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Francisco P. Figueroa (Francisco Pinillos Figueroa) was a celebrated poet of Guatemala and Central America during the first half of the 20th century. He was born in Guatemala City May 12th, 1882. A son of an indiginous Mayan doctor and a mother, he became a trained pharmacist and alchemist in El Salvador before writing his famed poem "La Marimba" in Santa Ana, near the Honduran border in the early 1900s. Figueroa and his "Marimba" poem were later honored by during the socialist and agrarian reforms of the 1950s. His poems were celebrated by the and indigenous of Central America.

Francisco Pinillos was born in Guatemala city May 12th, 1882. His mother was Virginia Pinillos, and his father was Dr. Marco Figueroa. The doctor had the brown skin and Mayan features that did not meet the approval of Virginia's parents, from Spain. The two young adults were not allowed to marry, and Dr. Figueroa soon returned to his native Santa Rosa de Copan, a colonial city of the Honduran highlands, to work in his health clinic. When Francisco was nearing school age, Virginia wrote to Dr. Figueroa and asked him to assume custody of their son. My grandfather returned to Guatemala, picked up the boy, and the two of them returned and established themselves in

Soon, though, the two relocated to San Salvador when Dr. Figueroa married Refugio Castellanos. Francisco had three half-siblings as a result of that union: Marcos, Refugio, and one other one daughter. So my dad grew up in San Salvador, later attending the university of El Salvador and got his degree as a Pharmacist. The family had property in Metapan, near the border with Honduras. Upon graduating, Francisco found a pharmacy job in Santa Ana, in the mountains very close to Metapan. It was here Francisco blossomed, as a pharmacists, a poet and and as a writer. He began a literary magazine named Sursum, a periodical to which he was a main contributor. His best poems, including La Marimba, where written here.

The story of the writing of La Marimba poem: The Guatemala decided to promote the rebirth of their national instrument, the marimba, a wooden xelaphone-like instrument. The government had a competition amongst the national level players, and then promoted the instrument, the players, the music and its indigenous history to the rest of Central America. The first place the tour stopped was Club Atletico Occidental, in Santa Ana, El Salvador. Francisco attended the concert and was so moved by the music that his friends gave him a table, a bottle of tequila they called “Inspirite Figueroa” (basically, inspire yourself), and directions to not get up until his poem was complete. Figueroa complied.

Figueroa later wrote Bajo El Almendro, Under the Almond Tree, in Santa Ana. The words were later converted into a waltz. The Figueroa family has only half of the poem preserved, and hopes the descendents of the waltz writer have the rest of the poem.

In the 1920s, Figueroa escaped from a dictatorship in El Salvador to Honduras disguised as a priest. In the Honduran highlands around San Pedro Sula, he met his wife, Guillemina Zamora Barahona. He wrote her a poem called La Bellesa India (The Beautiful Indian Woman). She was 18, he was in his 40s when he saw her and totally fell in love and got married. Around this time, Papa became the Consul of Guatemala in Honduras. They had eight children, 6 girls and 2 sons, and lived in La Cieba, on the Honduran Coast. Figueroa entered into business with Leonardo Godoy, a Salvadoran living in Honduras. It was called Laboratorios Union. Dr. Godoy was the president and Papa was the lab manager and the vice president. They made simple pharmacudicals and remedies like milk of magnesia, Epson salts and aspirin. Papa created a remedy for intestinal worms called Lombrisera Magica (The Magic DeWormer), which they still sell in Honduaras today.

The Return of the Poet: Eventually, Figueroa moved his family to the Panama Canal Zone seeking work. Hearing of Figueroa's hardship, the then a well respected socialist and populist, created enough social support for the "Return of the Poet Figueroa" that allowed Figueroa and his family to be flown back to Guatelemala. He died the day after his 68th birthday in Guatemala City, 1950.