Description
In the late 1930s, Henrietta Boggs (b. 1918), daughter of a Presbyterian church figure, decided to use her summer vacation from Birmingham-Southern College in Alabama to visit her retired aunt and uncle in Costa Rica.
There she met and finally married José Figueres Ferrer, a young businessman and brilliant intellectual, with whom she lived intense moments, including an exile in several countries and a Civil War in 1948, which led to events such as the abolition of the army, and which would catapult Henrietta to the position of First Lady of the Republic. From that position, she – along with many other Costa Rican citizens – would successfully advocate for recognizing women’s right to vote.
Her incredible memories of this important decade for the country were captured in “Married with a Legend,” originally published in 1992, very popular among readers in her two beloved countries, and were the subject of a documentary produced by Spark Media, a film company based in Washington DC.
In 2021, Teatro Espressivo produced “Henrietta, the musical”, based on these memoirs, written by Denise Duncan and which has been one of the most successful stage shows in recent years in Costa Rica, with several seasons under its belt.
About the author:
Henrietta Boggs (1918-2020) was born in Spartanburg, South Carolina, on May 6, 1918. After completing high school in Alabama, she attended Southern College in Birmingham, where she studied English and was a reporter for the student newspaper. He later traveled throughout Latin America writing articles for his hometown newspaper, The Birmingham News, with detailed descriptions of the poverty and deprivation he witnessed.
During a summer vacation in 1940, Henrietta went to visit her aunt and uncle, who had retired in Costa Rica and owned a coffee farm. There she met José Figueres Ferrer, whom she married on October 18, 1941. In 1948 Figueres led the opposition forces in the Costa Rican Civil War, becoming the president of the Founding Board of the Second Republic in Costa Rica during 18 months (1948-1949).
During this period, Henrietta Boggs persuaded her husband to allow Costa Rican women to vote, thus joining the efforts that many people had been making for decades to achieve women’s suffrage, which was finally achieved in the Political Constitution of 1949.
In 1951 she divorced Figueres and moved with her children first to Birmingham and then to New York, where she worked for the Costa Rican delegation to the United Nations, while pursuing her passion for writing.
In 1956 she temporarily returned to Alabama to support the black community’s protest against the policy of racial segregation on public transportation and was one of the volunteers who transported protesters to their jobs so they could stop using buses during the strike.
She also worked on television programs and led movements in favor of civil rights, women’s rights and labor demands.
Henrietta Boggs passed away in Alabama on September 9, 2020, at the age of 102.