The holy hospice of “El Ensayadero” dates from before the Comunero Revolution. It had an amphitheater for the Guanentina Faculty of Medicine. List from a market. Today it has its own income and ve hundred beds. The Society of San Vicente de Paul. The asylum for the elderly and orphans. The spinsters’ money box.
This house of health dates from before the Comunero Revolution, and it is due to the kind gesture of Diego Melendez de Valdez, whom the Sangilentildea citizenship should thank for the creation of the institute of benecence that the region is proud. The family Silva Otero has been a source of constant progress for San Gil. The Holy Hospice of “El Ensayadero”, today called San Juan de Dios Hospital, is one of the best institutes of benecence of the country. It has it own income and offers services with the most modern hospital techniques. Its spacious rooms are specialized in the different tropical diseases. It has operating room, anesthesia, x-rays and clinical laboratories. It has a big storage of medications and twenty physicians, and complete guarantee for hundreds of patients. Founded in 1777, the hospital was located, then, near the main bridge of the Fonce River. The illustrious Council of Justice had the responsibility for the budget and functioning of the institution. A century later, the religious members arrived and today serve in this institution.
Later, in 1830, it was given the name of “El Ensayadero” or San Juan de Dios. It has large gardens and a chapel in the center. There, the remains of Melendez Valdez rest. Since 1873, the Sisters of Charity have been serving at the hospital. During twenty years, Mothers Emerencia and Anastasia directed the institution. In 1864, an Act reads: “In the town of Santa Cruz y San Gil of the New Baeza, on September 3, 1864, the Council has done its monthly visit. They saw 11 patients, among them, 4 women and asked them about the services. One complained of the food. To this, the Council members recommended enough food, clean clothes and the Holy Sacraments from the Holy Mother Church. Signed, Pedro Jose Rueda, Francisco Hidalgo Rodriguez, Juan Agustin Melendez de Valdez and Jose Isidro Carlier”. Also of interest, we insert a document about the hospital from the Municipal Archives: “To organize the services of the hospital, there was a meeting on February 5, 1806, of the members of the Council: Pedro Jose de Vesga y Corrales, Manuel Antonio Entralgo, Narciso Martinez Parra, Pedro Jose Cortes and Jorge Nieto Paz. They ordered the following weekly food for the patients: Six pounds of cocoa, 11 reales (ve cent coins) 18 pounds of sugar, 6 reales 50 pounds of meat, a peso per pound 9 reales in salt 18 reales in hens and chickens 4 reales in rice 8 reales in oil 8 reales in maize 8 reales in candles and 4 reales in butter for a total of $884 pesos per year. Item, one hundred pesos a year can be used for wine, vinegar, oil, cinnamon, cumin, almonds, verdigris, alum, sulfur, senna, rhubarb, absinth and roots. Item, a lady would serve as nurse with a salary of sixty pesos per year. Item, other ladies would serve in the kitchen, as nurse assistants with a salary of eighteen pesos per year. It is not possible to close the page on the San Juan de Dios Hospital, without mentioning the name of the physicians Rodolfo Rueda, Manuel Maria Rueda, Calixto Camacho, Manuel Ribero, and Ortiz Surez, to the benefactors Jose Dolores Rodriguez and Santiago Mrquez, and the Sisters Paulina, Francisca, San Pablo, Cayetana, Angela and Agustina. The last two died in the hospital, while on duty.

