This Sunday, Sonia del Rosario Sarmiento Gutiérrez passed away, a courageous woman who was not satisfied with being one of the best architects in the country, but who left invaluable traces for Colombians, such as having been the architect of Colombia’s entry into the World Heritage Committee of the Unesco or being the soul of the most important Cancer Treatment and Research Center in Latin America, built in Bogotá.
From a very young age, Sonia faced great challenges, starting with facing a kidnapping on January 26, 1983, when she was one of the architecture students at the University of the Andes. She finally regained her freedom, after 6 months of infamous captivity. This tremendous situation did not discourage her, but rather strengthened her character, always affable and extremely sensitive to others. For several decades she stood out as one of the best architects in the country, participating in several of the projects from Construcciones Planínas, as well as creating and leading international spaces such as the Arquitectour, which brought together some of the most prominent architects in the world around analysis. of the perspectives and innovations in the matter, taking advantage of this window to publicize Colombia, its talents and its architectural riches.
She worked for her country. One of Sonia’s most notable tasks was as Colombia’s ambassador to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for several years, where she was known as one of the most authoritative voices in the defense of the intangible heritage of humanity. There he made a valuable contribution, such as Colombia being elected a member of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, within the framework of the 18th Assembly of the Parties to the Convention for the Protection and Conservation of Heritage, which took place in Paris in November 2011. He was also essential in the approval of the UNESCO Convention on the protection and promotion of the diversity of cultural expressions and its subsequent approval by Colombia. Thanks to Sonia’s contribution, numerous populations and cultural customs were included as world heritage sites, which gives them special protection.
However, life had prepared her for the greatest challenge: being the heart of the most important health project in the recent history of Latin America. She bore the responsibility of turning her father’s dream into reality, she led the construction of the Luis Carlos Sarmiento Angulo Cancer Treatment and Research Center (CTIC).
This center is one of the most modern in the world in the treatment of this disease and has established itself as the leader in Latin America in this sector, with a construction area of 100,000 square meters, 146 hospital rooms, 30 intensive care beds, 8 bunkers for radiotherapy, 56 chemotherapy chairs and 9 operating rooms that allow the highest quality care to be provided to thousands of patients from the public and private health systems, without any distinction. Thousands of patients in our country already have care on par with the most developed countries in the world, as highlighted last week by Anna Fagotti, one of the world‘s leading authorities on cancer treatment.
I will always remember Sonia with great affection, as a person with enormous sensitivity and I will thank her for making me part of a project that, like the CTIC, has saved the lives of thousands of Colombians. We will all always remember her because her legacy, added to the numerous social works that she accompanied with the help of her father, is already part of the intangible heritage of Colombia, that which she defended for years as our representative at UNESCO.
(Read all of Luis Felipe Henao’s columns in EL TIEMPO, here)