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The history of Agua de Dios is immense, full of anecdotes and events that have occurred through 151 years of existence, of a history that was divided in 1961 with Law 148. They have been two opposing faces, the first composed of drastic measures against those affected by the disease of leprosy and the second of a freedom that broke the oppression of those who dictated all kinds of norms against innocent people. A past that the Sons of Water of God keep in the depths of their hearts.<\/p>\n
With Law 1 of 1833, the National government began to organize the Lazarets in Colombia, since cases of leprosy began to appear in various regions of the country, which was becoming a health problem and the other people demonstrated their rejection towards them, that is why with the issuance of Law C of 1864 the Lazaret de Agua de Dios was created, by order of the State of Cundinamarca. Parallel to this administrative process, the government acquired through the Secretary of State Finance, Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Baraya, the globe of earth called \u201cAgua de Dios and Ib\u00e1\u00f1ez, by deed No. 114 of January 22, 1867, by purchase made to the doctor Manuel Murillo Toro, who in turn had bought Pablo Afanador, by deed No. 66 of February 22, 1856. It should be noted that the existing documents of the various notarial transfers made on these lands, indicate that this name of Agua de Dios received it from centuries ago, as they say in the various writings that rest in the General Archive of the Nation. At that time, General Daniel Aldana was Governor of the State of Cundinamarca. With Law C of January 15, 1873, the Aldea de Agua de Dios was created, one of the many names or designations made to this population, among which we highlight Leprocomium, Lazaret, Sanatorio and Municipality, the latter two still existing, one that manages the medical-assistance part of the sick patient of Hansen under the Ministry of Social Protection and the other that administers the Municipality as such, which is governed by its own Laws and which depends on the Department.<\/p>\n
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August 10, 1870 is a historic date in the life of Agua de Dios, because it was the day that 60 patients were exiled from Tocaima and took possession of the Hacienda Agua de Dios, giving rise to the founding of the town. Consequently, the State Convention, by Law C of November 10, 1870, created the Lazaretto and definitively allocated the lands of the State “Agua de Dios e Ib\u00e1\u00f1ez” to the establishment of a Lazaretto, under the direction of the General Board of Charity of the State. At that time, Don Cornelio Manrique was President of Cundinamarca. As President of the Don Juan Obreg\u00f3n Charity, he immediately took action on the matter and ordered the construction of 40 houses for leprosy patients, a dairy for religious service and houses for the priest and the administrator, signing a contract for $ 12,000 Gold pesos with Caupolic\u00e1n Toledo, these buildings that were built in what is now the framework of the square.<\/p>\n
Within the history of the city, the tourist site “Los Chorros” embodies special significance because the first inhabitants initially bequeathed there to take shelter under the dense branches of the grove and to refresh their bodies in the sweet and hot springs that this unique place has. .<\/p>\n
Time begins to pass in the new life of the Lazaretto and the construction of new buildings is ordered. In 1888 the construction of a building for the Hospital began and it was finished and blessed in November 1889. The 50 most seriously ill patients passed there. On March 25, 1889, the construction of the Parish Church began and at the end of this year work began on the Aqueduct, which at that time was transported on donkeys from two miles away. The Santa Mar\u00eda Asylum for Girls is founded on March 4, 1892.<\/p>\n
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The sick also begin to arrive, some voluntarily and others by force, brought by the police, torn from their homes in different parts of the country, due to the state regulations dictated at that time, with a frightening severity, which starts with Law 104 of 1890 and that imposes total isolation on leprosy patients and this is where checkpoints are implanted in all strategic points of the Lazaretto that prevented the entry of healthy people, relatives of patients and prohibited the exit of these outside of the city without prior authorization. To avoid all this process, the entire city was cordoned off with a wire fence in 1901 and it was guarded by the National and Internal Police, the latter made up of the same Hansenian patients.<\/p>\n
The conformation, the structure, the regulations, made Agua de Dios an independent city with its own laws, its own currency called “Lazaret “, prohibition of intoxicating drinks, but also the construction of a clinic, some hospitals, a treatment subsidy called “the ration”, according to Law 14 of 1907, which initially consisted of 50 cents. We could say that the initial administration of the Lazaret was in charge of the State of Cundinamarca since from 1905, the National Government through the Ministry of Government, assumed the direction of the Lazarets. Later, it would be the Ministry of Hygiene, the Ministry of Public Health, the Ministry of Health, among other names, up to the present day with the Ministry of Social Protection, in charge of running the Sanatorium.<\/p>\n
