230 years of the foundation of Guatemala City |
Neighborhood Ciudad Vieja, zone 10 |
Educational institutions: Official Coed School “República de Francia” |
Guatemala City, November 2006/ The Official School “República de Francia” (Republic of France) started its educational activities as an annex of School “Ismael Cerna” in the year 1956; in a rented house owned by Mr. Augusto Arriola, located in 33 avenida “A” 27-52, zone 5 and for which they gave a monthly payment of Q150.00.
Immediately after, on July 23, 1956, they started the formalities to obtain a building of their own. During this search, they walked into the French citizen Roberto Seidner Bloch, who after several visits to the school said: “If you obtain a lot I will build the school…” That is how the negotiations started in order to obtain the municipal land that sheltered a public tank located in 2ª avenida 7-69, zone 10.
However, they found an obstacle, and it was that the land could not be donated to a foreigner. This is why, Mr. Seidner thought about the Alianza Francesa, an institution who did have a legal status. The idea was to find the adequate land and built in front of it the “Plazuela Francesa” (French Square), desire that was not accomplished due to the lack of time.
As a product of this action, Mr. Seidner donated Q40,000.00 to finance the construction of the school building and Engineer René Schlesinger Alegría committed to the direction of the same, free of charge, arguing that “if a foreigner could donate a complete job, such as a school, for the benefit of its people, he would be ashamed not to cooperate in some way, and therefore, the least he could do was not to charge for his work”.
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