In this installment of the Life Stories series, created and produced by Isabel López Giraldo, we present an interview with attorney and administrator Mauricio Vega Lemus.
Who is Mauricio Vega Lemus beyond what he does?
Familiar, loyal, good friend and in love with the family, with my wife María Paulina, with my daughter Helena and with my city.
How is the family formed from the mother’s home?
I was born in a very nice marriage; my dad always behaved like a boyfriend with my mom, they had a very nice relationship, in a very close family. The cousins live on the same block, in the same condominium, with my grandparents and with all my uncles. I only have one sister and I also grew up with fifteen cousins.
The concept of family is deeply rooted, which means that at present I cannot find a better plan than to stay in the condo for a weekend. My daughter Elena is the queen of all in the family and now she is waiting for the arrival of her cousin, who is about to be born.
What are those most expensive childhood memories?
My memories are closely tied to music. My dad sang and played guitar, just like my uncles and all family parties were enlivened with his music. They are unforgettable moments that I miss very much. I remember a song, which was one of the first that came to me, understanding that my father and my uncles played bambucos, tangos, rancheras, which do not contain their own lyrics for a child, but “El Arriero va” is a southern song that he mentions in some part: “the penalties are ours, the vaquitas are foreign …”. The thing about the vaquitas sounded familiar, childish, very much like my language and I always asked them to sing it to me.
Good food also brought us together. My mom is a great cook just like my dad was. Every Sunday we have lunch with her, it is a tradition, although when we were newly married, my wife asked me to go out, to visit Salento and other places, until she got used to the fact that that day is destined for the lunch meeting with her mother-in-law. Today he enjoys it more than anyone.
When I studied in England I had an Italian girlfriend who taught me how to prepare risotto and pasta, but she also prepares traditional and homemade dishes. Breakfast on Sundays at my house is my responsibility.
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What are the friends of always and forever?
At school we had a very nice group of friends, with many of them the bond is maintained, some much closer; some took other directions, but I feel that they are very friendly.
Follow the news of El Espectador on Google NewsI could mention Constantino Vallejo, an Agronomist who lives in Pereira and therefore I see him frequently. Andrés Álvarez, who became a genius, studied economics in Los Andes, did a doctorate at the Sorbonne and today is a professor of economics at its University; He shares with me the taste for Adriana Varela (Argentine tango singer), so there we have that meeting point.
Mauricio Vega López, my namesake who works with me, whom I see every day. Salim Chujfi, who lives in Germany, is an engineer, I see him very sporadically, but I still love him very much. Julián Buitrago lives in Medellín therefore we don’t see each other that much. Juan Diego Velásquez and many other friends from school who continue to be so today.
At the University I had three great female friends, Alexandra Osorio, Mónica Monsalve and Gina Parody, with whom I speak at least every two days.
What is being a friend?
The loyalty. The truth does not differentiate between friend and family. The true friend is part of my family and I consider it that way. Over the years, very valuable friends keep appearing to me, for example, Lina Álvarez who is now manager of Andi in Pereira, Juan David Sánchez and his wife Martha Alzate. Five years ago I brought a girl from Uruguay to work with me and she is one of my great friends, María Caravia… The list is long.
Graduated from a leadership training college, Calasanz .
With my promotion and a few more sadly ended a golden age of the school and wonderful for those of us who had the opportunity to go through it, under the baton of Father Fidel and if I review the friends I told you about plus many other people who passed through school, they are all very important people in their area, they excel at what they do. That common factor leads me to think that something strange happened at school in those years thanks to Father Fidel, but after that I don’t know the school and I would be wrong to judge it.
When I was in the fourth year of high school, I began to write columns in the newspapers and we created a group called Futuros Dirigentes and we set about getting a youth supplement in the Diario del Otún called “Espacio Juvenil”; It started monthly, then weekly, and it took a lot of time.
Constantino reminded me of the frequent way in which I left school even though this was not something allowed by the institution, but the Father acolyzed me so that I could do interviews and so on. When I was a teenager, my grandfather gave me a motorcycle and it was the one that I moved around the city on. Father never questioned me, because he knew that I was restless and gave academic results.
That gift catches my attention and at that age …
My dad was furious at the time, but talking to them as an adult, they told me that since I was so responsible and judicious, they gave as I responded; I had a lot of freedom in adolescence, but it’s because I earned it.
How to understand that at the age of thirteen he assumed a responsibility such as that implied by writing a weekly column for a newspaper?
