MEXICO: Gran Amiga

In Mexico City’s Colegio Roosevelt,* twelve-year-old Guadalupe Hernandez had a composition to write. Like the rest of the pupils in the sixth grade, she would write on el Señor President Roosevelt, Mexico’s gran amigo, on the first anniversary of his death (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS). Guadalupe did her twelve-year-old best:

“Roosevelt was a friend of Mexico and although you have disappeared the Mexican people will not forget you. Roosevelt, your memory will remain eternally in my heart. How rightly one laments your heartrending disappearance . . . Roosevelt, you knew how to conquer the heart of the Mexican children.”

* A private elementary school named for F.D.R., and dedicated the day before his death.