Karen Olsen Beck

Karen Olsen Beck (Karen Olsen de Figueres), First Lady of Costa Rica during the governments of Jose Figueres Ferrer 1954-1958 and 1970-1974, Legislative Assemblywoman and Ambassador of Costa Rica

Biography

Karen Olsen de Figueres was born in New York, in the United States of America. Her family was of Danish origin. From an early age she exhibited great interest for social issues. While a young student, she was involved in several movements promoting solidarity and the defense of the needy. Such conduct from a young middle-class New Yorker was viewed with apprehension by her parents. They feared she would become a disciple of Karl Marx at any time.

Her restless spirit inspired her to pursue inroads into several academic disciplines. Karen Olsen graduated from Mary Washington College at Virginia University, enrolled in architecture and engineering courses at Champlain College, sociology at the University of Connecticut, and social work at the School of Social Work of Columbia University. Here she obtained her Master’s degree in sociology and pursued doctoral courses. [http://www.tiquicia.org/pds/pd/43-XLIII.htm] Both research in social issues — a passionate endeavor — and Olsen’s pacifist vocation are manifest in her interest to participate in special training courses for non-violent conflict resolution at the New York School of Social Research.

Karen Olsen de Figueres represents a public figure of ample and outstanding trajectory. She married Jose Figueres Ferrer, one of the most renown personalities in the recent history of Latin America: three-time president of Costa Rica; founder of the National Liberation Party, abolisher of the army in his country — an unprecedented historical event — and creator of the most significant public institutions in Costa Rica. With "Don Pepe," as this great leader was affectionately called, she had four children: José María, also president of Costa Rica 1994–1998, with whom she undertook a permanent struggle to free the peoples of the world from their technological illiteracy; Christiana, who works tenaciously on global warming issues to make our planet habitable for all living creatures; and Mariano, who exhibits a full-time dedication to family enterprises that carry social and entrepreneurial responsibility; the youngest daughter, Kirsten, is interested in rural tourism and, as with Don Pepe while he was alive, is providing unquestionable support and company for Olsen. At present, Olsen is the proud grandmother of 12.

Karen Olsen de Figueres embraces a life project oriented fundamentally to social service. As a result of her permanent commitment to the most vulnerable human groups — such as women, children, adolescents, the elderly, minorities and the marginal sectors — she supported and was in charge, in her various positions as First Lady of the Republic, as a National Congresswoman, and Ambassadress of Costa Rica, even from her position as a lay person, of several endeavors that have acquired great relevance.

A tireless individual whilst working towards her goals, Olsen achieved honorable representation for Costa Rican women within the political movements promoting their economic and social improvement. She was founder of the Center for the Domestic Employee, co-founder of the Casa de la Esperanza, for adolescent girls requiring rehabilitation, of the refuge, Friends of Youth, that treats adolescents with drug-addiction problems, and of the Costa Rican branch of the Christian Association for the Young.

An activist in social housing, she conceived and helped create the Mixed Social Aid Institute (IMAS) to provide support to people in extreme poverty. With special dedication, she promoted sports activities, recreation, and entertainment as well as leisure, for the popular majorities. Among other achievements, she organized the playgrounds and the basketball programs for community use throughout the country. She represented the main collaborator of the Youth Symphonic Orchestra and was the promoter for the mobile children’s libraries and the training programs in computer science for elementary and high school students in rural areas. The mobile street theater for children was also a product of her endeavors.

Her commitment to public-health issues is outstanding. She introduced, inter alia, the idea and the donation of the first alcohol-detection equipments to detect drunken drivers and to measure exhaust-pipe emissions. She was the driving force behind the use of seat belts for passengers and donated the first anti-bullet vests for the protection of traffic authorities. With the Denver-Colorado Institution and the Children’s Hospital of Costa Rica, she coordinated the treatment and surgery for children with hearing problems, especially for those economically deprived. With the support of the Embassy of Denmark, she organized the first program of rhythmical gymnastics and was able to obtain scholarships in Denmark to train Costa Ricans in this discipline. Persistent in her goal to create anti-drug and anti-smoking legislation, she founded the National Anti-Drug Commission (CONADRO), for the prevention and the abuse of drugs and narcotics. Karen Olsen de Figueres is acknowledged as one of the most prominent promoters of mental health, special education and rehabilitation in Costa Rica.

