Prelate Calderon was born on January 31, 1872, in the shade of the Christian home formed by Eliseo Calderon and Rosa Otero. He received his rst letters at the Jose de Guanent; College, and then went to the Diocese Seminary of Pamplona, where he was ordained Priest on April 21, 1895. He worked in the Seminary and Cathedral of that city and the Parishes of Santiago, M;laga and Pamplona. Presbyter Calderon Otero was professor of Latin, Philosophy and History.
Father Daniel Jord;n gave a panegyric at his burial: “Thanks to the cordiality and solid piety, Monsignor Calderon Otero is an example of the Redemptor. He planted goodness, illuminated intelligences, counseled the needy and consoled the grieved hearts. Thus, with labor and virtue, he knitted a crown of priesthood on his head. During the celebration of his fty years as Priest of Pamplona, the city paid him an enthusiastic homage, and the poet Teodoro Gutierrez Calderon wrote him a mystic poem”. He died in 1952 as Canonist of the Pamplona Cathedral, where his remains rest under a mausoleum paid by the citizenship, friends and relatives of his San Gil.

JOSE MARIA DE RUEDA Y GOMEZ

Born in 1871, he was to become the Count of Cuchicute. His home, one of the most respectable and aristocratic of the city, was formed by Timoleon Rueda Martinez and Simodocea Gomez. The Count had Timoleon Rueda Gomez as his brother and Tulia and Silveria as sisters. Tulia married Jose Maria Ruiz and Silveria married Julio Laurens. Jose Maria was one of the most attractive and picturesque personalities of Santander. The writer Alfredo Gomez Pereira wrote his biography (122). The author relates a number of legends of this Sangilentilde;o personage. We will summarized some of his true events as told by his own lips, documents and living witnesses. He was the son of one of the richest families of the Pearl of Fonce,educated and expelled from the Guanent; College due to his absurd conduct. He continued his studies in Paris and returned to administer his haciendas: “Cuchicute”, “Majavita” and “El Jovito” which were great producers of sugar cane and coffee. He would hunt on these properties. Once, after an altercation with his father, he shot himself in an eye during an attempt against his life. From thereon, he had a glass eye and wore a monocle which added to his unusual appearance. Because of a ght with his brother Timoleon, Jose Maria left with his sisters for Europe, where he spent their money. In Barcelona, he joined the military under King Alfonso XII’s Flag. In Morocco, Jose Maria Rueda y Gomez obtained the rank of Captain for his intrepidity and loyalty to the Crown. Then, with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, he went to the Court in Madrid where he bought the Title of Count, not of Castile, but of Cuchicute, in honor of his native land. In Paris, the Count acquired an eccentric castle, surrounded by selected friends, and the eccentric and feminine world of the Capital of France. His existence was turbulent. When he returned to Colombia, he continued his extravagant life, similar to the one he had had in the City of Lights, but encountered the barrier of social prejudices. He ignored the criticism and was nicknamed “Crazy”. He was influenced by Ren;n that “Life was a farce and should not be taken seriously”. He spent his years coming and going from his haciendas to Bogot; where he was surrounded by people who admired his behavior, conversation and his mimicry of theater or operetta. He lived in San Gil, in a palace called “El Solitario” (The Loner) , which had at the entrance an emblem of manhood, a rooster, a balcony to the street called “Tonel de Diogenes” (Diogenes’ Tun) , and a narrow entrance hall called “El Paso de las Termopilas” (Thermopylae Pass) .
Gomez Pereira mentions the Count’s bohemian style, his adventures, his violent encounters and his romances. He wore expensive clothing and furs, had an imposing gure with his hairdo, jewels, magnicent horses, and used a whip which discouraged mocking. He wore tricornered hats and knew many languages. He was and looked like a seventeenth century gure in the twentieth century. He fooled attorneys and psychiatrists. He was murdered with a machete, near Socorro, on July 21, 1945. He died a heroic death. The national press gave news of his passing and did a novel type of biography of one of the most characteristic Santandereanos.

