Through the Right of Petition, the regional entity is requested, if activities that mandate legal provisions are being carried out in that historic property.
By Aura Isabel Olano
After the house, in which the scientist Francisco José de Caldas lived, ceased to be the headquarters of Caucatur, the department of Cauca, owner of that historic property, assigned it to the Revenue Office of the Ministry of Finance, with bank branches. Unfortunately, that property is in a deplorable state of abandonment, when it is an Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC), which is part of the heritage not only of Popayán and Cauca, but of the Nation.
Precisely, on February 14, 2023, the architect Diego Caldas Varona, in his capacity as a member of the Association of Friends of Francisco José de Caldas, Asocaldas, addressed a right of petition to the governor of Cauca, Elías Larrahondo Carabalí and to the secretary of Infrastructure of the department, José Rodrigo Astaiza Gallego, to report on the management plan for that asset of cultural interest (BIC) Casa Caldas, carried out by the Government of Cauca, in compliance with decree 182 of 2012 and the obligations contained in Law 397 of 1997, Law 1185 of 2008 and Decree 763 of 2009.
After a series of considerations and clarifications, such as the biographical review that this asset of cultural interest has in the Ministry of Culture, the architect Caldas goes on to the requests, among them, that it be made known, in compliance with current regulations, what is the Special Management and Protection Plan that the department of Cauca has prepared with the appropriate personnel for that Asset of Cultural Interest Casa Caldas, and/or determine in order, what have been the administrative actions that have been executed by and before the Ministry of Culture to achieve this task.
The petitioner asks you to report, in chronological order, on the activities that, carried out at Casa Caldas, have allowed the public to know, disseminate and appropriate as a society the historical value that the content of the scientific and investigative work that represents , in the different fields of knowledge, gave the hero Francisco José de Caldas, with his works to the cause of the fight for the Independence of the Nation and the advancement of science and Cartography in New Granada.
Likewise, what activity has the department developed at an academic, investigative level and in other orders, in order to generate the conditions and strategies for the best knowledge and appropriation of these assets by the community and thus guarantee their conservation and their transmission to future generations.
In addition, what has been the inter-institutional use that, with the Popayán chair, aimed at generating in the citizenship its link to scientific knowledge, research and history, has been given.
It also asks about the activities and programming that the department has planned to carry out in the years 2023-2024 for the dissemination of the cultural heritage that represents the life and work of the wise Francisco José de Caldas.
Likewise, find out about the use of the land that the departmental administration is giving to the BIC Casa Caldas property and what is its relationship with the historical and cultural value that the use of that property represents.
It also requests information on the current state and the use that is being made of the historical material and systems that were delivered and donated to Casa Caldas, in order to disseminate and comply with the legal mandate of preservation of the existing historical legacy in that well of cultural interest.
deteriorated property
As a result of this right of petition, the newspaper The bell He visited Casa Caldas, dedicated to the collection of taxes for the Department, which he found in a terrible state of conservation, with broken ceilings that show off the reed, walls with holes, which were once painted, broken lamps, dirty floors, neglected, offices little nice with tangle of wires.
In the backyard, very neglected, an exhibition of reproductions of illustrations made by the wise Caldas, whose originals are in the Botanical Garden of Madrid, Spain. In what used to be the kitchen, there is the old wood-burning oven, in which shoes can be seen, as well as garbage cans, rags, cleaners, among other disorders.
This property, which is a patrimony in charge of the Department of Cauca, is in conflict with the Francisco José de Caldas House Museum in Bogotá, restored a few years ago by the Colombian Military Engineers with the collaboration of Asocaldas.
But, the house of who was a great scientist, the first environmental journalist, as well as a politician, soldier, researcher and hero of independence, is abandoned. There are opinions, according to which, if the department cannot take care of this patrimony and comply with current regulations, as can be seen, that it pass the management and direction to the Colegio Mayor del Cauca University Institution (Unimayor) to take charge of promote science, technology, research, culture and other academic activities. What’s more, that Institution is carrying out research work on the wise man Caldas.