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Making it to the 25th position is Jose Figueres Ferrer, affectionately known as Don Pepe. Don Pepe is well known among Costa Ricans and the rest of Latin America for being the Costa Rica president who abolished the army in 1948. Figueres has also been the only Costa Rican president to serve three presidential administrations.
Jose Figueres Ferrer’s biography can be found on the organization’s website (www.cac-acc.org) where he is presented as a politician, philosopher and humanitarian. His political as well as academic achievements are presented along with his numerous speeches given throughout several universities world wide.
The second Costa Rican representative to make the list was writer Carmen Lyra. Although Carmen Lyra is also well known for her ideological achievements, she is better remembered as the author of Los Cuentos de mi Tia Panchita. Through her book, Carmen Lyra was able to masterfully recreate Costa Rica’s regional sentiment.
The contests were picked online by voters from around the world. The first two places went to writers Pablo Neruda and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Literature played an important role as for the top 10 places went mostly to writers. Gabriela Mistral was among these top ten and was also mentioned as the most influential woman.
The Antena 3 broadcasting company will be transmitting short informative sections of each of the top 100 most influential people. Viewers from Spain, the United States and 19 Latin American countries will be able to view them.
