When Martha speaks, you feel as though history is passing right before you. She recounts it because she’s lived through it firsthand in her seven decades of life, traveling across Colombia, initially, because her father worked in public works, and later due to the liberal-conservative violence of the 1950s in Boyacá—a time marked by a capital “V” to denote a cruel era. Eventually, more peacefully, her handicrafts took her from the coast and Santa Marta’s Sierra Nevada to the territory of the Guambianos in Cauca, finally settling in Cajicá, Cundinamarca.

But while she recalls the sad history of hiding in the mountains with her 11 siblings during her childhood, what she speaks most fondly of is her love for nature. It’s beautiful to hear her describe the stream that bordered her childhood home in Campohermoso, the trees, wild lulos and cape gooseberries, and the crabs. She also reminisces about donkey rides to buy meat and deliver milk to neighboring farms. “This journey leads one to engage in constant dialogue with nature,” she says wisely.

It was precisely this admiration for the natural world that led her to study Biology and Chemistry—a profession tha, however, she couldn’t pursue due to lack of opportunities. She later attempted to open a nursery school with her sister, named Recrear, but that too didn’t materialize. Although life prevented her from following those imagined paths, it presented her with the vocation for observation she had cultivated since childhood—an intense photographic observation which engraves in her memory the landscapes that draw her attention. This led her to dedicate herself to handicrafts, affectionately naming her enterprise Recrear, where she would “recreate” by making dolls.

Memories of her childhood landscapes flooded back—selling eggs in Ubaté’s plaza with her mother, fascinated by the peasant women in their long skirts, aprons, petticoats, espadrilles, and braids. She recalls the baskets, animals, the green hues of plantains and the yuca, all of whom, along with the many markets she visited, became her inspiration for the detailed figures she crafted from jute and recycled materials. Her work has earned her numerous regional and national accolades. In 1996, she even traveled to Spain as a representative of her country, showcasing her intricate compositions of countrymen and women.

These characters have names as significant to her as their importance. Dioselina, Campoelías, Julia, and Valentín—symbols of our country’s people—are her tribute to them.