"We Caleños have to feel proud that we were really the precursors of independence as the Cali anthem says" Nubia Gaona.
Nubia Gaona Huergo Born in Cali, she studied at the Sagrado Corazón school and graduated from Nuestra Señora del Pilar, she is a business administrator at the Universidad del Valle.
About his career:
I always loved the topic of tourism, and Cali was a city that at that time did not have that vocation of tourism, but I was passionate and still passionate about sharing with people, knowing the tastes of locals and visitors and the service is something wonderful for My, then in that order I studied in Cali and Bogotá a series of postgraduate courses that took me by the hand to know the whole concept of creating tourism product; The hotel industry was key for me, so I did a specialization in senior hotel management at the externship, I was in Italy knowing how with cooperation it is possible to do tourism and also in Argentina working on a city-marketing issue that we later brought to Cali in a wonderful international congress.
My entire career has been based on service, people, people, creating a product, making an undertaking to publicize, promoting the city and promoting the country as such.
¿How do you see Cali on a tourist level and what is the role of Hacienda Cañasgordas in city tourism?
Today I feel great joy to see that Cali is having an awakening, an interesting development, that projects have been developed to promote the city as such and now at Hacienda Cañasgordas I feel a huge joy of all the challenge that it is living and will live, from the entire historical concept, how our history, our ancestors become a great alternative to create products from many cultural aspects, also from the environment, research, commemorative events and other aspects that enrich the National Heritage.
¿What did he find when he became the executive director of the Eusebio Velasco Borrero Hacienda Cañasgordas foundation?
I think that my predecessor had done a wonderful job, the restoration process had already begun based on a popular action where she participates, the Ministry of Culture, the Valle del Cauca government and the Santiago de Cali mayor’s office, participate in this process with six thousand million pesos, distributed in equal parts by these entities, and this begins the restoration of the house and the sugar mill; When I arrived, work was being done on the house and the mill had been suspended, but after a very interesting process of many agreements between all parties.
We, as the Eusebio Velasco Borrero Foundation, the ICAHN, which is the entity that works on everything concerning anthropology and archeology, and the INCIVA, have managed to find alternatives for the process to continue; We aspire that by 2019 the Hacienda is delivered and the archaeological explorations that have been made from the sugar mill are captured and documented so that the people who come to know the Hacienda Cañasgordas, learn about the enormous heritage values of this beautiful place that, without a doubt, It was an industrial emporium, a forerunner of the sugar and honey economy, and also an engine for the political, social and cultural shaping of our region.
¿What’s coming for Hacienda Cañasgordas in 2019?
We have very interesting projects in 2019 and from the moment we open, the Hacienda Cañasgordas will have a cultural offer that we will announce in due course, for now we can tell you that there is a great opportunity to hold events, everyone who has a historical perspective and cultural because this place is unique in our department and in our region it is the only Hacienda with the independence concept, so from that point of view we project the approach.
Executive Director - Eusebio Velasco Borrero Foundation, Hacienda Cañasgordas
¿How we Caleños can contribute so that the hacienda is that great tourist project that you are talking about?
I think that we Caleños have to feel proud that we were really the forerunners of independence as the Cali anthem says, here on July 3 was where there was the first cry for independence and then it was on July 20 in Bogotá, that is a A very important fact that the Caleño has to know, recognize and empower himself.
From this moment on we have to tell by different means our history as Caleños linked to the Hacienda Cañasgordas, be ambassadors and promoters of a place that has a great historical, environmental, architectural importance and not only from the literary point of view through the Real Ensign that is also important, which is why most people know her, but also from the independence concept that I just mentioned.
