Consuelo de Saint-Exupéry, the Salvadoran woman who inspired the book “The Little Prince”

The little Prince It is one of the most important works of universal literature. With millions of copies sold and translated into more than 170 languages, as well as countless stage and film adaptations, it is a popular culture reference that has won the hearts of readers. However, behind this pleasant plot there is a love story that few know about. Consuelo Suncín-Sandoval Zeceña was the woman who conquered the writer with such intensity that she became his “rose”. At the end of this post, a bonus on the mystery surrounding the disappearance of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry awaits you.

O awesome.club invites you to discover the life of the Salvadoran woman responsible for inspiring this wonderful literary work and the love relationship she lived with the writer.

Born in 1901 under the name of Consuelo Suncín-Sandoval Zeceña, in Armenia, El Salvador, she comes from a family of wealthy people who owned land and coffee plantations. She carried out her studies in the United States, France and Mexico. In her spare time, she devoted herself to painting and poetry. At age 19, she met her first husband, Ricardo Cárdenas, while studying English in San Francisco.

Consuelo had a great imaginative capacity, which is why she said things in her life that didn’t actually happen. She invented her husband’s death, as she thought becoming a widow was better accepted by society than a divorce. She would later maintain a relationship with José Vasconcelos, one of Mexico’s most important intellectual figures.

In France, she married for the second time the Guatemalan diplomat, writer and journalist Enrique Gómez Carrillo, who died 11 months later from a stroke. A widow at 25, she traveled to Argentina to live out the fortune her late husband had left her.

French high society considered her amoral for being a divorced and widowed woman when she met Saint-Exupéry in 1930.

Antoine and Consuelo met in Buenos Aires thanks to a mutual friend who introduced them. And it was an arrow at first sight. Saint-Exupéry was delighted with her, and the following year they were married. The union of the two produced rejection by the writer’s family, especially his sister-in-law, who described her as a “slut” and “a cinema countess”.

Despite the family’s rejection, Consuelo became her husband’s muse and accomplice. She was a woman with an artistic sense and very sensitive. Thanks to her charming personality, she gained valuable contacts that helped revive Antoine’s writing career.

The marriage lasted 15 years, until the author’s death. It was a love filled with ups and downs due to the fact that Antoine was a professional pilot and had constant absences. However, Saint-Exupéry always returned with his wife and they had moments of great happiness. Such admiration was incorporated in his literary work, especially in The little Princein which his great love is represented in the figure of the rose.

Consuelo died in 1979, as a result of an asthma attack. After her husband disappeared in 1944, she began writing about the relationship she lived with him. The autobiography entitled Memories of a Rose says that the writer was childish, selfish and had numerous lovers. This confession came as a shock to many, as Antoine was considered a flawless person.

After the publication of these memoirs, the perception with which the Little Prince is analyzed has changed. His doubts and infidelities would be represented in the field of flowers in which the prince finds himself on Earth, however his rose was special and the only one he wanted.

“The rose is Consuelo. The three volcanoes are the volcanoes of El Salvador. Baobabs are the Ceiba at the entrance to the town of Armenia, in El Salvador. The rose that coughs is Consuelo, who suffers from asthma, is fragile and is protected under a glass dome”, says Marie-Helene Carbonel, French biographer, author of Consuelo Suncín Sandoval, comtesse Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: une mariée vétue de noir (Consuelo de Saint-Exupéry, a bride dressed in black).

Although The little Prince considered children’s literature, it is also a book that Antoine de Saint-Exupéry wrote to apologize to his wife.

Bonus: the mystery of the death of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

On July 31, 1944, a plane piloted by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry took off from a French reconnaissance base and never returned. For many years, no one knew where the remains had landed, until, in 1998, a fisherman found a bracelet with the name of the writer and his wife in the seas of Marseilles, France. That would mean that the sunken plane was somewhere in the Mediterranean.

Despite the discovery, neither the author’s family The little Prince nor did the French government believe the fisherman, as the bracelet was found far from Antoine’s flight path. The only person who trusted him was diver Luc Vanrell, who investigated and solved the mystery years later.

Luc Vanrell knew the remains of the plane where the bracelet was found. Surprised by the location of the find, which did not correspond to what was said by historians who claimed that the aircraft had been lost 200 kilometers away, he decided to investigate. In 2000, after diving several times to examine the plane’s parts, something told him that he had found the right aircraft.

Official permission to examine the remains was granted 19 months later. It was then that Vanrell discovered that the serial number belonged to the missing plane.

With this discovery, in 2006 a German colleague located Horst Rippert, a former fighter pilot. The plane is believed to have been spotted by the Germans and Rippert took off to intercept it, as it was returning from Marseille, spotted it and shot it down. The idea of ​​having been responsible for the death of Antoine Saint-Exupéry caused him great grief, as he considered him his hero.

However, Rippert’s testimony was met with disbelief by some investigators and could not be verified, which makes the mystery of how the late writer’s plane reached the depths still remain.

the author of The little Prince had a life worthy of a legend. From his romance with his beloved Consuelo to her mysterious disappearance. His greatness will be remembered forever and he will live on in every phrase shaped in his works.

Did you know the love story behind The little Prince? What do you think of the mystery surrounding the disappearance of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry? Share your opinion in the comments.