An unavoidable mission

After some time living in Houston, where she got a Master's degree in Literature, she continued with some classes about cultural administration and worked for institutions connected to Museums. While flying back to Chile, she saw her goal clearly. "It was as if I had seen the word Heritage written on the plane's window", she told a magazine. So she became the Chilean Cultural Heritage's Executive Vice-President from its foundation, in 1995, a position she holds until now.

In five years, her work made the Corporation move an average of a million dollars per year. She became President of the Friends of Museums Chilean Federation. In the year 2000, through a project done with the Cultural Donations Law, she created the first webpage of Chilean Cultural Heritage in the Entel Internet website: www.nuestro.cl. Its English version started in November, 2002.

It was her initiative to create the Bicentennial Award to distinguish annually, until the year 2010 -Chile's 200 years of Independence- ten figures to be highlighted on the areas of culture or social service. Until now, the award has gone to Eugenio Heiremans (2000), Nicanor Parra (2001) and Gabriel Valdés (2002).

Bases and projections

The Corporation has worked on solid ground, clear criteria and a vision of patrimony which is wide and updated. "It is something you build with experience", believes its Executive Vice-President. Her principles are based on a view of patrimonial work which is live and dynamic, with results that have to be long-lasting and significant. The stories written by peasants, a meeting of popular singers, an archeological investigation or the restoration of the Agustinas Church. All these are equally valuable from a heritage point of view. The Corporation also works on areas as important as education and tourism.

"It is recently being understood the potential of tourism as a way of conservation for patrimony, which generates promotion, work, resources. And, what's most important, the recognition of its value by the inhabitants of that city, village or neighborhood", she says.

This woman, classical and visionary at the same time, claimed among other things the space of decorative arts, an issue of which she is preparing a book. "I am fascinated by the way we live. It is not about having expensive things, but how the objects that surround you help your life quality. The objects reflect a person and a family's identity. It is a vital thing".

Her mother had a special interest in decoration and gardening. Parallel to this practical and aesthetical side, one finds her intellectual concerns, all from a father who was a writer and avid reader. "What most attracted me as a child was the world of ideas and theories", she remembers. "That's why I studied Philosophy. I was raised in a family that encouraged the search of a free thinking".

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