The say good times don't last forever. During the first three decades of the twentieth century, the north embodied this truth. The golden age of saltpeter was in its final death throes. Places that once shone with the brilliance of gemstones threatened to become ghost towns. In the hamlet of Yungay, desolation was encroaching at the speed of light. This small town saw the birth of a woman who should have been named Malvarrosa but, because of a typographical error, was registered as Malarrosa and thus given an identity that would seal of her destiny.