ANTONIO MARIA RUEDA GOMEZ

He was one of the most brilliant personalities of Santander. After nishing his studies at the Guanent; College, he became a jurist at the Faculty of Law of the National University. He was an attorney in San Gil, Barichara, Charal; and Velez. He married the Charalentilde;a Florentina Galvis y Rold;n, a relative of Camacho Rold;n, a gure of letters and politics. Antonio Maria Rueda Gomez became Minister of Justice during the government of Miguel Antonio Caro. Then, Rueda Gomez became Member of the Supreme Court of Justice. He died on April 17, 1909, leaving examples of virtue, character and heraldry. His sons were Dr. Maximiliano Rueda Galvis, considered the rst psychiatrist of the country, and Miguel Antonio Rueda Galvis. Maximiliano died in July, 1944. Dr. Jimenez Lopez gave a solemn panegyric: “He was a disciple of the Faculty of Medicine of the “Universidad Nacional de Colombia”, and of Professors Lombana Barreneche, Miguel Rueda Acosta, Luis Felipe Calderon and Manuel Castillo. Dr. Rueda Galvis was the physician Director of the Mental Hospital for thirty-three years. He was Professor of Psychiatry of the Faculty of Medicine of the National University of Colombia, member of the National Academy of Medicine, Founder and President of the Society of Psychiatry and Legal Medicine and recipient of the Boyac; Cross, given by the Government in 1941. His brother, Miguel Antonio is a physician who became Ambassador to Belgium.

MANUEL MARIA RUEDA

He was a physician that the Sangilentilde;a Society was proud for his moral authority and civil valor. He was a civil and military chief of the Guanent; Region, President of the San Gil Bank and other public and private entities of his town. He was Governor of Santander and its Senator almost for life. He left his mark of patriotism. Manuel Maria Rueda married Elena Silva and had a son, Ernesto Rueda Silva. Manuel Maria Rueda exercised his profession with genuine charity. His drugstore provided free medications. From his home, printing ofce and store many articles were sent to the hospital or needy people’s homes. Dr. Rueda would dress with impeccable pulchritude, and pursued all the events of his life with honor which marked his private and social conduct.
Dr. Rueda died of a heart attack on December 8, 1921. The Municipal Council, the Government and the Congress of the Republic deplored his death. With their decrees and ordinances, they exalted the great and generous civic virtues which adorned him. His austere life, dedicated to serve the people, was praised. His sudden death was a great loss to the Santander Society

ELEUTERIO RUEDA NAVARRO

He was born on April 9, 1824. He was educated in the Guanent; College. He entered politics young and became Mayor, Provincial Prefect and President of the Departmental Assembly.
The aristocracies of virtue, blood, talent and fortune were united in him and gave him great moral authority. He occupied honor seats in all charity institutions of his town, until his death, at the age of ninety-one. His biographer Julio Cesar Patintilde;o stated: “Mr. Rueda’s level of Christian life has to be compared to people like Saint Francis of Assisi, or Saint Paul”. Eleuterio Rueda was a citizen of the last century, of whom there is only memories of his goodness and civil gift”. A speaker, during his burial at the Society of San Vicente, in front of his body, stated: “We must remember now, with sadness, our fellow member who does not respond for the rst time to the roll call. Just yesterday, he was the rst in activity, in the impulse which is present among us, in the way in which it will always be, with the example of his vibrant personality who never stopped when criticized.

