GUZMAN PROMOTING LATINO CULTURE ACROSS PRAIRIES
This city is very appreciative of the work done by Andrés Talero during the time he served Colombia as its first consul general to Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. But political appointments are for a fixed duration, and while Talero and his wife would have liked to stay in Calgary longer — especially as their son is studying at the University of Calgary — he completed his term here and is now back in Bogota.
Recently arrived is Colombia’s new Consul General Jorge Guzman, who has already shown his enthusiasm for the posting by organizing a number of relationship building activities.
It’s his first diplomatic appointment, but Guzman has banked a lot of experience working for his government.
He served in Caracas, Venezuela, for four years as an adviser to the ambassador, promoting unique social and cultural binational projects at the border with Colombia.
His next appointment was as adviser to the vice-president charged with development of the Wayuu Indigenous people of the northeast corner of Colombia. The area is desert, and the people exist primarily on their herds of goats and growing beans. There are few roads, so children are away from home from Monday to Friday attending school.
For 16 years, he worked as an adviser to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with an objective to enhance institutional capacity, providing a strategic, comprehensive, appropriate and timely response to the daily challenges faced by the country’s border regions.
Guzman was involved in fostering and supporting economic development in 77 municipalities near Colombia’s borders, while strengthening integration with neighbouring countries.
When he joined the ministry’s Prosperity for Borders Plan in 2010, it had a budget of only $300,000, but by the time he was posted to another position, the budget had grown to $10 million and he had worked on 150 projects with an expenditure of $20 million.
He says it was a great experience creating multi-disciplinary teams involved in health, education, culture and economic development.
In his new position, Guzman is responsible for more than 11,000 Colombians across his jurisdiction, with more than 8,000 of those residing in the Calgary area.
More than 40 per cent are hard-working refugee families who settled here 10 years ago, and 50 per cent are professionals who moved here to work in the oil and gas sector.
Guzman is a strong believer that social development, cultural promotion and sports are ways to build strong relationships, and he’s working to teach second generation Colombian families the values and culture of their native land.
More recently, Guzman has been studying at Loyola University in Chicago for a PhD in global political science, which he completes later this year.
One of his first organized events is a cultural workshop for children aged seven to 12 who are taking painting classes from local artist John Fredy Rivas Gomez, held at the consulate office in the Nellie McClung historic house.
The consulate has also welcomed Toronto-based representatives of Pro-Colombia, a government agency that promotes international tourism, foreign direct non-traditional investment, and the Country Brand of Colombia, who held a presentation for local businesses here last week.
Tourism and investment in tourism are also key targets for Guzman, who is keen to promote the diverse beauty of his country that today offers more areas open to ecotourism since the signing of the peace treaty with the FARC rebel group in Colombia.
A passionate Latino, Guzman feels that his work here must include the support of all things Latin American. He has formed a relationship with Consul Paloma Villasenor of Mexico to work together as a strong voice in promoting the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries to our south.
NOTES:
Carson Ackroyd, former vice-president of marketing and communications at ATCO, has joined Tourism Calgary as its new senior vice-president of sales. In his new role, Ackroyd will oversee a variety of key projects and new sales initiatives, including leading Tourism Calgary’s sport, culture and major events team, and stewarding the new Calgary sport and major events committee.