Farewell to Nydia Quintero, the tireless 'lady of solidarity'

On the morning of Monday, June 30, Colombia awoke to the sad news that Mrs. Nydia Quintero had passed away at the age of 93. With this, the country said goodbye to one of the most important and influential women in its history, an icon of philanthropy who left behind a legacy of solidarity that shaped generations.

No wonder. Remembered for her time as First Lady of the Nation while she was the wife of former President Julio César Turbay Ayala, Quintero won the hearts and admiration of Colombians for her outstanding charitable work leading the Solidarity for Colombia Foundation, an NGO that for five decades has changed the lives of thousands of people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Her death was confirmed on social media by her granddaughter, María Carolina Hoyos Turbay , current head of Solidarity for Colombia: “Mommy… fly high and in peace. Today, heaven welcomes a giant: the lady of solidarity. Thank you for being my mother for life, my refuge when I lost mine.”

At the moment, there is no official medical report on the cause of her death, but it is known that respiratory complications led her to be admitted last Friday night to the Santa Fe de Bogotá Foundation , in the capital of the Republic, the same place where, for just over three weeks, another of her grandchildren, Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay, has been fighting between life and death.

Likewise, Nydia's health had been deteriorating considerably, which, according to her family, has led her to remain under 24-hour medical supervision for the past few months. Due to these complications, she lost her speech six months ago.

With this, her family says goodbye to the former first lady at a time when they are also awaiting the recovery of Miguel Uribe Turbay, who last Saturday, June 7, was the victim of an attack in the Modelia neighborhood of Bogotá. Since then, he has been in the intensive care unit and has undergone several surgeries due to two gunshot wounds to the head.

María Claudia Tarazona, Uribe Turbay's wife, was one of the first to bid farewell to Quintero: "Doña Nydia, the lady of solidarity, passed away, leaving Colombia a better place. Her life sowed purpose and light. Her example will live on among us and will guide Miguel, who honors his grandmother's legacy in every act."

Nydia Quintero's life was marked by one word: solidarity. From a very young age, she demonstrated her passion for helping others and social causes, all of which was fostered at home, especially by her parents, Jorge Quintero Céspedes and Adhalía Turbay Ayala, to whom she was born on October 22, 1931, in Neiva, Huila.

This foundation of values ​​was the same one that for decades stood out as the basis of all her efforts, as the Solidarity for Colombia Foundation recalls in her obituary: "This was her banner, her constant struggle. For her, values ​​are the roots from which all other actions sprout, whose character is inevitably linked to the strength with which they are rooted."

And as she herself recalled, from a very young age she helped her mother bring aid when there were floods due to a rising river, to deliver groceries in poor neighborhoods or to visit the sick to comfort them.

She studied at La Presentación School in Neiva, with the Dominican Tertiary Sisters of Funza, at the El Rosario nuns' school in Bogotá, and after her father's death, she received a scholarship to continue her studies at the Antonia Santos National Girls' High School.

At the age of 16, she married Julio César Turbay Ayala, who by then was already a prominent leader of the Liberal Party. The wedding took place at the Santa Teresita Church in Bogotá on July 1, 1948, a union that lasted 35 years and produced four children: Julio César, Diana Consuelo, Claudia, and María Victoria.

Just three months before the wedding, Doña Nydia witnessed the events of El Bogotazo firsthand. “I was part of the ballet group, directed by a Russian teacher. When Dr. Gaitán was killed, we were rehearsing at the Teatro Colón, right in front of the San Carlos Palace, in the heart of Bogotá. Suddenly, some workers came in shouting, ‘They killed Gaitán!’” she recalled in a 2017 interview with El País de Cali.

It was in 1975 that all her desire to help the less fortunate came true with the creation of the Solidarity for Colombia Foundation , with the help of her daughter, Diana Turbay.

But there was still something missing to be able to spread her efforts to help throughout the country, and that opportunity came when her then-husband was elected president of the Republic, and she became the nation's first lady, a position in which she was able to experience firsthand the needs of people from different regions.

This is how Quintero recalled: “My mission was to accompany the president, to be close to the people, to understand their problems. I was aware that I could do many things, inventing them, because there were no guidelines. The first lady's only activity was to preside over the Colombian Family Welfare Institute.”

Against this backdrop, the first "Walk for Solidarity" took place, an event to raise funds for those most in need, held every year on the last Sunday in August.

Thanks to this and many other charitable activities, which include programs in education, citizenship, nutrition, social innovation, and community recovery and reconstruction, the foundation is estimated to have benefited more than 5.8 million Colombians.

When Doña Nydia separated from Turbay Ayala in 1983 (receiving an annulment of the marriage in 1986), she continued without pause with her charitable work, now married to the liberal politician and then presidential designate Gustavo Balcázar Monzón, whom she joined in March 1986.

During those years, the "Walk for Solidarity" was interrupted only once, in 1989, after the assassination of Luis Carlos Galán Sarmiento. At that time, Quintero could hardly have imagined that months later, she and her family would be experiencing the ravages of violence firsthand.

It was on August 30, 1990, when the country learned the news that her daughter, journalist Diana Turbay , mother of today's senator Miguel Uribe, had been kidnapped by Pablo Escobar's men.

Those were months of uncertainty and anguish, during which, despite the pain, Doña Nydia seized every opportunity to continue her charitable work. She recalled this in a 2011 interview with EL TIEMPO: “(During those months) I traveled to Medellín several times to search for Pablo Escobar and his mother. I was determined to deliver aid to several towns in Antioquia and Valle del Cauca where I suspected Diana might be.”

He never tired of searching for Diana, delving into the most dangerous areas of Medellín, which was then dominated by the cartels. Not only did he try to contact Escobar and his family, but he even "went to the house of a sister of the Ochoa clan and left several letters for Escobar. They never responded," he told this newspaper.

Their efforts were in vain. On January 25, 1991, in the midst of a rescue operation, Diana Turbay died after receiving a gunshot wound. Quintero's initial reaction is remembered as being quite harsh against the government of then-President César Gaviria, who initially denied the existence of a rescue operation.

But Doña Nydia knew how to maintain her daughter's legacy by doing what she did best throughout her life: helping others. Thus, within the framework of the Solidarity for Colombia Foundation, she created the Diana Turbay Scholarship education program. It has reached more than 2,000 young people in 14 departments across the country and is currently awarded annually to 180 people, who receive the opportunity to pursue higher education.

MATEO CHACÓN ORDUZ | Deputy Editor, Today's Life