“H. F. R.”
A note upon Carlotta, by Arturo Grau, author of “Memoirs of Those Times.”
“I felt when I met her, what I have felt ever since, that in her mortal body an angel walked, who needed but a small instrument though a perfect one.
“Those who met her, felt despair at their unworthiness beside so much perfection; yet felt exaltation at the thought that such perfection could be in this world. I can truly say, with so many others, that she altered my life for me.”
Another note upon Carlotta, by Roberto Mandariaga.
“None can describe her, nor would one understand, if she were described. She was like a light sent from God.”
Another note upon Carlotta, by Roger Weycock.
“She was a little, sprightly thing with a lot of colour. She was very much of a lady by birth, being a de Leyva; but for this she might have passed for bold. She seemed to me to be very fond of her own opinion, which was not always wise. She had been the spoiled darling all her life; old de Leyva’s pet; the Chavez group worshipped her. Someone had told her, in her youth, that she was like a little fairy. She seemed to me to be always acting the fairy. I do not of course pretend to justify her murder, which must ever remain a blot upon an unconstitutional but, on the whole, rather great administration. At the same time I, who saw her, can testify that she was not the angel from Paradise which some, who never saw her, would have us believe. She was a pert young woman, accustomed to her own way, who had the tragical fate to run counter to a much stronger way than her own. The character of Carlotta de Leyva, as worshipped (this is scarcely too strong a word) at present at Santa Barbara, had no original in the young woman whom I met; it is an invention of the poets (of the sentimental-idealistic school, of whom Tomás de Medellin is the chief exponent), backed by an able but quite unscrupulous propagandist press, whose interest it is to blacken Don Lopez by every means in its power.”
Another note upon Carlotta, by Guillermo de Medellin, father of the poet.
“I saw her almost daily for many years. As a traveller in both hemispheres, I have met many thousands of people; some of them distinguished, a few great, none like her. I have met some with more compelling power; that, after all, was not what she had; she had blessing power, as though she came from Heaven.