I have no idea because my father was a businessman, like my grandfather and like my uncles and my mother, a housewife, that is, in my family there was no public or a journalist. The only one I could name is a brother of my father, not by blood but by choice, Germán Castro Caicedo, whom I saw permanently in my house, is the closest that could influence me.
Once I was given the task of making a newspaper for school, not printed but glued on a sheet of newspaper, and I was given the political issue in the raffle, the same one that I did not know, but my father suggested that I write about the differences of the Liberal and Conservative parties, for which he took me to the two directories for information. In the first they did not pay attention to me while in the Conservative they received me very well, I was attended by Emiliano Isaza Henao, we spoke for four hours: for the same reason, at the beginning of my life I was a conservative.
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It was the only time in my life that I did active politics, in Conservative Unification with Emiliano Isaza and Jaime Escobar. There I became an Alvarista, I think that more than a conservative I was really an Alvarista, I had the opportunity to meet him, to be close to him; To say that I was his friend is pretentious, but I was able to accompany him in many moments and learn a lot from him. The only library that I keep jealously in my room is the one with the books that Álvaro Gómez Hurtado gave me.
With the absence of the leader, my taste for politics is gone. He launched himself into the presidency at that time through the National Salvation Movement, I was appointed director of the Movement in Pereira when I was fifteen years old, also in the Central Committee in Bogotá; I attended meetings when I was still in school. Germán Chica was a companion of that moment, once in the Plaza de Bolívar we wrapped ourselves in the Colombian Flag saying to vote for Álvaro Gómez, I don’t know if he remembers it.
Politics is a passion and I remember living it, but with the death of Álvaro Gómez I did not feel it again.
Could it be that another opportunity for politics in Mauricio’s life is not too far away?
I see it difficult because the family, my wife, my daughter, make priorities change. Today I think of my girl and the exercise of politics in someone like me would be very dangerous because I am a very forward person; I believe that the public is to be put at the service of others and not to benefit oneself or to calm an ego and if I had the opportunity to get to a public office, mayor, governor, councilor or congressman, I would do so many things that I think should be done, good things but that would raise a blister in many sectors, that my life would end and that would not seem fair to me, not even for Maria Paulina, much less for Helena.
But what city are we leaving to our children when the leaders who can move it forward are marginalized by the risks involved?
That is precisely why I am in the Chamber of Commerce, that is why I returned, because work here allows me to do many things for the city, not all that one would like, but at least many without taking that risk, without endangering the city. safety and stability of my daughter.
Where does civic engagement come from?
“To yours, rightly or wrongly.” My dad used to tell me that he had to fight against the teaching his grandmother gave him; He was very strict and did not agree with the pandering of things that he should not and that is what happens to one of Dad’s. When I wrote my first column and showed it to him, the first thing he asked me was “where did you get this from ?!”, when I had been writing it for two months. My advisor was my father, but when he went to live in Cali for two years and came on weekends, my uncle Guillermo assumed that responsibility.
How do you discover the vocation of life?
Spiritual retreats were customary at school and in grade eleven they were special because of the vocational theme. Father Jaime Escobar told us that more than choosing a career, one should exercise the vocation that he felt. Some years ago I found myself in a fiddling with the notebooks of those retreats, when reading them I was impressed by the clarity that I had for my age, fifteen or sixteen years old, because I began by saying: “I want to be an important man.
It was clear to me that I wanted to dedicate myself to politics, but more than politics, I wanted to dedicate myself to transforming the world and my world was Pereira, because it was very provincial. That is where the love for the city comes from, apart from the ancestor, my great-great-grandfather was one of the first settlers of Pereira, Don Pedro Lemus Salamando, I realized because in some Risaralda book he came out, so I was very clear about my vocation, so himself, he wanted to study political science; there my father intervened telling me that it was a very academic career, he considered that I should study law because it gave me the training that I was going to require to be a politician.
I decided to do it and it was clear to me that in La Javeriana, which made my grandfather stop talking to me for almost two years because he wanted me to stay working with him, as a patriarch he wanted me to continue in the city. My dad asked me to apply to other universities, such as Rosario. Luis Carlos Villegas was a Javerian lawyer and was a close friend of Father Giraldo, dean of the Law School. At that time Luis Carlos was a senator of the Republic and when he told him about my project he wrote a letter addressed to the father where he introduced me and recommended me.
