Corina del Parral Durán (25 January 1905 – 8 February 1979) was an Argentine writer, poet, pianist, and composer. Married to President

José María Velasco Ibarra José María Velasco Ibarra (19 March 1893 – 30 March 1979) was an Ecuadorian politician. He became president of Ecuador five times, in 1934–1935, 1944–1947, 1952–1956, 1960–1961, and 1968–1972, and only in 1952–1956 he complete ...

, she served four terms as the

First Lady of Ecuador First ladies and gentlemen of Ecuador are the wives and husbands of the presidents of Ecuador. There has been only one First Gentleman, first gentleman of Ecuador to date, Eduardo Peña Triviño, the husband of former acting president Rosalía ...

Biography

Corina del Parral Durán was born in

Bahía Blanca Bahía Blanca (; English: ''White Bay''), colloquially referred to by its own local inhabitants as simply Bahía, is a city in the Buenos Aires Province, Buenos Aires province of Argentina, centered on the northwestern end of the eponymous Blanc ...

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

to Ernst Patrick Parral López-Chacón and Corina Eulogia Durán Peña on 25 January 1905. She began basic studies at the French Institute of Jeanne d'Arc and music at the Williams Conservatory, both in Bahía Blanca. She graduated from the latter with high marks, then went to

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

to continue her music and

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

studies. Using her musical education, del Parral composed classical pieces for the piano and orchestra, and Argentine and Ecuadorian folk music. Her Ecuadorian musical folk songs were interpreted by the group Los Brillantes to raise funds for the Ecuadorian institution she founded herself, while she was the First Lady of Ecuador, to support the poorest childhood in Ecuador. Her music was recorded on

acetate disc An acetate disc (also known as a ''lacquer'', ''test acetate'', '' dubplate'', or '' transcription disc'') is a type of phonograph record generally used from the 1930s to the late 1950s for recording and broadcast purposes. Despite their name, "ac ...

s. Parral's works as a writer have been published by the House of Ecuadorian culture and the Central Bank of Ecuador. In 1934, Parral and her mother attended a reception for an Ecuadorian

plenipotentiary A ''plenipotentiary'' (from the Latin ''plenus'' "full" and ''potens'' "powerful") is a diplomat who has full powers—authorization to sign a treaty or convention on behalf of a sovereign. When used as a noun more generally, the word can als ...

in Buenos Aires, where she met the newly elected

President of Ecuador The president of Ecuador (), officially called the constitutional president of the Republic of Ecuador (), serves as the head of state and head of government of Ecuador. It is the highest political office in the country as the head of the exec ...

. When he was deposed, del Parral began corresponding with Velasco to encourage him during his exile to

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

. The couple's epistolary relationship resulted in their marriage in Buenos Aires on 24 August 1938.

First Lady of Ecuador

When

was elected for the second time in 1944, Parral became

. In this capacity, she founded the institution that later became the National Institute for Children and the Family, a position that henceforth would be held by all Ecuadorian First Ladies.

Citations

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parral, Corina del 1905 births 1979 deaths First ladies of Ecuador 20th-century Argentine women writers 20th-century Argentine writers People from Bahía Blanca Argentine classical composers Argentine women classical composers 20th-century Argentine women singers Argentine women composers