This past March 8, all throughout the world, the contributions that women have made were celebrated with International Women’s Day. To help draw attention to this momentous day, our grade 5 Language Arts teacher, Ms. Ana Milena Castro Castillo, gave her students the task of writing a biography about one of the many great women that have contributed to making our world a better place. What follows is three exemplary biographies from our grade 5 students, honoring three great women who have made a positive impact on our past, present, and future.
Frida Kahlo, An Inspiring Woman
By Victoria Marchena 5A
Frida Kahlo was an important woman who created many beautiful paintings, even though she suffered the terrible illness of Poliomyelitis.
Frida was born on July 6th, 1907, in Coayacán, Mexico. Her early life was difficult because when she was six, she started suffering from Polio. Her right leg started to get thinner and weaker than her left leg. She had to stay in bed for months recovering, and during that time, she discovered her love for art. She even got to her first art exhibit in an ambulance.
Among her biggest achievements, we find her unique art style, as she created many self-portraits showing her feelings, emotions, and characteristics of the Mexican culture. In addition, she was the first Mexican artist to present her art at the Louvre Museum in 1939, during an international exhibition with artists from the USA, Mexico and Europe.
Frida was a strong fighter because she faced many challenges. Beyond her health problems, painting her feelings while recovering, and being a woman who dared to paint, being a successful female artist in that time was not that easy.
Frida was an inspiring woman; she was a model for other artists. She was a feminist icon who represented Mexico. In her life, she demonstrated resilience. Her legacy to the world was her museum, named Casa Azul, which was her home, and more so her art which has been seen throughout the world and made her a pop icon in art.
In conclusion, Frida is a great inspiration for humanity, especially for women and people who have suffered Polio. She is definitively an example to follow in life when faced with adversity.
THE INTERESTING WORLD OF MARCE “THE RECYCLER” 
By Benjamin Bonfanti 5B
Sara Samaniego is famous for creating the character “Marce, the Recycler,” but not so many people know that she is the first influencer in Latin America to create content about recycling.
Sara was born in Colombia in 1993. Something curious about her is that she won an award for the best impact story in the World Assembly of Youth at the United Nations in New York. She also received a recognition as the best educational influencer at the National Youth Talent Awards, allowing her to represent Colombia at the international event in Munich, Germany, in 2022. Her objective is to create educational and social content, mainly about recycling and helping the environment by being respectful and responsible.
Sara studied social communication and advertising at Javeriana University. She developed an academic program to create strategies for advertising products and then launched marketing campaigns.
When Sara finished university, she had an idea: as she studied communication, she began to create recycling challenges through social media under the name “Marce, the Recycler.” Later naming her community “Reciclamores”.
Nowadays, she is creating videos on social media about different ways of recycling, guiding young people to take care of the environment. Showing the world that small actions can make changes that will help preserve our planet and our future.
“Lost in the Jungle: Lesly’s Story of Strength”
Jerónimo Moreno 5C
Lesly is a famous indigenous girl from the Huitoto Community, who, incredibly, saved her sisters and brother from many dangers after 40 days in the jungle.
Lesly and her siblings lost their mother when the small plane they were in crashed because of a mechanical failure. In June 2023, Lesly became a sign of hope after keeping her two sisters, Soleiny and Tien, and her baby brother Cristian, who was just 11 months old, alive.
In 2024, Netflix released a documentary about this survival ordeal, showing that at a moment Lesly wanted to abandon her siblings, but felt she could not leave them. By doing what her mom had taught her to get food, she stayed strong even though she was sad because her mom had died.
It is a true miracle that Lesly and her little siblings stayed alive, even by eating raw fish. Lesly’s story led Colombia to join in the rescue operation, using the power of the Colombian army together with the wisdom of indigenous people.
She demonstrated the potential of indigenous knowledge, the ancestral techniques she used to protect her family, and their value to humanity.
