A two-story yellow house stands on a corner next to the traditional Pablo Tobón Uribe theater. Lights and sauce come out of it, and several groups of friends congregate outside to chat freely.
This is La Huerta, a place for art, culture, music and dance; that came to contribute to the good atmosphere of La Playa Avenue.
“In May we turned two years old,” says the founder and director of the house, Mauricio Tangarife, however, one of those was completely lost in the restoration of the house. “It hasn’t been easy, rather very hard.”
This two-story building was once the home of a traditional Medellin family.
“I loved her. She had lived right across the street from what is now the Vaqueros nightclub and always saw the property. So I looked for a friend who could buy it and then I signed a five-year lease,” says Mauricio.
Today, the house has become a meeting point for those who enjoy the experiences of the center.
A garden full of life
Those who visit the cultural house will find it open from four in the afternoon. A bar on the first floor, where salsa rhythms prevail, is a warm welcome for newcomers.
“We have live music on Saturdays, storytellers, stand up comedy. There is also the bookstore space.”
The project goes beyond the walls that contain it. On the one hand, there is the La Huerta Cultural Center, and on the other, the La Huerta foundation. The latter was created three years ago and its corporate purpose is everything related to culture, art and sports.
“With the foundation we have a project that we develop in popular neighborhoods, it is called Leer Para Vivir. People who visit us or follow us on the networks donate books and so we go to the popular neighborhoods of some municipalities of Antioquia. We have book stands, we carry out cultural activities and to those who participate in the reading and writing workshops we donate the books that we receive,” Mauricio clarifies about the project.
“I always wanted to have a foundation. I was born with that vocation to help others. What happens is that people set up foundations when they have money and I did it the other way around,” he continues while smiling.
The Blue corridor and the efforts to contribute to the sector
Mauricio arrived in La Playa more than 24 years ago, as a worker at the emblematic business known as La Taberna Diógenes; and, from that, he never left again.
“I have had 11 businesses since I arrived in 1999 to work in La Playa, I arrived at Taberna Diógenes and worked there until 2007. Then in 2009 I arrived at La Huerta, a bar next to the Little Theater that already had that name. It was there when everyone began to know me as ‘Mauricio el de La Huerta’ and that’s why the name of the cultural house,” he points out.
Perhaps because of its proximity to this space, it has been concerned about developing, along with La Huerta, other strategies that ensure the recovery of the area.
“Here we also created another project which is the Blue Corridor, which seeks the recovery of a space that covers four races: 39, 39a, 40 and 42 which is up to Bellas Artes. The Pablo Tobón Theater, Fine Arts, schools, 76 commercial businesses and six buildings are linked,” he comments.
The idea of this corridor is to join forces to generate positive changes in the area, as has been done in other sectors of the center.
“We are betting a lot on the Blue corridor to achieve what is the transformation of La Playa and at some point return to what it once was,” says Mauricio.
Currently, La Huerta manages 17 programs such as art, acting, and theater workshops, and these are aimed at all audiences. Furthermore, when it comes to the dissemination of art, the doors will always be open.
“This is my life project and I don’t want it to end, whether in my hands or someone else’s. I find it spectacular that people can come and tell me that they want to exhibit their art and I can give them that space, we are going very well with the project, I think I have all the desire in the world, I am prepared for whatever comes,” he concludes.
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