María Alaíde Foppa Falla (3 December 1914 – disappeared 19 December 1980) was a Guatemalan academic, feminist, poet, human rights defender, and translator who fled to Mexico after the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état and eventually was disappeared during a return visit to Guatemala in 1980. Born in Barcelona, Spain, in 1914, Foppa came from a wealthy liberal family. She moved to Italy around 1930, where she began writing poetry in Italian and later studied literature and art history at the Sapienza University of Rome. She then moved to Guatemala in 1943, where she was deeply moved by the social injustice she perceived under the regime of Jorge Ubico. She became a Guatemalan citizen in 1944 and developed connections with the revolutionary movement that forced Ubico's resignation that year.
Foppa married labor activist Alfonso Solórzano, who fled to Mexico after the 1954 coup. She eventually joined him in Mexico City in 1957, where she participated in academic and artistic circles. While in Mexico, she co-founded the magazine Fem and hosted ( 'Women's Forum'), a radio program discussing women's issues in Mexico. In addition, she established an Italian literature department at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), where she also taught the first course on women's sociology in a Latin American university. In December 1980, Foppa traveled to Guatemala and was abducted by members of the G-2 intelligence unit. Her disappearance prompted immediate action from her family, her friends, colleagues, artists, academics, and human rights advocates. Despite ongoing efforts, official investigations and legal proceedings have yielded no definitive results in her case.
Foppa published several poetry collections throughout her life. These collections explore themes of motherhood, female agency, and departure through aestheticist and feminist frameworks. She also published several notable translations, including a Spanish translation of the poetry of Michelangelo and a French translation of the book El libro vacio ( 'The empty book') by Josefina Vicens. A poetry prize was established in her honor in 1998, as was a dedicated international academic chair in 2011. She has been the subject of both a radio program, Un encuentro con Alaíde Foppa: Voz y palabra (2014, 'An encounter with Alaíde Foppa: voice and word'), and a documentary, Alaíde Foppa: La sin ventura (2014, 'Alaíde Foppa: The unfortunate'). Her life and legacy have been discussed by journalists and scholars such as Elena Poniatowska, Karina Leyte Chávez, and Nathalie Ludec, who highlight her significance as a feminist icon and a symbol for human rights struggles.
Early life
María Alaíde Foppa Falla was born on 3 December 1914 to Julia Falla Aris and Tito Livio Foppa in Barcelona, Spain. Her mother was a Guatemalan pianist, and her father was an Italian-Argentine diplomat, journalist, and playwright. Her family was wealthy and politically liberal. Her youth was characterized by her exposure to art and theater, and she traveled extensively, including to Argentina, Belgium, France, and Switzerland. She was fluent in English, French, and Italian. Because of her father's diplomatic duties, her family moved to Italy around 1930. It was in Italy that she wrote her first poems, which were in Italian. In 1933, she began attending the Sapienza University of Rome, where she studied literature and art history. Foppa's studies occurred during a period of struggle between fascists and anti-fascists, a conflict that began when fascist Benito Mussolini was appointed prime minister of Italy in 1922. While Foppa held anti-fascist sympathies, her non-native status prevented her from publicly declaring these views.
Guatemalan Revolution
Foppa moved to Guatemala in 1943 to be closer to her mother, who had separated from her father and moved there some time earlier. At the time, Jorge Ubico was president. Ubico's presidency was characterized by increased militarization, unpaid corvée labor, and persecution of labor and communist activists. Foppa was deeply impacted by what she saw as the "social injustice" prevalent under the Ubico regime and felt personally compelled to address it. Beginning in 1943, Ubico's presidency faced opposition from students, the middle class, and the elite, which culminated in his resignation on 30 June 1944 and the appointment of a military junta led by Juan Federico Ponce Vaides.
Conflict between the junta and the revolutionary opposition forces, led by Juan José Arévalo, escalated and turned violent in October 1944, with Foppa volunteering at a hospital to provide care for those injured in the conflict. Foppa also formally became a Guatemalan citizen in 1944. On 20 October, Ponce resigned, and Arévalo won the 1944 Guatemalan presidential election in December, assuming the presidency in March 1945. That year, Foppa published her first book of poetry, Poesías ( 'Poems'). Over time, she formed relationships with members of the revolutionary movement—including a brief romantic relationship with Arévalo, with whom she had a son, —and embraced their ideals. She participated in the campaign launched by Arévalo in 1946 to address the country's low literacy rate of 30%, joined the humanities faculty at the University of San Carlos of Guatemala (USAC), and founded an organization called .
