By Francisco Peyret
Carmen Masip Echazarreta was born in LogroƱo, Spain in 1927 and died in San Miguel de Allende in 2004. In June 1939, just over eight decades ago, she arrived in Mexico with her family. They were part of the 25,000 Spanish refugees fleeing from the Spanish Civil War who were received by the Mexican government headed by President LƔzaro CƔrdenas.
Carmen Masip was the daughter of the famous journalist, playwright, novelist and screenwriter Paulino Masip. He developed a brilliant career in Mexico, as one of the many scientists, academics and artists who arrived in our country at that time. Among the most recognized works of Paulino Masip as a screenwriter are the film adaptations of La Barranca (Roberto GavaldĆ³n, 1945) and Crimen y Punigo (Fernando de Fuentes, 1951); and original scripts such as the famous Escuela de Vagabundos (Rogelio A. GonzĆ”lez, 1955).
In 1951, Carmen Masip came to live in San Miguel as a young painter. In order to support the artistic and foreign community, and thanks to her literary training she decided to found the Academia Hispanoamericana de EspaƱol. In 1959, together with a group of friends who were teaching at the University of Guanajuato, among whom was the famous writer Jorge IbargĆ¼engoitia, they founded the Academia.
Among her career accomplishments were becoming the legendary Director of the El Nigromante Cultural Center between 1972-2002. She also was the Founder and President of the Chamber Music Festival 1978-2004. During all this time, Carmen Masip was recognized for her enormous and consistent work, she was very much loved by some, and not so much by others because she Ā«did not mind stepping on toes.ā But at the end of her career, no one doubts the legacy she left to San Miguel de Allende.
This is how Carmen Masip wrote about San Miguel: Ā«San Miguel de Allende had a glorious past and a very poor present. Between Independence and the Revolution it had lost its most illustrious children, or those who could have been, in emigrations to the capital. The abandonment of its palaces, orchards, convents, was total. In the middle of this century, its population did not exceed 12,000 residents. But lo and behold, at the beginning of the 1930s, a bullfighter, Pepe Ortiz, and an opera singer, JosĆ© Mojica, arrived; and both begin to attract their friends, who together with Leobino Zavala and other illustrious sanmiguelenses formed the Society of Friends of San Miguel de Allende and revived the Amateur Theater and home gatherings, where poetry is sung and read… Ā«(Source: Felipe CossĆo del Pomar Cultural Project).
