Talking with Ana Rosa is like hearing the voice of experience, of a life well-lived, and in her gentle, affectionate cadence, there’s a sense of fulfillment from having contributed to shaping an identity. We’re referring to the iconic weavings of Fonquetá, those landscapes embroidered in wool from a small village in the Bogotá savanna that many of us have brought into our homes, both in Colombia and abroad, often as beautiful cushions that captivate those who behold them. Stitch by stitch, images emerge: a little donkey, a pair of colorful hens, a country woman with braids and an apron, the Chía mountains, doves, rabbits, or little dogs probably barking at passersby along the path, and always, always, the Valvanera chapel, a symbol of this cold weather landscape.

Through Ana Rosa, this unique craftsmanship in the country gains a face and a history. She reminisces in her measured pace, recalling past times when Doña Graciela Samper de Bermúdez (the first director of Artesanías de Colombia) spearheaded the workshop’s creation over 60 years ago. At that time, newly married, Ana Rosa joined other women in the village to learn the craft. She had learnt some basic stitches from her mother who, like so many other mothers, embroidered and mended household items. Additional skills came later from the nuns, but it was under the guidance of the workshop’s founder, Doña Cecilia Iregui de Holguín, that Ana Rosa honed her craft. They learned to create the typical attire of Cundinamarca’s country women: blouses and embroidered skirts, wide petticoats, appliqué flowers, bags, and ruanas, eventually incorporating regional landscapes into their work, proudly labeling it “Fonquetá-Chía-Colombia.”

Born in Yerbabuena, a hamlet near Chía known today for housing the beautiful Caro y Cuervo Institute, Ana Rosa moved at the age of five to Fonquetá, where her father, a farmer, bought land for their large family of ten children. At twenty, she married to leave home, fortunate to find a good man who has been by her side for over six decades. She modestly recalls that nothing was easy back then, and aspirations were limited; she had hoped to become a dressmaker. Yet, life’s wisdom led her to the path of manual labor, particularly wool embroidery, and she considers the sewing workshop her university.

Listening to her, one thinks of those individuals who arrive in a place and fall so deeply in love with it that they become its ambassadors. This was the case with Doña Cecilia Iregui, a woman who, besides being a close aide to President Alfonso López Michelsen and the Director of the Presidential Popular Integration Secretariat in 1975, dedicated her life to studying and promoting craftsmanship. Her works include seminal research such as “Man and craft: ceramics, basketry and weavings from Boyacá” from 1983 and “Craftsmen, Guilds and Brotherhood in Santafé de Bogotá” published in 1988. In 1965, she laid the foundation for the Fonquetá Artisanal School, using her own home, aimed at providing women in the hamlet with a trade to improve their livelihoods. At twenty-five, Ana Rosa was among the first participants.

Reports from the time note that by its thirtieth anniversary in 1990, the workshop boasted over one hundred weavers. Today, few remain from that original group, making Ana Rosa a rare witness to a history that turned a village into a symbol of what we call picturesque—beauty captured in time and embroidered landscapes where rural customs endure in every wool stitch, forever cherished with tenderness.