DIEGO ENRIQUE MELENDEZ

According to the erudite historian Jose Manuel Rojas Rueda, Presbyter Melendez was one of the most famous glories of the Santandereano Clergy. He was born in San Gil, July 15, 1842. In his diary he states: “Between July 15 and 18, 1842, I had my corporal and spiritual birth, respectively”. Both Diego and his brother Miguel became Priests. I remember them as a child, and their home entrance was called “the false entrance of the Cathedral”.
Between 1855 and 1860, Diego studied at the Guanent; College, as all Sangilentilde;os. He did mischief which did not save him from ferules and which he did not forget in the Seminary. He studied with the Jesuits in Bogot;. His teachers were Father Mario Valenzuela and Father Roberto del Pozo, future Bishop of Quito. After the great General Tom;s Cipriano de Mosquera dispatched his Decree of July 26, 1861, Archbishop Vicente Arbelez sent Father Melendez to Jord;n. There, Father Melendez became deaf and “started writing to console my loss of hearing”. One of his chronicles states: “Someone would ask: When will the Priest rest from buying a blank book and ll it with writing? Do not worry, the priest would answer; they are drafts to improve his writing. They are teachings of sane economics which gives to those who cannot prevent the future….”. Maestro Arias states that his pages are full of interesting events of the time from an ingenuous pen of a village priest. His life continued spending his inheritance buying paper for writing. He never liked idleness. He would shine the candelabras of his small church or spin cotton.

RAMON RUEDA MARTINEZ

The valorous General Ramon Rueda Martinez was born on June 9, 1826 and died in San Gil, at the age of eighty-eight, on January 12, 1914. General Rueda defeated General Bernal at the Macaregua Heights between San Gil and Barichara, on December 5, 1884. General Rueda directed the loyal government troops against the revolutionary liberals commanded by General Bernal. During this war, the President of the union, Rafael Nuntilde;ez, intervened with the National Guard which helped resolve the fratricidal hate of the Colombians. There is an anecdote, that one time, General Rueda was talking with his son-in-law, General Moises Garcia, and other friends, when someone commented on the whereabouts of “Godo” (Nickname for a conservative) ,.Bernal. And Garcia responded: “We are the “Godos” who ended up ghting in favor of Nuntilde;ez”. This phrase felt like a cold shower on all present. General Rueda was of great physical and moral stature, proud, of good manners, and one of the highest members of his society.

RODOLFO RUEDA

The General and Physician Rodolfo Rueda was born in August 1854 and died in October 1944 at the age of ninety. He formed a most respectable home with Leonor Rueda. He was a brave soldier, a self-denying physician and a noble pen. He studied at the Guanent; College and the Faculty of Medicine of the National University of Colombia. He returned to San Gil to practice his profession. He was the Treasury Secretary of the Sovereign State of Santander, during General Solon Wilches’ Administration. During the Thousand Day War, he joined the revolutionary army as a physician. He formed the Guanent; Battalion, supplied out of his own pocket, which he did not put under the orders of the Revolutionary Chief Rafael Uribe Uribe, because he disagreed with Uribe’s tactics and because of Rueda’s rebelliousness and individualism. During the war he served both as commander and as a surgeon. During the action at Iscal;, General Rueda was gravely injured in an arm. His temperament was energetic, stubborn, especially about his principles and ideas, which he served, loved and risked life, limb, honor, fame and wealth. After the war, General Rueda continued his practice and left politics. He refused every position offered to him. He wrote to his wife: “Pamplona December 15, 1899. Dear and Good Leonor: My injury is ne, but not my spirit. The loss of the revolution does not hurt me. The liberals are unworthy of their victory. They lack virtue, patriotism, talent and valor. Some deserve my praise and enthusiasm, but others inspire aversion and rejection. I have made sacrices of my liberty, material interests and my family which saddens me. It is an imprisonment which I do not know how long it will last, the separation from you and the children, the abandonment of my possessions, my arm injury. The maximum compensation is the charlatan Uribe Uribe as President of the Republic. I am saddened that a great portion of liberalism is apologizing for their attitude. Yours affectionately, Rodolfo”. During the last years, Dr. Rodolfo Rueda did not study because he had the opinion that: “The study of medicine was no other than the history of the errors of that science”. Once, he was in the main plaza with some friends, chatting, when somebody said there was a “Medical Junta” for a notable sick person. Dr. Rueda said: “That man is going to die”. When asked why such a bad prognosis, he answered: “It is not easy for one doctor to kill somebody, but when they are together, in a gang, nobody escapes”.

