mora Valverde]] founded the [[People's Vanguard Party (Costa Rica)|Costa Rican Communist Party]].<ref>"Jiménez (2009)", p 8</ref> She was joined by fellow teachers María Alfaro de Mata, [[Odilia Castro Hidalgo]], Adela Ferreto, Angela García, [[Luisa González]], Stella Peralta, Emilia Prieto, Lilia Ramos, Esther Silva and Hortensia Zelaya, who had been radicalized at the Normal School (teacher's college), to challenge a society built on privilege and the roles of women being confined to home, marriage, and motherhood.<ref name="Lavrín (2002)">{{cite book|last1=Lavrín|first1=Asunción|last2=Rodríguez Sáenz|first2=Eugenia|title=Un siglo de luchas, femeninas en América Latina|date=2002|publisher=Ed. de la Univ. de Costa Rica|location=San José, Costa Rica|isbn=978-9977-67-707-1|edition=1.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NpEPEtXUWIIC&pg=PA133|accessdate=22 July 2015|language=Spanish}}</ref> That same year, Lyra and Luisa González formed the Unique Union of Women Workers and suggested the creation of a union for Costa Rican teachers,<ref name="ANEP bio" /> which would not be created until 1939 by Odilia Castro.<ref name=biography>{{cite news|title=María Odilia Castro Hidalgo|url=http://www.inamu.go.cr/web/inamu/maria-odilia-castro-hidalgo|accessdate=22 July 2015|agency=INAMU|publisher=Government of Costa Rica|date=2006|location=San Jose, Costa Rica|language=Spanish}}</ref>
In 1931, she published ''Bananos y Hombres'' (Bananas and Men) anticipating the actual<ref name="ANEP bio" /> 1934 [[banana]] workers' [[Strike action|strike]], organized by the communist party and in which she played a significant part.<ref>"Jiménez (2009)", p 25</ref> As her politics and activities became more radical, Lyra was removed from her teaching posts<ref name=Sorbonne /> and in 1948, at the conclusion of the [[Costa Rican Civil War]], when [[José Figueres Ferrer]] outlawed the communist party<ref name="outlaw communists">{{cite news|last1=Oliver|first1=Myrna|title=Jose Figueres, 82; Former Costa Rican President|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-06-09-mn-591-story.html|access-date=22 July 2015|newspaper=The L.A. Times|date=9 June 1990|location=Los Angeles, California}}</ref> she was sent into exile in Mexico. Despite repeated pleas to be allowed to return home due to illness, Lyra was denied and died in Mexico City on 14 May 1949.<ref>"Jiménez (2009)", p 9</ref>
In 1962 the Board of Education of Cóbano named a school in her honor, and the [[Legislative Assembly of Costa Rica|Costa Rica Legislative Assembly]] awarded her the honor of ''Benemérita de la Cultura Nacional'' in 1976.<ref name="INAMU biography" />
Lyra was inducted into [[La Galería de las Mujeres de Costa Rica]] (The Costa Rican Gallery of Women) in 2005.<ref name="Arias (2016)">{{cite news|last1=Arias|first1=Tomás Federico|title=Exilio de una benemérita de la patria|url=http://www.nacion.com/opinion/foros/Exilio-benemerita-patria_0_1559644025.html|accessdate=15 July 2016|newspaper=[[La Nación (San José)|La Nación]]|date=9 May 2016|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160715191141/http://www.nacion.com/opinion/foros/Exilio-benemerita-patria_0_1559644025.html|archivedate=15 July 2016|location=San José, Costa Rica|language=Spanish}}</ref> As of 2010 Carmen Lyra is depicted on the twenty thousand colón bill.<ref>{{Cite web|title=20000 Costa Rican colón note & bill|url=https://www.theworldnote.com/america/crc/20000crc/|url-status=live|access-date=12 April 2021|website=World Note|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210412173931/https://www.theworldnote.com/america/crc/20000crc/ |archive-date=2021-04-12 }}</ref> The Miravalles Quintet premiered in 2011 at the Teatro Nacional its new work entitled Homenaje a Carmen Lyra, an interdisciplinary chamber show, original Costa Rican composition, painting, literature, narration and dance-inspired by the author's writings.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.semanario.ucr.ac.cr/index.php/noticias/cultura/3692-carmen-lyra-inspira-montaje-escenico.html |access-date=2022-11-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130813151745/http://www.semanario.ucr.ac.cr/index.php/noticias/cultura/3692-carmen-lyra-inspira-montaje-escenico.html |archive-date=2013-08-13 }}</ref>
==Books== * ''En una silla de ruedas'' (1918) * ''Fantasías de Juan Silvestre'' (1918) * ''Cuentos De Mi Tia Panchita'' (1920) - paperback edition (2000) Editorial Costa Rica, {{ISBN|9977-23-135-4}} * ''Bananos Y Hombres'' (1931)
==Further reading== * ''The Subversive Voice of Carmen Lyra: Selected Works'', tr. Elizabeth Rosa Horan, University Press of Florida (2000), {{ISBN|0-8130-1767-X}} - publisher's details [http://www.upf.com/Spring2000/lyra.html] * Luisa González and Carlos Luis Sáenz, ''Carmen Lyra'', San José: EUNED (1998) {{ISBN|9977-64-914-6}} – in Spanish
==Sources== * Daniel Balderston, ''Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Latin American and Caribbean Literature, 1900–2003 (Encyclopedias of Contemporary Culture)'', Routledge (2004), {{ISBN|0-415-30687-6}} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20070305021306/http://www.itcr.ac.cr/revistacomunicacion/2_2001/Carmen_Lyra.htm Carmen Lyra, Revista Comunicación, Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica] - bio in Spanish * Banco Central presentó hoy los nuevos billetes [http://www.nacion.com/2010-04-27/Economia/UltimaHora/Economia2351709.aspx?Page=] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120924153817/http://www.nacion.com/2010-04-27/Economia/UltimaHora/Economia2351709.aspx?Page= |date=2012-09-24 }}- in Spanish
==External links== * [https://web.archive.org/web/20070314142429/http://www.inamu.go.cr/nuestras-huellas/Benemeritas/CarmenLyra.html Beneméritas de la Patria, INAMU, Government of Costa Rica] - bio in Spanish
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lyra, Carmen}} [[Category:1887 births]] [[Category:1949 deaths]] [[Category:Writers from San José, Costa Rica]] [[Category:Costa Rican people of Spanish descent]] [[Category:People's Vanguard Party (Costa Rica) politicians]] [[Category:Costa Rican women short story writers]] [[Category:Costa Rican short story writers]] [[Category:Marxist writers]] [[Category:People of the Costa Rican Civil War]] [[Category:Costa Rican exiles]] [[Category:20th-century Costa Rican women politicians]] [[Category:20th-century Costa Rican politicians]] [[Category:Communist women writers]] [[Category:Costa Rican educators]] [[Category:Costa Rican women educators]] [[Category:University of Paris alumni]] [[Category:20th-century Costa Rican writers]] [[Category:20th-century Costa Rican women writers]] [[Category:Costa Rican atheists]]