Name Rosa Markmann | ||
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Role Gabriel Gonzalez Videla's wife Spouse Gabriel Gonzalez Videla (m. 1926) | ||
Rosa Markmann Reijer de González Videla (July 30, 1907 – June 12, 2009) was the Chilean First Lady from 1946 to 1952, during the presidency of her husband, Gabriel González Videla. She was born in Taltal, Chile.
Biography
Known by her nickname "Mitty" and also as "The Chilean Eva Peron" Markmann was born in Taltal, from German descent and her parents were the banker Ladislao Markmann and Ana Reijer. Her maternal grandfather was ambassador in Sweden. Rosa's great-grandfather, was born in Hamburg.
She was married to González Videla until his death in 1980. She exercised a positive influence during the presidency of her husband, playing a key role in the Chilean women's suffrage movement in Chile.
In 1947 Rosa Markmann, announced the creation of the National Association of Housewives. Whose chief purpose was to prevent speculation in basic subsistence goods among producers, distributors and retailers. Markmann then began to patronize a number of women's organizations and to express her support for female suffrage. In September 1948 she appeared at one of the events of FECHIF's "Pro-Women's Suffrage Week" assuring its participants that the president too favored women's suffrage.
During her husband's presidency, Rosa became a symbol of fashion for women all over the country.
She was a passionate supporter of the military government of General Augusto Pinochet. When an intervierwer asked Rosa (who was anti-communist), her opinion of Communists, Markmann replied, "I respect them because they honest who (carry on) the clean life led by the members of their Party. As evinced by Markmann's reference to "Clean Life" -Which echoed the term "Blood Clean", used since colonial times to denote racial purity, the contrast between respectable workers and unrespectable others evoked racial as well as gender difference.
Markmann died, 101 years old, on June 12, 2009, in her mansion in Las Condes, Santiago de Chile.