RAIMUNDO RUEDA RUEDA

This prominent jurist was born in 1888, in the home of the General and Physician Rodolfo Rueda and Leonor Rueda. His brother was the notorious engineer and journalist Genaro Rueda Rueda.
After he nished his Law studies in Bogot;, he practiced law in Zapatoca, Charal; and San Gil. He served as Legal Advisor to the President of the Republic, Alfonso Lopez. Then, he returned to practice his profession, in San Gil, until his death in 1949 at the age of sixty-two.
The judicial decisions of Magistrate Raimundo Rueda could form extensive volumes with a deep knowledge in the science of law and the humanities. They are true treatise for hermeneutic consult. He was distinguished in all aspects of his public and private life of whom the Sangilentilde;a Society was proud, especially, his children Rodolfo, Raimundo, Nina and Blanca.

GENARO RUEDA RUEDA

He was the prominent brother of Raimundo Rueda Rueda. He graduated from the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the National University of Colombia. He was Secretary of Public Works of the Santander Department in the Administration of Alfredo Cadena. He married Ema Acevedo and had a son, Alfonso Rueda Acevedo. The illustrious attorney and historian Carlos Arturo Diaz wrote in Genaro Rueda Rueda’s biography: “He was a man of rened elegance in dressing and thinking. He was generous, understanding, tolerant and correct in all ways. He loved his people, glory and traditions. He was a beautiful exponent of his race and his history”. The Santandereano Ruedas descend from the rough Castilian race who came to Santander in the sixteenth century. They, and Genaro Rueda Rueda formed a true dynasty of patriarchs. He died in Bogot; on September 10, 1967.

LUIS FELIPE RUEDA

He was educated at the Guanent; and Espiritu Santo Colleges. He became an attorney, practiced in San Gil and died in 1924. Like his brother Manuel Maria Rueda, he became a Member of Congress. Luis Felipe Rueda was an excellent orator and defense attorney, son of attorney Luis Rueda and father of Alberto another attorney and member of the Superior Tribunal of San Gil and of the engineer Germ;n. The competent engineer, Germ;n Rueda Amorocho, died prematurely in Manizales.

FROILAN GOMEZ

This known artist was born in 1829 and died in Bogot; in 1898. He was a famous calligraphist and lithographer. He painted many murals in San Gil and Bogot;, in churches and cultural centers. He specialized in painting marble, glass and funeral monuments. He was author of a calligraphy text which was forgotten when the typewriter appeared. He drew miniatures to perfection. Some of them are in the San Gil Cathedral. One of his sons, Juan Nepomuceno Gomez, became a photographer.

LUIS MARIA CUBILLOS PAREDES

This pedagogue was the son of Patricio Lorenzo Cubillos and Sofia Paredes. His teaching methods were distinguished by the originality of a famous educational rule that stated: “The letter enters with blood”. In effect, he always carried a beautiful ferule all of his career. For some time, he was Provincial Inspector of Public Instruction of Guanent; and was the Rector of San Jose de Guanent; College. During the Thousand Day War, he was a lieutenant of Infantry.
During his death, on August 18, 1938, the Municipal Council of San Gil and the Ministry of Public Instruction associated with the grief of the Sangilentilde;a citizenship.