THE SOCIETY OF SAN VICENTE DE PAUL

It was the fth of its kind established in Colombia, second in importance after the one in Bogot. It was formed by Ricardo Carrasquilla, Jose Joaquin Ortiz, Manuel Marroquin, Hernando Holguin y Caro, Marco Fidel Surez and Carlos Martinez Silva. This world institution has been founded in Paris by Federico Ozanam, on May 13, 1833. Such respectable entity dates in San Gil from January 17, 1869, according to its act of foundation: “In the City of San Gil, on January 17, 1869, the following met in the Auditorium of the Guanent College: Antonio Silva Otero, Roso Rivero, Juan de la Cruz Silva, Daniel Melendez, Pedro Silva, Francisco Duarte, Lorenzo Cubillos Ramon Silva, Diego Prada, Sergio Galvis, Froiln Gomez, Trinidad Vargas, Antonio Maria Rueda, Francisco Gomez, Teolo Forero, Pedro Parra, Vicente Parra Cadena, Rudesindo Silva, Ramon Martinez Ferreira, Pedro Gomez and Juan de Dios Ordontildeez, with the objective to established in this city the Society of San Vicente de Paul. Carlos Martinez Silva was named President and Ramon Silva, Secretary. A volume of over one hundred pages was published in San Gil on the occasion of the Diamond Anniversary, by Julio Cesar Patintilde, in 1944, which gives us idea of the vicissitudes, triumphs and works of such a respectable institution. In 1870, the Society supported a school and shelter for children under the direction of Lorenzo Bautista. Later on, the building and the temple known by the name of San Vicente de Paul were constructed. In 1896, the San Vicente Library was founded. Another homeless shelter named “Bread of Saint Anthony” gave food and shelter for fty individuals, and included a store of second hand clothing. Mr Javier Galvis gave supplies from his store. Carlos Gonzalez sent drugs from his pharmacy. Silva Otero provided rewood from his farms. Manuel Silva Uribe collected food with a sisal bag on his shoulders. He used to ll his bag several times. Other distinguished volunteers were: Manuel Silva Bantildes, Eleuterio Rueda Navarro, Luis Felipe Rueda, Timoleon Rueda, Gustavo Silva, Juan de Dios Silva Silva, Jose Dolores Silva, Jose Dolores Rodriguez, Julio Cesar Patintilde and others. Other San Vicente works are: the Onzann Barrio, where poor families are able to rent homes at a low cost and the school of art and trades which was owed to Manuel Becerra Duque. Similar works were done by the Priest Almanza Rueda in Bogot. The gallery of pictures of the Presidents of the institution belongs to: Carlos Martinez Silva, 1869 Daniel Melendez, 1870 Ramon Martinez Vargas, 1872 Pedro Silva Otero, 1874 Manuel Silva Bantildes, 1876 Antonio Maria Rueda, 1878 Manuel Silva Otero, 1880 Jesus Martinez Ordontildeez, 1883 Eleuterio Rueda, 1885 Manuel Melendez, 1888 Domingo Silva, 1889 Manuel Maria Rueda, 1890 Juan Vargas, 1893 Gregorio Mantilla, 1897 Leopoldo Rueda, 1899 Eugenio Parra Ortega, 1906 Jose Dolores Silva, 1908 Pascual Moreno, 1909 Juan de Dios Silva Silva, 1910 Manuel Silva Uribe, 1915 Patricio Gomez, 1921 Ismael Reyes, 1923 Jorge Melendez Rueda, 1925 Carlos Villamizar, 1934 Alberto Rueda Amorocho, 1944. Manuel Silva Bantildes left a farm to the institution. Today there are about one hundred distinguished citizens, members of the organization founded by Martinez Silva when he was a student of law and political sciences in the capital of the Republic.

THE ASYLUM FOR THE ELDERLY

The Society of San Vicente de Paul moved the citizenship on September 9, 1890, to obtain funds for a home of the elderly next to the San Juan de Dios Hospital, run by the Sisters of Charity. The school of arts and trades was closed during the civil war. In one time or another, in the same building, the Ofce of the Judicial Circuit and the Diocese Conciliar Seminary have functioned. In 1874, an orphanage was built. It has a nice church dedicated to Saint Anthony of Padua. It is directed by the Sisters of Tours. Another orphanage of the “Nintilde Jesus”, was founded in 1923 by Leonor Rueda Elisa Gomez and Eva Silva.

THE AIRPORT

On October 22, 1922, the first airplane “Bolivar” landed. A famous Colombian aviator, Colonel Camilo Daza, crashed in the area in 1923. The land for the airport was donated by Sofia Parra Rueda and her sons Roberto and Carlos Rueda Parra. The landing strip has 1,413 meters of length and 100 meters of width. It has been used to transport cattle and passengers to different areas of the country and North America. The Los Pozos Airport is linked to the city by a 6 kilometer road built by the engineer Jose Maria Rueda. Passengers can go from downtown to the airplanes in ten minutes. The biggest plane to land was piloted by the Sangilentilde Captain Pedro Tapias. The Airlines “Avianca” and “Taxi Aereo de Santander” fly to Bogot in 60 minutes and to Bucaramanga in 20 minutes.

