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I love Lucy’s style, her education from before, that authentic modesty that makes her speak or remember important facts and topics without the slightest fuss. She is so sober and simple, so elegant and austere, that she doesn’t feel wonderful and yet she is.
Every time they ask him to recount the events he lived through, witnessed or starred in, which are also of the greatest importance for the country, he does so as if it were something normal or something that did not warrant dwelling on. And yet everything in her life is interesting and exceptional.
I knew, of course, of his career in journalism, of his recognized name in Bogotá society, of his diplomatic work and his political struggles, of his experiences with power.
In fact, the purpose of this article is not to focus on what the country already knows or has said about her: her pioneering and extensive life in journalism; of her years on Cromos, on the radio, on Teletigre; of the extensive and endearing link of her with EL TIEMPO; of his time as consul in Milan; of that shy girl, daughter of the famous LENC and Mrs. María Calderónthe same niece of Don Agustín Nieto Caballero, who today already has six grandchildren and three great-granddaughters who are much more important to her than the thirty-three presidents she has seen pass through this atypical country.
My mom first met her in a group that people from different generations and professions attended weekly to discuss philosophical and literary texts and share coffee. The interest was to meet, review historical milestones, discuss great works and even go back several centuries.
For this reason, the day I greeted Lucy for the first time, she humorously told me, while we were having tea: “Imagine, with everything that is happening… and us reading Clovis.”
That afternoon we talked in his kitchen about his life and journalism, while we arranged the cups and shared a cake. In those days, Lucy was already around ninety years old, but it was impossible to associate her with her age. She spoke forcefully, took taxis by herself, and her youthful mannerisms, as well as the strength of her voice, would have prevented anyone from guessing her age.
Lucy Niego de Samper and her sister Clara, next to their father Luis Eduardo Nieto Caballero (LENC).
A century of life is covered by few, and many fewer, in the way of Lucy. She has been through everything in life: young widow, struggling to support herself, raising five children, losing two of them in adulthood, enduring what is considered the most inhuman of human pains.
But nothing has undermined the strength or inclined to this oak whose fire in the eyes seems recently lit. That just gives the measure of his attitude and his mood, of the ‘leather’ that he has had to put his chest to life.
Always ‘to the nines’, with her frank gaze, her decisive gestures, and her enviable twenty-something skin, if the myth of superheroes really exists, there is no doubt that Lucy is made of steel, like the Marvel heroines.
Recently her voice is more subdued, but the intention with which she leaves her body has not lost its power. In addition, at her age, not one iota of her temper, her personality or her character has changed. On the contrary, it is as if she was becoming more established in them every day.
The years have not made her malleable or hesitant, they have not moved her convictions one millimeter and, even less, have made her inaugurate herself in any range of the ‘greys’. Nothing shakes her thoughts or her convictions. That is definitely being at peace with yourself.
Curiously, Lucy was born the same day as Mario Laserna and four days before Álvaro Mutis. Three Colombians who left their mark on history (and of whom Colombia celebrates the centenary of his birth this year). For this reason, when I published my tribute to Laserna, I told her that she was also part of ‘The extraordinary beings’ –as I titled that text–, of those people as there are few anymore.
He wanted to show in this story his most everyday facet. Say that you like the color green, dress in dark tones, do crossword puzzles. Lucy believes in luck, in God, in destiny. She admires reading, sculpture, Gabo’s literature and Obregón’s art. She does not support falsehood or non-compliance and, although she admits to being grumpy, she is a frank and sincere friend whose motto is “do good without looking at who”.
To tempt her, you need a good vodka, a plate of pasta and, even if it’s not sweet, a tea with cake would be perfect. She is also a super Bridge player and, among what no one imagines, is that she was a tennis and basketball player, and that she knows how to knit. She has a phobia of snakes, a fear of cliffs, she prefers heels to tennis shoes, and her guilty pleasure – she confesses with sparks in her eyes – “is to think badly”.
The Llanos remain in his mind as an indelible memory, and his favorite place is the countryside, Anapoima, that place where he always likes to go. She loves flowers –especially orchids–, boleros and the song Brazil. The most beautiful day of her life, “the day of my First Communion” and something that marked her childhood “my singing classes with Elisa Uruchurtu, I remember that I was nine years old and we sang La viejecita at the Teatro Colón, it is something I never forget” .
The word he says most often is “thank you”, what cannot be missing from his night table is “a photo of my children”, he believes in love at first sight and the book Corazón, by Edmundo de Amicis is still present in the memories of this woman who recognizes herself as more mental than emotional and who, if she had not been a journalist, would have been an architect.
And, although he decided to put an end to his column in EL TIEMPO, every day the topics run over in his mind and he still has a lot to say. Editorial paths that close friends and we have the privilege of hearing from his own voice every time we see it.
What Lucy would change in the world if she could is injustice and, of dream tasks in journalism, she comments several: “In the past I would have liked to interview Gabo, currently to talk with Zelensky and to have had a drink with someone from history, it would have been with Obama”. Of his columns, the one that left him most satisfied was the first: “I told what the paperwork was like after they crashed me in the car, I was going with my young children. From there, Enrique Santos let me start a series of columns on more serious topics than those that had been assigned to me at the beginning”.
The greatest example in his life was his parents. She does not forget the ethical and intellectual influence of that great journalist who was her father, and how her mother was a great activist and pioneer in favor of the vote for Women. That home, which was the center of gatherings and meetings with great leaders and liberal presidents, was the environment that forged his spirit towards the great debates in the country, such as participating in the National Verification Commission in the peace process proposed by Belisario Betancur, or having fought against an entire status quo so that women could plan, which is undoubtedly one of her greatest satisfactions.
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“Travelling, the best thing in the world!” says Lucy emphatically, whose unforgettable trip was through South America with her relative Gabriela Samper. Also, if she could have a superpower, she would like to travel back in time. “I would do it to the past.” “The best time was her when she was twenty years old.” frustrations? “Many. For example, I would have liked to be perfectly bilingual”. A white lie: “Take away the years, but that when I was young.” And of things that she would have preferred to change, “of course I have regretted several.”
For this reason, to finish, I ask you what advice you recommend to your grandchildren and great-granddaughters: “Educate yourself, train yourself, learn.” A piece of advice for the country: “change to Petro”. A character from the story: “Santander”. A platonic love: “Alberto Lleras”. Person he most admires: “my daughter María Elvira”. And where I would like to be at this moment: “in Milan”.
On August 21, 1923, Lucy then turns one hundred years old. From now on, in this year of her celebration, she has given her a hundred hugs, a hundred flowers and hundreds of honors for the greatest journalist in Colombia.