At the Bogotá Airport, a man and I changed suitcases and we did not realize it, fortunately I had the letter in my handbag, so I had to wear a giant dress from my uncle and with that I went to the interview at the Rosary beads. The dean of the faculty, Marcela Monroy, (today a friend because I later met her at a lunch at María Isabel Rueda’s house), interviewed me with four other people, year 91, Pablo Escobar was the topic and the question was whether when I was a lawyer I would defend him, I was the only one who radically answered no.
I went to the Universidad del Rosario, I obtained the best grade among the applicants and even without knowing the result in the Javeriana and the deadline for registration in the Rosario expiring and under the insistence that I enter, I decided to wait, an anecdote that Marcela Monroy remembers, although I do not know if he remembers my dress, in which I was sailing.
I spent in La Javeriana and it changed my life, as they told me it would happen, because in Bogotá the moss would be removed. I have anecdotes with Gina Parody, she invited me to eat at an Italian restaurant, even though I didn’t like pasta, maybe Bolognese, because of the meat; When I check the menu I order a steak tartare, I thought of the meat and the tartar sauce of the Rialto Club, when they serve me a soup of raw meat with a raw egg, I could not help but get angry and demand a change. Gina went through the greatest embarrassment that you could imagine being me a newcomer to the capital and she was a young girl, “dedicated stop”, who had traveled all over the world … Our stories give us to write a book.
Have you ever practiced as a lawyer?
Francisco Navarro, Pacho, told me that I should dedicate myself to telecommunications and he got me a position at Brigad y Urrutia, one of the largest law firms in the country, I think I was the only one of the 100 lawyers who did not speak English, but Pacho was so respected that the partners could not refuse to receive me. I was there for eight months. Our client was a multinational company that wanted to enter Colombia with a new satellite television business, which is now DirecTV, there was a bill in progress in Congress that prohibited the operation of satellite television in Colombia, which did not allow it. it suited our customers.
So we went to Congress to try to convince the Senators, the rapporteur for the Bill was César Castillo Ramírez, Senator who was replacing Juan Guillermo Ángel at that time and my first political campaign had been his for Mayor’s Office for Liberal Unity, which was the Movement of Gaviria, and Conservative Unification, which was that of Emiliano Izasa; It was César who gave me the diploma at the College when I graduated, so when he saw me he could not help but greet me with great effusiveness because he was very fond of me and the lawyer of the firm was terrified that I had such good contacts in Congress and my effectiveness, being so young; Thus, when he explained the situation to César, he wrote us on a napkin how the article of the law should look, presented the proposal and thus it was approved.
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Pacho once again connected me with another firm, Tovar Fajardo y Asociados, owned by Felipe Tovar and Alfredo Fajardo, who had been vice ministers of the Government of Gaviria and they hired me; I spent four years there learning a lot, we wrote a book that was a study on reverse charge calls in Colombia, I also wrote the degree thesis that was rated as excellent at university and based on home public services. It was a magnificent time, of great friends that I still have.
I have a story that I have not shared except with a few, but I am going to tell it to you. When I was finishing my Specialization in Administrative Law, I had a girlfriend in Bogotá, separated with two children, we lasted something like three years, but she decided to leave me, which affected me terribly especially for the twins. Monica Monsalve arrived at that time with a Mexican boyfriend to my apartment and I told them about my Italian girlfriend when I lived in England, with whom I did not behave very well because I stopped communicating when I met the mother of the twins, I kept that remorse and , Monica’s boyfriend for conquering her, told her to go to Italy to look for her to revive that love.
Monica, intelligently, concluded that we should call first, she contacted her and told her that I had been crying her for three years, that we were going to visit her, but she was already in another relationship and wanted to give herself that opportunity, so she offered us her hotel , but she welcomed me as a friend. This changed our plans, but what has to be in life is and will be, because today I am very happily married.
From there we went to a movie theater in Parque la 93, the art cinema “Lágrimas negros” and the only three attendees were the Mexican, my friend and me. The protagonists ended up on a beach in Portugal that captivated me and we decided on that destination. We were there for a month. This whole story is to tell you that one of those nights the Mexican told me that I was wasted in life, that I had an impressive talent, a vocation that did not sympathize with what I was doing. That was a night that never ended, because it crashed into reality, it made me see that what I was doing was not what I wanted.
