13 Facts About Carmen Lyra

Carmen Lyra was the pseudonym of the first prominent female Costa Rican writer, born Maria Isabel Carvajal Quesada.

Carmen Lyra was a teacher and founder of the country's first Montessori school.

Carmen Lyra was a co-founder of the Communist Party of Costa Rica, as well as one of the country's first female worker's unions.

Carmen Lyra was one of the earliest writers to criticize the dominance of the fruit companies.

Carmen Lyra 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.

Carmen Lyra started sending articles to newspapers such as Diario de Costa Rica, La Hora and La Tribuna; and magazines like Ariel, Athenea and Pandemonium and teaching throughout the country.

In 1919, during a teacher's protest against the dictatorship of Federico Tinoco Granados, Lyra galvanized the crowd, and in their anger, they burned the government news office.

Carmen Lyra managed to escape the police manhunt disguised as a news seller.

Carmen Lyra returned in 1921 to manage the Department of Children's Literature at the Normal School of Costa Rica.

In 1926, Carmen Lyra founded and directed the first Montessori pre-kindergarten, teaching the poorest students of San Jose.

Carmen Lyra's home became a gathering place for intellectuals and writers, and her politics increasingly moved to the left.

Carmen Lyra was joined by fellow teachers Maria Alfaro de Mata, Odilia Castro Hidalgo, Adela Ferreto, Angela Garcia, Luisa Gonzalez, Stella Peralta, Emilia Prieto, Lilia Ramos, Esther Silva and Hortensia Zelaya, who had been radicalized at the Normal School, to challenge a society built on privilege and the roles of women being confined to home, marriage, and motherhood.

Carmen Lyra was inducted into La Galeria de las Mujeres de Costa Rica in 2005.