Margarita Madrigal

Margarita Madrigal's parents met in Kansas City while her father, Ezequías Madrigal (an operatic baritone from Costa Rica) was on tour in the United States. Before he was set to perform, his accompanist became ill. When he heard that a local girl, Carolyn Wilhelm of Winchester, Kansas, was an excellent concert pianist, he communicated to her to perform with him for the evening. She initially refused, but agreed after being asked in person. "The romance went on from there," as Margarita related in an interview.[3]

Margarita Madrigal was born on May 15, 1912 in Alajuela, Costa Rica. She was followed by a sister, Marcella, and a brother, Miguel. During her childhood, Margarita moved many times with her family following her father's performances and teaching assignments across Latin America. By the time Margarita was 11, she had lived in Mexico and five Central American countries[3]

By 1923, her mother decided to send Margarita to live with relatives in Kansas City, fearing her daughter had forgotten too much English. There, she attended Wyandotte High School, which, she said, gave her "a little of the Kansas tradition."[3]

After graduating, Margarita returned to Mexico where she studied, and later taught, at the Puebla State Teachers College. In 1940, the University of Mexico commissioned her to make a survey of the study of Spanish in the United States. She first returned to Kansas City and then toured the country to research material for her thesis. In November 1940, she went to New York City, settled in Greenwich Village, and began offering private Spanish lessons. Madrigal also lectured at the Adult Education Department in a local YWCA. There, she taught classes using her own method using a textbook she was then completing. She described it as a "streamlined," simple method whereby the student learns conversational Spanish rapidly and has fun doing so.[3]

By 1941, she had already achieved wide acclaim. Soon thereafter, she began to publish her learning techniques. The first of these works became known as the An Invitation to... series, starting with Spanish and Portuguese, and followed by French, Russian, Italian, English and German. The courses quickly became bestsellers, making her one of the most popular language authors in the country.

This was later followed by a series aimed at children, entitled First steps in..., and then by small, pocket-sized, carry-around language courses entitled, the See it & Say it in... series.

In the 1950s she wrote the Madrigal's Magic Key to... series, which featured more comprehensive and in-depth material than previous works. The first of these was Madrigal's Magic Key to Spanish in 1955. This was followed by similar works for French in 1959, and German in 1966. These later became her best known works. She also produced accompanying audio lessons for the Spanish and French books, however, few of these were sold.

During her career, Margarita could count amongst her students authors Sherwood Anderson, André Maurois and Ernest Hemingway, radio and television commentators Ben Grauer, H.V. Kaltenborn and World Tennis Champion Alice Marble. She was also employed by the FBI, the Rockefeller Institute, Time-Life International, as well as lending her services to numerous ambassadors, executives, judges, and generals.[1]

In 1957, Margarita Madrigal was successfully sued for plagiarism related to her book An Invitation to Russian. The plaintiff, a Russian-born American named Fedor I. Nikanov, alleged that Madrigal (along with her co-author, Sonia Bleeker) had infringed his copyright of a Russian language chart and material from an unpublished manuscript, which he gave to Bleeker in the hopes of coauthoring a book with her.[4]

Since Madrigal did not know Russian, not even simple sentences, she had to rely on Bleeker for translations. The book contained presentations of the Russian alphabet, expressions, cognate words, and even similar drawings. Although this amounted to only a small part of An Invitation to Russian, it formed a large part of Nikanov's work. Damages of $5,000 were awarded to Nikanov.[4]

Margarita continued to teach and work on new editions and manuscripts of her existing courses until the 1970s. Although she continued private lessons in her Greenwich Village apartment, she increasingly spent time at her weekend and summer home in Mystic, Connecticut. Suffering from overwork and stress, she eventually moved there on a permanent basis.

During the final years of her life, Margarita began working on a history of the Founding Fathers, which she hoped could simplify and make it easier to understand just as she had done with languages.[2][5] What ultimately became of this manuscript is unknown.

Margarita moved away from Mystic in 1979, relocating to Stamford, Connecticut. She died at her home there on July 23, 1983 following a battle with throat cancer. She was survived by her sister, Marcella of Puebla, Mexico.[1]

Despite her publishing success and public acclaim throughout her career, Madrigal's legacy effectively ended with her death; with relatively little subsequent media attention. With the exception of some Spanish-language materials, her works have remained largely out of print since their initial publication.