health
April 24, 2026
Diagnosis and confinement in Leysin, Switzerland
In February 1932, Teresa de la Parra wrote in a letter to a friend that she was at the Gran Hotel in Leysin, a sanatorium for tuberculosis patients. “I have an injury in one lung, it was discovered recently. I have been here for fifteen days, alone, in bed, with the balcony wide open to the snow and a temperature of 3 or 4 degrees inside the room. […] Everything, everything around me is whiteness, light, and silence.
TL;DR
- Teresa de la Parra was diagnosed with tuberculosis in February 1932 and stayed in a sanatorium in Leysin, Switzerland.
- She described her isolation, the snowy environment, and found a spiritual grace in her condition, though acknowledging the danger of the illness.
- Her friend, writer Lydia Cabrera, stayed with her for three or four years, finding the experience to be a profound inner journey.
- Teresa de la Parra died on April 23, 1936, at the age of 46, never returning to Caracas.
- A photograph taken by Lydia Cabrera in Madrid captures Teresa shortly before her death.