THE BRIDGES

The city has five bridges which communicate her with other towns. The first one was built out of iron in 1877. Timoleon Rueda Martinez signed the contract with the first engineer graduated from the Guanentina University, Abelardo Ramos. It was called the Brooklyn Bridge. It had lanes for automobiles and pedestrians. In 1938, it was replaced by a concrete structure of less aestheticism. A bigger one was inaugurated by President Rojas Pinilla, during his visit to San Gil in 1954. Another bridge over the Fonce which communicates the market with the Pueblo Nuevo Barrio was built in 1959 by the Burgomaster Benjamin Ardila Diaz. A bridge over the Curiti Brook was built in the memory of Carlos Martinez Silva which communicates the city with the Gallineral Natural Park. It was inaugurated in 1940 by the then Governor of Santander the illustrious Sangilentilde physician Luis Camacho Rueda.
Over the same Curiti Brook, a kilometer further, there is a bridge called Guasca which goes to the town of the same name. It was built in 1908, under the administration of the Governor of the Department of Galn, Juan Francisco Mantilla. Later, the name was changed to Alcantuz Bridge in memory of the Sangilentilde Comunero Lorenzo Alcantuz, whose head was exhibited on a pike, as punishment, to San Gil, by order of the Spanish Authorities, in 1782.

THE FIRST AUTOMOBILES

My father and my uncle introduced the first automobiles to the city in 1917. One was a disassembled Ford brought by mules from Barrancabermeja where the cars had arrived in a steamer. The two vehicles were for private use of the families. They would travel through stony streets to a place called Montebrujas. I saw one of the old cars, broken down, in the home of Campo Elias Franco. The road between San Gil and Socorro was built in 1930. Years later, these towns were linked with Bogot. There were transport companies for passengers, one owned by Olegario Crdenas, and another one, which later became the Copetrn Company, owned by Ricardo Rueda Rueda.

THE ANTS

There is a product which the Colombians know as “Made in Santander”. These ants have been exported to the United States with the hope to be acclimatized in those lands. This is a product very characteristic since pre-Columbus times. Armando Gomez Latorre states: “The denomination of ‘big ass ants’ is not vulgar among Santandereanos who call a spade a spade from the poorest to the most sophisticated. This name is the exact graphic manner of calling this nutritious and delicious hymenoptera. Their geographic area is circumscribed in Santander, more concretely, the ancient provinces of San Gil, Zapatoca, Socorro and Soto. Velez, Garcia Rovira, Valle del Magdalena and Norte de Santander do not have them. Its location extends to the Guane Culture. Their lands are yellow, calcareous, hot and they appear during Lent. In San Gil, Barichara, Guane, Charal, Zapatoca, Socorro, Chima, Oiba, Aratoca, Curiti, Mogotes, Valle, Piedecuesta, La Mesa de Gerida and Ritoque, the insects appear as clouds and are the terror of the cemeteries. A pound of ants is about triple the value of a pound of coffee. Their arrival gives a beautiful picture of the customs of the towns and villages mentioned. The children do not go to school and everyone appears with a variety of containers to catch the ants. There are discussions and even ghts for the possession of the ant hills. Everyone gets bitten by them. Later, the ants are sold in stores and markets, wrapped in maize husks, and they are more solicited than bread. The first one to mention the big ass ants was Presbyter Pedro Simon. He afrms that the Indians of Mesa de Geridas have established rights over each ant hill. He adds that to avoid conflict, the Guanes would encircle the area. The ants were toasted . The Spaniards found it repugnant, but soon they began to like it. There are many chronicles written by Manuel Ancizar, Joaquin Quijano Mantilla, Nepomuceno Navarro, Juan Cristobal Martinez, Jaime Barrera Parra and Camilo Forero Reyes. One of these writers stated: “If the Santandereanos do not eat the ants, the ants will eat the Santandereanos”. This is a true characteristic of the Santander inhabitants. (The ants are listed as one of the recipes in one of the nest epicurean explorations of Colombian regional cuisines entitled The Taste of Colombia by Benjamin Villegas, Gloria Mercedes Duque, Antonio Montantildea, et al. Villegas Editores, Second Edition, February, 1997, ISBN 958-9138-98-5, pages 168 - 170.)