Her maternal grandfather, Adolfo Grimberg, was a wealthy person who emi- grated from Bessarabia. Graciela Mabel Condemarín Grimberg, better known as Mabel Condemarín, actively participated in the field of special and differential edu- cation in Chile and had an exceptional academic work, especially as a professor at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile. Mabel Condemarin carried out her primary studies at the St. Mary of Iquique school, later studying at the Jose AbelardoNuñez Normal School and subsequently La Serena Superior Normal School. Specialising in teaching reading, she authored nu- merous publications in this area, several of them in partnership with her husband, the teacher Felipe Alliende. She eventually became an academic of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. In January 1990 she became part of the Ministry of Education, and was placed in charge of the program of language for 900 schools with low academic performance P-900. In recognition of her efforts in propagating new teaching methods for reading throughout Latin America, a number of schools named themselves after her, one in Peru and another in Colombia. * The Technical Lyceum of Chillan also takes its name from her at present. In 2003 the National Prize for Education Sciences was conferred upon her.