Emilia Castro de Barish

Who is Emilia Castro de Barish?

Ambassador Emilia Castro de Barish is currently, after more than fifty years as an active Costa Rican diplomat, an Ambassador Emeritus of Costa Rica. She was the first woman to be appointed a career Ambassador in the Costa Rican diplomatic service and, for many years, she was the dean of Costa Rica's foreign service.

Daughter of Rafael Castro Quesada, Secretary for Foreign Affairs of Costa Rica from 1928–1929, the then Ms. Castro entered the Costa Rican Foreign Service in 1948 when she was appointed to the Embassy of Costa Rica to the United States, in Washington, D.C. In 1949 she left the diplomatic service to marry Mr. Frederik I. Barish. On 20 November 1956, she was seriously injured in an airplane crash. Her husband, who was flying the aircraft, died and their two small children were also injured.

Mrs. Castro de Barish re-entered the Costa Rican foreign service on May 1957 and was appointed first secretary to the Permanent Mission of Costa Rica to the United Nations. On 1970 she has promoted to Minister Counselor and, on 1981, she was promoted to the rank of Ambassador. By the time she retired, on 1999, she was the diplomat who had been accredited the longest continuous time to the United Nations.