Rosalynn Carter: the subtle charm of a Southern Lady
By: Beatrice E. Rangel - 22/11/2023
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Rosalynn Smith Carter set out on the road to eternity when her country is shaken by competing political pressures that shake the Republican edifice with a force not experienced since the Civil War.
It carries as immortal luggage the vestiges of North American agrarian society that forged the foundations of modernity on the anvil of personal sacrifice. It was born on the threshold of the Great Depression, an event that reduced 40% of North Americans to poverty and most strongly affected the Southern states whose cotton production saw their markets melt. In his hometown of Plains, economic adversity wreaked havoc, destroying families and plunging the majority of the town into horrible desolation.
The imprint of the Great Depression extended for a decade, particularly marking the generations of Eleanor Rosalynn Carter, imprinting on their behavior a commitment to civic duty and austerity in spending. Both variables were present in her life and her work. As the young wife of a Georgia farmer, she dedicated herself to fighting to bring justice to many citizens sent to prison by the Jim Crowe laws that distinguished themselves by foisting all kinds of crimes on African Americans. She thus managed to reverse judicial decisions and take to the White House as a nanny for her daughter Amy, a woman accused of homicide.
As a wife, she was the perfect partner of the politician James Earl Carter, who saw in her, in addition to being the woman of his life, the complement to his work team due to her capacity for observation and analysis. When he capped his career with election to the presidency of the United States, Rosalynn became his and her special envoy to Latin America. operator to address the mental illness crisis in the United States.
As First Lady, she is remembered by those who served within the White House as a diligent person in terms of budget execution. The administrative system of the presidency obliges the American heads of state to pay weekly their personal expenses that consist of laundry, food and services for private guests. Likewise, they must cancel any gastronomic whim not included in the White House budget. Mrs. Carter is remembered as one of the few First Ladies who reconciled her private expense accounts and set limits for her children regarding these expenses. On one occasion she confided to a member of the administrative staff that she thought the accounts had gone outside her budget and that she was preparing to establish corrective measures for the family's spending. This episode is part of the story of a former White House butler in the book “The Service”
Rosalynn Carter's austerity and discretion visually contrasted in a striking way in 1989 on the occasion of her visit to Nicaragua accompanying former president Jimmy Carter who went to begin the organization of the electoral process that in 1990 gave victory to Violeta Chamorro. She also attended the meeting David Morales Bello, President of the Senate of Venezuela representing the then President Carlos Andres Perez. I was part of the delegation. The Nicaraguan Head of State was Daniel Ortega who, together with his wife Rosario Murillo, offered a reception to the delegation. The official photo showed both leaders with their respective spouses. Mrs. Carter wore a beige silk bow blouse and a pastel silk skirt down to her heels. Mrs. Ortega, for her part, exhibited a black leather microskirt with a profusion of jewelry and a gothic haircut. Seeing them one couldn't help but think about the immense contrast that exists in the way a North American lady internalizes power and how they do it in Latin America. For the North American lady, power is an instrument to work for others. For Latin Americans, a gateway to the good life.
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