He encouraged me to dedicate myself to finding myself, but that had a cost and I could not return to my mother’s home; He took out a paper, did accounts and promised to pay my expenses during the time it took to find my vocation, which could be decades and that was what I assumed. I even resigned, I spent December vacations in Pereira, my dad tells me that Iván Marulanda was no longer in the Chamber of Commerce, I didn’t know who he was talking about, only that they were looking for a president.
Little did I know what it was about, so I did my research and made the decision to introduce myself. My grandfather, my uncles and my father considered that I was crazy to resign and return to Pereira, but they joined my project, thus, from 24 to 31 I met with the eighteen members of the Board, of which I only knew the lawyers Rodrigo Ocampo Ossa and Adolfo Tous Salgado.
As a resume, they would never have chosen me because I was twenty-four years old, but things turned out, everything went well, the vote was 12 against 6. Life took another course, the Mexican did not pay me even a month’s salary because he did not It was necessary and today he is one of my great friends; It is a story that I will never forget.
At what point do you become an expert in leadership and competitiveness?
When I entered the Chamber with the vision of wanting to do something for the city, but without considering that I assumed a managerial responsibility, 150 employees, budget management, answering to a Board of Directors, I recognized that I needed to strengthen those aspects. Estella Villegas de Osorio helped me, who was the President of Fiducolombia at that time, today President of the Trust Association; We did an intensive MBA for several weekends at his farm in Bogotá, there he indoctrinated me despite the fact that Javeriana comes out with very good foundations in administration; I was also helped by the Mexican who is a very successful businessman; The Board behaved very well, they say that they did not have to have any patience with me because because I learned, I would think that it was not noticeable and I learned something that Estela told me: “To manage a company what is most needed is common sense and I do not know anyone who has more common sense than you, so apply what your instincts dictate and things will work out.
There I discovered that I have some skills to manage, to select personnel, for financial matters, all the adrenaline, the energy of my 24 years made us revolutionize the institution, modernize it, entrepreneurship emerged as a response to that generational commitment that I felt with the people my age who had not had the privilege of such a great opportunity.
I have always been self-taught. At the end of my term I won a contest from the Universidad de Los Andes, the Dinero Magazine and a Headhunter International (Korn Ferry International), CEO of the future (2004), there they measured me with experts in Administration and Finance, the only lawyer was me and I did well thanks to the experience.
Then they called me from the multinational AmericanAsist and I was in Bogotá for two years, then in Madrid and then in Bogotá again as president of the company in the country and life focused there. I moved the operation to Pereira and it still works, I created jobs in my city, which is what satisfies me. I moved to Pereira again due to my father’s illness, in the company of my wife and my daughter.
I won a scholarship from the Ardila Lulle Organization to study Leadership for Global Competitiveness in Washington. President Aznar invited me to do Campus Five on leadership in Spain. El Inalde also invited me. I am convinced that you have or do not have leadership, they do not teach it, but what I have been able to learn is how to exercise it for the common good.
Gina ran for Mayor of Bogotá in 2011 and asked me to manage the campaign, so I asked for a license and spent three months enjoying a unique experience, that moved me, it reminded me of what I was, I left there and I went to Spain and Belgium for a month to do a course. While there, the president of the Company promoted me by appointing me Commercial Vice President for Latin America, for which I had to travel and if I was in the city for three days a month, the truth was I didn’t want that. At that time, Eric Duport wrote to tell me that he was going to retire, a member of the Board also communicated for the same.
My wife had a gigantic act of love for me, she told me that the important thing was to be happy as I had been in my first term in the Chamber. I participated in a very complicated selection process, in the end the Head Hunter gave a verdict in which I was first, the vote was 5 to 4, fortunately things have gone well so far.
I can tell you that I am immensely happy and I am grateful and in love with my family. María Paulina and I have a wonderful marriage that also brought us the most valuable treasure of all, our daughter Helena.
Has the civic sense been lost in Pereira?
The sense of belonging has fallen asleep to the extent that people from many other parts have come to the city; the city has grown, it is no longer the town it used to be; It has been fading, but when we took on the task of building a Convention Center with donations, I never imagined that the result would be as impressive as it was.
What does Pereira bring me closer to?
To Paradise. My grandfather used to say that this was little paradise. I grew up with that conviction, for me there was nothing that surpassed it, now that I am close to forty I believe that paradise is not small, but that it is the only paradise.
The Pereira campaign brings you closer to the coffee cultural landscape, a world heritage site, it is in the middle of everything, it is in the center of the country, it brings you closer to opportunities, with good, prosperous people.
