Leonor "Lore" Schoening

Lore Schoening was born and raised in El Salvador. She now lives in San Salvador and directs a very successful translation business, often utilized by the US Embassy, various international organizations, and multi-national corporations. We sat down together a few weeks ago and she shared some perspectives as someone who has lived their entire life (except for a handful of years) in San Salvador, El Salvador.

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My father was Heinz Edgar Schoening. My mother Lily Berta Falkenstein Schoening.

(And where were they born?)

My mother was born in Berlin, and my father was born in Hamburg.

(Do you know when they came over?)

Yes, I believe my father came out in the year 1933. I don’t really know exactly when, which month, but 1933. And my mother came out in November of 1936.

(How did they meet? They met in Germany?)

No, they met here in El Salvador. My mother was out here visiting my grandmother, Doña Paquita de Mugdan. And she (my mother) was at the time living in London. She had traveled to New York by boat for her brother Federico, or Fritz, Falkenstein’s wedding to Jane Auman [?]. My grandmother was living in El Salvador at the time, and so my grandmother traveled with my Uncle Fritz up to New York. Once the wedding and all the celebrations were over, my grandmother invited my mother to come to Salvador to visit, just to see what it was like and to see where and how she lived, etc. So she decided to join her for that trip.

(So your grandmother was married to—?)

My grandmother was married to Salvador Mugdan.

(And her first name, your grandmother?)

Well, her first name was Frances. And she was known here as Francisca, or La Niña Paquita.

(That was your grandmother? Your great-grandmother?)

No. That was my grandmother, my mother’s mother.

(OK. Was that her second marriage?)

That was her second marriage. My grandfather, Martin Falkenstein, died in I believe it was 1920. He was in the First World War and was killed during the war. This must have happened in nineteen twenty, because my mother was only six years old —or maybe it was 1918. I’m not sure. So my grandmother was a widow, and then she met Salvador Mugdan in Berlin. They seemed to click —I don’t know, as all things happen. And so she got married and then she came to Salvador to live here. Salvador Mugdan was already living in Salvador before meeting my grandmother. He had gone over to Berlin, Germany on a buying trip. I don’t really know that story that well. But they got married and he brought her out to El Salvador. He was the owner of one of the first hardware stores, Casa Mugdan. She worked with him as well. It was a good life, I think. I understand he was a very good man.

(What about her kids? They stayed—?)

Well, her kids, one was Federico Falkenstein, and he was here in El Salvador with her. And my mother, Lily, was—first she was in a finishing school in Switzerland, and then she moved to London and she studied nursing. She was a children’s nurse.

(So she was older when they got—when her mother—so the kids were older when—?)

Oh, yes, they were older, definitely.

(So she came back with her mother to Salvador. And that’s where she met your—?)

And that’s when she met my father. At that time, there were five Jewish bachelors in El Salvador.. More than I have ever known throughout all these years. (chuckles) And she met all the Jewish bachelors. She met my father, and it seems it was love at first sight. It is my understanding that they met on the 5th of November of 1936 and they were engaged, like, three weeks after that, and they were married on the 29th of March of 1937. I believe that’s—I think that’s the way it was.

(Wow. So quite a whirlwind romance?)

Yes, it was good.

(You were born here in ’47. You have two brothers?)

Right.

(And you’re the baby?)

Well, yes. (laughs)

Transcript by Sandy Adler, Adler Enterprises LLC

Lore's brother Dicky Schoening, has also been featured on this blog. Please search for his name in the search engine (located at the top of this webpage) for excerpts from his interview.