Corina del Parral Durán (b. 25 January 1905,

Bahía Blanca Bahía Blanca (; English: White Bay) is a city in the southwest of the provinces of Argentina, province of Buenos Aires Province, Buenos Aires, Argentina, by the Atlantic Ocean, and is the seat of government of the Bahía Blanca Partido. It had 3 ...

– d. 8 February 1979, Buenos Aires) was an Argentine writer, poet, pianist, and composer. Married to President José María Velasco Ibarra, 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 Ar ...

Biography

Corina del Parral Durán was born in

, Argentina 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 to continue her music and piano 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 discs. Parral's works as a writer have been published by the

House of Ecuadorian culture La Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana (''The House of Ecuadorian Culture'') is a cultural organization founded by Benjamín Carrión on August 9, 1944, during the presidency of Dr Jose Maria Velasco Ibarra. It was created to stimulate, to direct and ...

and the

Central Bank of Ecuador The Central Bank of Ecuador (BCE, per its abbreviation in Spanish) is an institution of the Executive Function, which has institutional, administrative, financial, and technical autonomy. Is in charge of executing the monetary policy established ...

. In 1934, Parral and her mother attended a reception for an Ecuadorian plenipotentiary in Buenos Aires, where she met the newly elected President of Ecuador, José María Velasco Ibarra. 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 in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

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

First Lady of Ecuador

When José María Velasco Ibarra 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 National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

, 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 Women classical composers 20th-century Argentine women singers Argentine women composers