TRINO POSADA REYES

The biographer Juan de Dios Arias says that Trino Posada Reyes was born in the Noble City of San Gil, on May 9, 1847. He was son of the physician Gregorio Posada and Georgina Reyes. He studied in the same college where many of the men were initiated in the letters and sciences. Trino Posada Reyes became a vocational pedagogue from 1874 to 1887. He created a collection of music and songs with titles such as: “The Two Greatnesses, The Miser and the Poet, The Soul and the Sigh, The Two Pigeons, The Republic, Prize and Punishment, The Sanctuary, The Three Flags, The Slave, Manuela Beltr;n, The Miserables, The Students, The Scholar Pepito” and others. In 1885, he founded the Socorro Polytechnical Institute. He lived without political party passion; he was on the side of peaceful and good natured men, excepted from parochial differences. As satisfaction of his efforts and duties, he had the love and gratitude of hundreds of disciples whether they were priests, physicians, attorneys, engineers, pedagogues, artisans, etc.who honored their families and society. Trino Posada Reyes had all the conditions of character and intelligence of the authentic educator. His clearly dened vocation, love of his profession and Benedictine dedication carried the educating apostleship and artistic talent. His death caused mourning in his native city and the Departmental Government dispatched the Decree 37 of April 20, 1929 ordering a marble plaque in his memory to be placed on his birth home, honoring his memory on occasion of his death on April 19, 1929, at age eighty-two.

CARLOS PARRA

Carlos Parra was born in 1870 in the home of Eugenio Parra Ortega and Patrocinia Lizarralde. His pen adorned the best pages of newspapers and magazines. His combative and temperamental oratory intervened with intensity in the political ghts of the region. As a parliamentarian, he did not incur into excesses of demagoguery and sectarianism. He served his city with civism worthy of exaltation. He was the liberal Civil and Military Chief against the government.. He wrote in the weekly El Imparcial (The Impartial)
, in 1911 in the defense of the region and his party interests. He wrote a monograph entitled Proles of the City of San Gil . It was printed in 1917 with the economical and bibliographic resources of the town of that time.
The Government ordered by Decree 138 of 1932 its publication in the Santander Library. Carlos Parra invested part of his assets in the creation of the Guanent; Battalion, under the orders of General Rodolfo Rueda. He died of a heart attack on February 2, 1930, when he found out the results of the presidential elections which he lost to Enrique Olaya Herrera. Many private and public institutions echoed his feelings of the end of his existence.

EUGENIO RAMIREZ

On June 24, 1956, died in the Capital of the Republic, Monsignor Eugenio Ramirez, a prominent member of the metropolitan clergy. He was born in San Gil on August 13, 1870. He joined the Bogot; Seminary and was ordained Priest by the Archbishop Bernardo Herrera Restrepo, on November 13, 1901. Presbyter Ramirez served in the Archdiocese Seminary and the Bogot; Archbishop’s Treasury. He was of a peaceful, kind, generous and good spirit, a constant apostle of charity. He followed the Bible and gave a good example of his preaching, with the basic Christian religion commandments of charity and love. He gave spiritual and material help to anybody who came to him. As a member of the Bogot Seminary, he was a great benefactor. He gave the farm named Nazareth to the institution. It has been a place where seminarists have gone for vacation from the capital. Prelate Ramirez died there.

GUSTAVO SILVA PARRA

He was born in the Pearl of Fonce, on January 25, 1892, the son of Juan de Dios Silva Silva and Eugenia Parra Lizarralde. After nishing his studies at the Guanent; College, Gustavo Silva Parra went to Europe to study economics. After he returned to San Gil, he married Married Margarita Vargas Rojas and had four daughters: Lucila, Leonor, Carmen and Eugenia; the latter married Pedro Arenas. Gustavo Silva Parra served his city in the Municipal Council, and his interventions were patriotic. He was dedicated to agriculture in his San Francisco Hacienda. He died prematurely at the age of forty-two, on June 30, 1934.

