Southern-Spring 2015

28 / ’southern

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.

BSC 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 BSC 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