She was founder of the National Commission for Indigenous Issues (CONAI), which institutionalized the commitment to support indigenous peoples, and promoted the translation of school texts into the local Amerindian languages. Doña Karen actively participated in the drafting and promulgation of legislation favoring and strengthening autochthonous people and their communities. She also played a preponderant role in the Constitutional Ratification of the IWO Convention 169 favoring indigenous people.

An admirer of Costa Rican history, she worked tenaciously to repatriate the mortal remains of national heroes buried in foreign lands: Florencio del Castillo from Mexico, and Braulio Carrillo from El Salvador. Currently, she is the Vice President of the Association for the Commemoration of the Second Republic, established by “Don Pepe”.

It would represent an interminable endeavor to enumerate the totality of her work. However, her fundamental contributions for the cause of human rights and the protection of the environment, together with her struggles to vindicate the creative work of millions of artisans in Costa Rica, as throughout the extensive Ibero-American geography, cannot remain unmentioned.

A permanent activist demanding respect for the rights of minorities and the application of legislation protecting them, under the guidance of Eleanor Roosevelt and some time later Norman Thomas, A.J. Muste and Bayard Rustin, she was outstanding in the defense of Black people as well. Doña Karen also contributed in the settlement of a large number of Soviet citizens with Jewish ancestry, who wanted to migrate to Israel; this she achieved successfully in coordination with the Prime Minister of Israel, Golda Meir, and the authorities of the extinct Soviet Union. She is an active member of the [http://www.wilpf.org Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom] .

Together with outstanding Costa Rican specialists, Mario Boza and Alvaro Ugalde, she was the main promoter for the creation of the National Parks Service while she was First Lady (1970-1974), which at present includes more than 25% of the national territory. Doña Karen remains outstanding as well in other specific programs having to do with the protection of marine and terrestrial fauna. Herein, the first emission of commemorative coins, supporting the protection of endangered species, among these the green turtle (Chelonia mydas), was launched with the collaboration of Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, as a tribute to Dr. Archie Carr, a heroic figure in the protection of the beloved reptiles.

Godmother to the Artisans, as she is known in the local world of artisanry, Karen, continues to nourish a permanent commitment with this very important social and economic sector. The results are worthy works of art deserving of the general applause in the national and the international communities. As a result of her meritorious contributions to this sector, she has been distinguished with the Chairmanship of the Ibero American Community for Artisanry, an international organization conformed by representatives of public and private organizations originating in 21 Spanish speaking countries.

Karen Olsen de Figueres was don Pepe’s soul mate in his dreams and aspirations. In both, the sweet and the bitter times in politics, she remained his unfaltering and faithful companion. She never exhibited indifference, and her participation in the ambitious projects of the great thinker and Costa Rica leader was always passionate but rational; she left an imperishable imprint in the political project which transformed Costa Rica into an emblematic country, globally admired. A passionate and fertile collaborator to her husband, whom she admired profoundly, Doña Karen, exhibiting the wise and prudent ways inherent to women, balancing out “Don Pepe’s” blind spot in the environmental areas, was able to imprint her own personality. Karen contributed with ideas, making choices, and developing actions which became worthy products of historical memory. Spokeswoman of “Don Pepe’s” political philosophy, she has recently proposed the creation of a popular edition of his literary work.

Currently, Doña Karen works as honorary member, both locally as well as internationally, in Boards of Directors pertaining to institutions involved with social, cultural, and sustainable development issues. She has been honored as Honorary Mayor of San Batolome de Tirjana, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, in Spain and Chairperson, as has mentioned before, of the Ibero American Community for Artisanry.

Bearing a strong personality as well as firm convictions, Karen Olsen de Figueres, Danish in origin, North American by birth and Costa Rican and Ibero American by vocation, a humanist at heart, is an exemplary lady, a citizen of the world, at times misunderstood but always admired. She holds the honor of having served others, a trait that, according to Tolstoy, is the only road leading to lasting fulfillment.