Marriage and exile
At some point, Foppa married Alfonso Solórzano. Solórzano was one of the founders of the Guatemalan Party of Labour, working for the revolutionary government as an administrator and diplomat. The couple had four children: Mario, Laura, Silvia, and Juan Pablo. During this time, Foppa wrote poetry and contributed her writing the newspaper . Solórzano and thousands of others were forced to flee Guatemala in 1954 after a coup d'état backed by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States overthrew the democratically-elected government of Jacobo Árbenz and provided the new regime, led by Carlos Castillo Armas, with a list of suspected communists to be extrajudicially killed or imprisoned. While Solórzano fled to Mexico, Foppa and the children initially stayed in Guatemala, where she founded the Institute of Italian Culture and published her second book of poetry, La sin ventura ( 'The unfortunate'), in 1955. However, the repression of the counterrevolutionary government eventually became unbearable for her, and in 1957, she moved to Mexico with the children.
Foppa and her family lived in Mexico City, where they received support from family and friends. Foppa integrated into local academic and artistic communities, connecting with other prominent Guatemalan refugees such as Augusto Monterroso, , Luis Cardoza y Aragón, Luz Méndez de la Vega, Mario Monteforte Toledo, Miguel Ángel Asturias, and Otto-Raúl González. She often hosted meetings for refugees at her home, where they discussed cultural and political issues. She also published her third book of poetry, Los dedos de mi mano ( 'The fingers of my hand'), in 1958. In 1961, she founded the department of Italian literature at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), where she taught Italian and offered a course in women's sociology, the first of its kind at a Latin American university. Her fourth book of poetry, Aunque es de noche ( 'Although it's night'), was published in 1962, followed by Guirnalda de primavera ( 'Spring wreath') in 1965 and Elogio de mi cuerpo ( 'Praise of my body') in 1970. She also participated in the "Conferences on Women", organized by academic Elena Urrutia in 1972, which aimed to foster discussion on women's participation in social life. Beginning in 1972, Foppa hosted the radio program Foro de la Mujer ( 'Women's Forum'). The program dispensed advice on domestic matters and recipes, using these conceits to address topics such as gender-related violence, parental alienation, reproductive rights, and women's role in society.
During this time, Foppa also worked for an organization called (TYAM, 'Tribune and Action for Women'). According to a graduate thesis published by Stephanie Salas Pérez, the group met at a feminist bookstore managed by Foppa and Margarita García Flores at the Juan José Arreola Lake House cultural center. Per Salas Pérez, Foppa and Flores may have initially developed the idea for a magazine called Fem at a TYAM meeting at the bookstore. However, academic Elisa Cocco claims that the idea came from a conversation between Foppa, García, and Elena Poniatowska during a trip to Morelia, Michoacán. Both authors agree that a group of women met at Foppa's house to discuss the creation of the magazine. Its first issue was published in late 1976. Foppa acted as the magazine's primary director and personally financed its publication. During its publication run, it served as a platform for analyzing and discussing women's role in Mexican society, as well as promoting a "new identity" for women in Mexico, according to Cocco.
Foppa became the Women's chair at UNAM in 1976. After learning that three of her children were involved in the Guerrilla Army of the Poor (EGP)—a rebel guerrilla force that developed in the Guatemalan Highlands as a result of the Civil War—she worked throughout the late 1970s to publicize the human rights violations and sociopolitical conflicts taking place in the country. She was one of the first people to publicly interview Kʼicheʼ human rights defender Rigoberta Menchú. She also condemned the bombing of Guatemalan villages by US aircraft, collaborated with Amnesty International and Luis Cardoza y Aragón's Guatemalan Committee for Patriotic Unity, and joined the International Association of Women Against Repression. Her final book of poetry, Las palabras y el tiempo ( 'Words and time'), was published in 1979.
Disappearance In December 1980, Foppa traveled to Guatemala, having recently lost her son, Juan Pablo, and her husband, who died in a traffic collision. Various reasons have been given for Foppa's trip, including that she was visiting her mother and that she went to bury her husband's remains. According to journalist Alma Guillermoprieto, she was actually on a courier mission for an unspecified Guatemalan guerrilla group, having decided to "match [Juan Pablo's] sacrifice". Allegedly, on 19 December 1980, Foppa had gone to buy flowers and pick up her passport on her way to the airport in Guatemala City. She was accompanied by her mother's driver, Leocadio Axtún, who took her to the Plaza El Amate, where they were intercepted by members of the G-2 intelligence unit. The day after her abduction, the newspaper Prensa Libre reported that several armed men beat Foppa and forced her back into her car, which then left the scene. The car and its occupants were never seen again. Her husband's brother later claimed that she was tortured and killed the day she was captured. However, Guillermoprieto claims that Foppa's relatives told her that she was tortured for months before she died.
Initial reactions