JAIME BARRERA PARRA

He was one of the greatest Colombian writers, brother of the jurist and politician Manuel Barrera Parra. The marble plaque on the house of the northeast corner of the San Gil Plaza Mayor states that he was born in 1890. This house became the Museum of Colonial Art.
He studied in the San Pedro Claver College of Bucaramanga with the Jesuits. He wrote of the Bucaramanga of Pedro Vicente Rueda Prada, the Cuchicute Count, Carlos Torres Dur;n, Luis Enrique Antolinez, Aurelio Martinez Mutis, Luis Ernesto Puyana and Jose Antonio Escandon, collaborators of his magazine Vida y Arte (Life and Art)
. Jaime Barrera Parra traveled to Europe and later founded the magazine Motivos where he published local chronicles and “Weekend Notes”. Vesga Duarte states that Barrera Parra “Looked at life through the glass window of a bar”. He had a tragic death at the Alc;zar Theater of Medellin. According to critics, Barrera Parra wrote best about Medellin and Antioquentilde;os. The former President, Eduardo Santos, states that “Barrera Parra used incomparable prose, that he left thousands of pages which will not be forgotten. Nobody had a more vigorous sensation of the land of birth; nobody had a more robust pen in the service of the purest ideals”.

FACE OF THE AUTHOR

The author of this book was born in the city of San Gil on April 19, 1922 and died in Bogot; on November 2, 1997. He was a descendant of one of the founders, of the Royal Ensign, of one of the Comuneros and of the Mayors of the town. He did his studies at the Guanent; College and the Faculty of Law of the Javeriana University. He published his rst literary writing in the known magazine Auras del Fonce , thirty years ago. Since then, he had numerous journalistic publication in Santander and the rest of the country. These abundant publications account for his versatile production from verse of adolescence, politics, lyrics and history. He dedicated most of his life to the practice of law. His daily columns were entitled “Ventanas del Interior” in the Informador (Interior windows in the Informant newspaper), of Santa Marta, “Glosa de Rito” in the El Frente and El Deber (Rito’s Gloss in the Front and the Duty Newspapers) , of Bucaramanga which consecrated his name as an agile and modern journalist. In Bogot;, he directed the cultural magazine Indice Cultural (Cultural Index)
, He founded the Santander House and the Center of History of his native town, whose members are important national intellectuals and historians. The author published several works: Cantos de Adolescencia (Adolescence Songs), 43 pages of poems printed in Editorial Helios, Bogot;, 1951; Jurisdiccion Electoral Colombiana (Colombian Electoral Jurisdiction) , 230 pages printed in Multilith, Bogot;, 1957; Prosapia y Coronas Funebres (Ancestry and Funeral Crowns) , 74 pages, Editorial Cultura, Bogot;, 1959 and Bolivar en Santa Marta , 207 pages, printed in El Litoral, Santa Marta, 1962, a publication of the Bananero Bank.
He proclaimed, proudly, of being liberated of prejudices and conventionalism. He rendered attention to his books, wine and his friends. Rito Rueda Rueda wanted to link this book to his native city of San Gil and to sketch a rm landmark of his name on earth. We are men today and tomorrow we will not be. When we disappear, the memory of us disappears. But the cities and the books do not die, and they are the mirrors of themselves and of their creators. Whoever links his spirit to a city assures his memory.
Rito Rueda Rueda was a natural of San Gil, a city with soul and with tradition, which has reminded her sons, her pre-history, her history and her legends, the stone of the Colony, her coat of arms and her destiny. He married Eugenia V;squez Lara and had two sons, Eduardo and Miguel Rueda V;squez. San Gil is one of Colombian tri-centenary cities which can tell history. This book is proof. Her people are tall of live round eyes, of Semitic nose and Castilian in their way of living and dressing.
The Sangilentilde is ne, elegant, courteous, proud of his traditions and blazons. Rito Rueda Rueda was an integral Santandereano, a typical and complete Sangilentilde, wherever he lived; wherever he went. Now, he is linked, eternally, to his city, if that is possible with his new book, which is a spiritual shield of his land, the Santander Culture and the country, because San Gil is the meat of the country’s history, blood of tradition and a proud and silent city that ran at the Fonce’s bank the history of the Colony and the Republic. Rafael Ortiz Gonzalez.