By: María Eloina Conde
Today we celebrate 467 years since October 9, 1557 when the first city in the Venezuelan Andes mountain range was founded: the city of Trujillo and Diego García de Paredes is the name of the person who, alluding to his hometown in Spain, would give us the name that fills all Trujillanos with so much pride. 33 years separate us from half a millennium and it is easy to say but it means blood, sweat and tears of many generations of which some have marked the direction of the nation. I have said it before and I affirm it once again: Trujillo, and especially Trujillo Capital, is a necessity in the national history, through its foundation and capacity for adaptability and pragmatism in its multiple moves until its last settlement, through the key participation in the history of the Independence of Venezuela, and of course for the many men and women who have had our capital city as their cradle.
Trujillo is no longer that “portable city” of the past. Despite the crises, despite the diaspora, there is in a good part of the people of Trujillo a deep roots in their city that, however, does not prevent us from seeing that it is necessary to point towards the challenges that await us as neighbors, as parents, as children, as workers and, of course, as Venezuelans.
Having a vision of a very uncertain future can result in an exercise full of hope or anguish, they are two sides of the same coin and of course that just thinking about Trujillo Capital in a few years has been recurring in my head for some time. In my experience as a candidate for mayor of our municipality in 2021, I was fortunate to know the vision of great men and women of our municipality and also of the state, those worried Trujillo residents and some busy people from the capital with whom I shared in dozens of meetings or informal conversations, and my conclusion was always the same: what the future of Trujillo should be is very varied depending on who you talk to, your own journey, your study of the past and history and even your age and gender. of the interlocutor, but I discovered that at least in the geography of the state, the capital still does not leave them indifferent. There is the tension of those who love and do not feel reciprocated by their land, those who have radically innovative plans and those who cling to tradition, utopian views and other more realistic ones, and all of them have been feeding my own vision.
A few days ago in one of those many conversations to comment on Trujillo, I was talking to a good friend about my vision and the possible alternatives to solve some of the problems that seem to be invisible to our rulers. I returned to the time of my candidacy and the government plan that we call “garra”—alluding to the frontine bear that is so much ours—and that is still so valid after these years. From the most basic with public services to the need for an education that teaches to think and question reality and not one that forces us to repeat slogans or messages as axes of the actions that must lead to Trujillo being a capital not for a reason. administrative or historical but because of the weight of the city in the life of the state because, unfortunately, there is always that feeling that the capital is only capital on its birthday and then it is forgotten, that there are resources only for the holidays and not for the daily well-being of the people of Trujillo. Because the daily lives of those of us who walk its streets are full of clear views of the lack of management, affection and willingness to honor the historical memory of our capital.
In the aforementioned conversation, my friend asked me: Eloina, what is the capital of California? After having named about 10 cities of the more than 100 that the state of the American Union has in its immense territory, I did not find the correct answer, to which he replied: “it is Sacramento, Eloina, the capital of California is Sacramento, and it is very good that you do not know it even if you know the city for its professional basketball team or some similar reference, that can mean that, among other things, it plays its role as a capital very well.” This statement generated in me a quick search for other examples like those and although there are many famous, developed and populated capital cities, there are many others that have been able to adjust to other standards in which recognition is not the objective, but rather efficiency, leadership and commitment to the well-being of its citizens, as well as safeguarding the heart of the institutions.
Trujillo Capital is certainly light years away from Sacramento in development, as well as from Albany, the capital of New York, or many other large cities in the world that are not capitals of their countries or their states, such as Bombay in India, Toronto in Canada. , Sydney in Australia or Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo in Brazil, but there is a lot from those cities that we can learn and put into practice to be the capital city we were born to be.
Where can we start? For having clarity about the future possibilities for a city like the one we have today, which houses approximately 190 thousand inhabitants in its little more than 410 thousand square kilometers of territory, with natural, human and tourist resources that range from the planting of coffee to cambur, from the Castán River to the Páramo de Ortiz or Cristalina, from La Plazuela to the World Monument to La Paz, unique in the world, and cultural heritages such as the Muñeca de la Calenda, just to name a few of the multiple blessings of this land, which is also the city of peace par excellence and for its patron saint the Virgin of La Paz, who also this week celebrates the anniversary of her canonical coronation.
Trujillo must adjust to the new times and that does not mean building skyscrapers or transforming itself into a futuristic city, but it does mean becoming a self-sustaining city, a city with environmental awareness and practical culture in topics such as recycling and reuse of valuable and increasingly scarce resources such as the water. Tujillo must be a clean and illuminated city, full of artistic and sporting life in variety, friendly to all its inhabitants and offering opportunities for all groups of our population. We deserve a city that allows us to find and find ourselves and of course that is a possible capital city if we all do our part.
Trujillo Capital is a city with a lot of history and past but also a lot of future and possibilities for growth and flourishing on its way to resuming in its own right the role that it can and should play in our state and also in Venezuela. And this is a task that must be above ideologies and partisan interests because when we have 467 years of history there is an immense commitment and the duty and hope that our children and grandchildren continue to nourish this tradition.
That is why my words today are a call to each of us Trujillons who love our land, those who understand our history and cultural heritage and want to see and have a capital city that is a national and, why not, global example, to remember that this way As great ideas begin, it is essential to begin gathering and adding wills that both inside and outside our borders are waiting to say with true pride: I am from Trujillo Capital.
María Eloina Conde
Trujillo, October 9, 2024
@MariaEloinaPorTrujillo
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