My maternal grandfather was from Florence. There he bought forests, cut them down and sold the wood, and he continued to do that until a forest caught fire and his capital ran out. So he thought of coming to Chile, building up his capital again and returning to Italy. But when my grandfather went to work in Santiago he never collected money because he was a very honest man.

I started studying at a public school that was in Vicuña Mackenna near Marín, and at the age of four I already knew how to read. I was there until 1914 when my parents went to Chillán [about 400 km south of Santiago]. My dad invented a system to have hot water in the kitchen and had already made several sales in that area. I remember that in Chillán we bought from a French grocery store. There I was at the American Lyceum for Young Ladies, which was where the Humanities were studied. I entered the first year and studied there for two years. Since I was a good student, they offered me a scholarship until I finished school, but my mother did not accept it and preferred to send me to study in Santiago, where I went to live in Aunt Hortensia's house. When she passed away, she left behind two children, one was two years old and the other nine. My parents, and then me, took care of them.

I was in my last year at the Liceo de Aplicación and a German mathematics teacher would take us out to the blackboard to do exercises. I was the only one who could solve them, and with that system I learned a lot, but my classmates didn't. So, for the final examination, I had the idea to teach my classmate and they all did well. The teacher was surprised and I felt that teaching was for me.

... arrived in Chile in the second half of 1889, in compliance with a contract signed at the Chilean Legation in Berlin on 2 July of that year, to render his services as professor of mathematics, physics and cosmography. ...

Dr Grandjot, as his students called him, arrived in Chile on the 1 May 1929, from Germany, hired by the Government to "provide his services as a Mathematics Professor in the educational establishments of the Republic. He would have the obligation to serve up to fifteen hours a week of classes, including seminars." Upon arriving, he began teaching "classes on Higher and Elementary Mathematics, Philosophy and Physics at the Pedagogical Institute of the University of Chile."

... when they appointed me an assistant [at the Pedagogical Institute], they also appointed two high school teachers, that is, it was two teachers and me. They gave me the third course and there I had to work with Grandjot. He explained to me what exercises he had to do and it became clear to me that the Germans had a different method of teaching. It was something very singular, I don't know if it was better or worse.

Her son, Fernando Escobar Antoine, recounts that in that period, together with her teaching activity at the University of Chile, at the Universidad Técnica del Estado, at the Liceo Lastarria and at the Kent School, Guacolda developed an intense interest in relation to the new methods of teaching mathematics. Along with all the teaching activity, she also assumed managerial responsibilities at the Technical University, where she served as Secretary of the Teaching Council of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry between 1954 and 1958 and for the period 1958-1962 she was elected president of the same Teaching Council, a position equivalent to that of dean of a faculty at the University of Chile. In the latter, she was Head of the Mathematics Department of the Faculty of Philosophy and Education in 1959 and between 1960 and 1962.

Fernando continues to explain that his mother represented the Universidad Técnica del Estado at the Congress of Latin American Universities held in Buenos Aires in 1957 and was a delegate of the Chilean Universities before the Commission for the Preparation of the Scientific Teaching Report in 1960. That same year she was appointed Head of the Baccalaureate Commission in Mathematics, a position she held until 1965. At the same time, together with a group of colleagues, she began an intense activity to improve teaching at the Centre for Mathematics and Physics teachers in Santiago, where she was elected president for the period 1960-1963. In 1962 she received an invitation from the Governments of the German Federal Republic and France to visit universities, industrial training centres and other educational establishments.

Fernando says that at the end of 1962 his mother retired from all her positions after having completed 35 years of service. But the following year the University of Chile honoured her by appointing her an Extraordinary Professor in the Faculty of Philosophy and Education, to which she returned to teach at the Pedagogical Institute and at the School of Psychology of the University of Chile. Between 1963 and 1968 she was head of the Department of Mathematics of the Faculty of Philosophy and Education of the same University. Between 1964 and 1973 she served as president of the Centre for Teachers of Mathematics and Physics of Santiago. In an effort to spread the teaching of modern Mathematics - specifically, set theory - she, together with Professor María Lara, published the book "New Mathematics for Parents." She continued to teach at the Kent School until 1985, the year in which she formally ceased teaching. She was then 77 years old.

She is a small woman, with sparkling eyes, white hair, dressed in bright colours, an easy smile, a firm voice to tell me that sometimes she forgets a name. It is hard to believe that she is over 70 years old, but I have come to her house knowing that when she turned 100, in April 2008, she received the Medal of Scientific Merit from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Santiago de Chile.

It was not contemplated that she would speak, because we thought that at her age she would not want to, but she herself asked for it. She got up on the stage, used the microphone and recalled her years teaching at the Liceo Lastarria. She mentioned that she not only started to take classes there, but she also met her future husband.

Two years ago, a colleague challenged me with a geometry theorem. It was a mental exercise, to remember the things we learned in high school, but for me, more linked to physics, it was complicated. One day I went to Antoine's house, I put the problem to her and the next day she called me to give the answer. I often visit her and we talk about current affairs, politics and, of course, mathematics.

It was an easy problem that I was able to solve. ... I like to prove theorems, although I'm not looking for new ones, I prefer to read and do sudokus. But if people come to ask me something, I try to help.

Doña "Guaco" - as she was called by people close to her - passed away on 22 August 2015 at the age of 107. She attributed her good physical and emotional state to the yoga exercises that she practiced for thirty years, until the late 1990s, when she injured her shoulder. From then on she devoted herself to wushu martial arts. Until shortly before her death, she was still doing gymnastics a couple of times a week, reading historical novels and spending part of her time doing sudoku puzzles. She also, from time to time, received a student who needed help to solve a mathematics problem.