In the nascent life, Agua de Dios finds a great ally: The Salesians, the religious communities of the Sisters of the Presentation and the Daughters of the Sacred Hearts, endowed with heroic courage and animated by the extraordinary fire of Christian love. Among the pastors of the church, we must remember Father MIGUEL UNIA who arrived in the first group of Salesians to Colombia in 1890, together with Father EVASIO RABAGLIATI, Superior of the Salesian Community, Don Bosco’s student and who already had in his mind the desire to work with the lepers of Agua de Dios and Contrataci\u00f3n, as he did in fact from August 26, 1891, replacing Dr. HILARIO GRANADOS, until that moment chaplain of Lazaret, when the population had 1,200 inhabitants. Father Un\u00eda gave himself with immense affection and apostolic zeal towards the sick, helping them spiritually and materially. He, a man of solid faith, positive hope and deep charity, knew how to overcome all the difficulties presented. His work was arduous but his short life, in 1895 in Turin, expired.<\/p>\n
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But the Salesians would not be alone, in September 1892 the first four Sisters of the Presentation arrived to tend the hospital and run the Santa Mar\u00eda Asylum.<\/p>\n
Father EVASIO RABAGLIATI was also very close to the fate of the lepers of Colombia, both in Ca\u00f1o de Loro, Contrataci\u00f3n, and in Agua de Dios, he spoke of the multiple problems that afflicted the Hansenian community and that was how it was in 1898 He traveled to Norway, commissioned by the Colombian government to meet with the distinguished leprologist, Dr. GERARD ARMAUER HANSEN, who discovered in 1874 the microorganism that produces leprosy, Mycobacterium Leprae or Hansen’s Bacillus. Dr. Hansen welcomed Fr. Rabagliati warmly and made himself available to him. His visit focused on learning about advances in the fight against leprosy, visiting hospitals and learning about his organization among other things. His unwavering work for the leprosy patient led him to work for many years in this cause, until May 1920 when he died in Chile.<\/p>\n
Within this field appears another figure consecrated to the sick, Fr LUIS VARIARA, Italian, who arrived in Agua de Dios on August 6, 1894. His special dedication was directed to leper children, unprotected and violently torn from your home. The young women had the joy of finding a path towards their desired ideal, their religious vocation, a fact that was made concrete with the foundation of the Institute of the Daughters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary (HH.SS.CC.) on 7 May 1905. At the early age of 48, he died in C\u00facuta. But the work of his that he had founded continues today, spreading to various countries of the world.<\/p>\n
Mother ANA MARIA LOZANO, Superior General of the Institute of the HH.SS.CC., founded in the properties of her parents, the boarding schools of Santa Helena for girls and Nazareth for healthy children, children of sick parents, around the year 1933. In 1940, with the support of Mr. Guillermo Greiffestein, they would build the Santa Ana Country Boarding School that would house sick children from Hansen, who would receive health services, education and would be trained in the arts of tailoring, carpentry and shoemaking. This same work aimed at Hansen’s sick girls would materialize in 1957 when the Crisanto Luque Women’s Boarding School was built. The work of these communities is extensive, difficult to summarize in brief paragraphs, but they are works that today despite the difficulties, are still maintained.<\/p>\n
On February 1, 1923, the Vargas Tejada Theater Hall was founded by a society that included the President, Adolfo Le\u00f3n G\u00f3mez, and the Vice President, the teacher Luis A. Calvo.<\/p>\n
A trail of good priests would follow in his footsteps, including Francisco van Galen and Juan Elsakers, Dutch, Pedro Le\u00f3n Reyes; Pedro Le\u00f3n Trabucchi and Francisco Loddo Italian, Vicente Maidhof, German and Armando Cote Barroso.<\/p>\n
The Presentation Sisters were no strangers to their historic commitment to Agua de Dios. His work was directed towards the education of sick and healthy Hansen girls, as well as the care of patients confined in the different shelters and in the Clinic, without forgetting the pastoral part. Mother MARIE POUSSEPIN, founder of the Congregation of the Dominican Sisters of Charity of the Presentation in France, in the year 1696, would be the bastion and guide of this community that on September 28, 1892 would arrive in Agua for the first time. of God conforming a group of nuns who were awaited with great joy, by a crowd that accompanied Father Miguel Un\u00eda. Today after 110 years of her arrival, the ideals remain unscathed with the compliance of those who make up this religious community.<\/p>\n
The Lazaretto that offered the shelter to thousands of compatriots suffering from leprosy, received the distinguished composer from Santander LUIS ANTONIO CALVO, born in 1892 in Gambita. His suitability in handling musical instruments and his notable advances in musical composition allowed him to join the Municipal Band of Tunja. By destiny of life, on March 16, 1916, he would arrive in Agua de Dios, where he was received with affection. The Salesians had a house for their shelter. With the passage of time he would strengthen the Municipal Band, alongside Father Variara. Dona Marcelina Calvo, his mother, and Dona Florinda, his sister, would be with him for a long time. In Anolaima on October 18, 1942, he married Miss ANITA RODR\u00cdGUEZ RODRIGUEZ. His masterpiece was Intermezzo N \u00b0 1, along with a hundred musical works that still travel the world. On April 22, 1945, he died in Agua de Dios, taking the satisfaction of his duty.<\/p>\n
Literature, writers, journalists, musicians, painters, suffering from Hansen’s disease, had to pass through Agua de Dios, where they left an indelible mark, among whom we can highlight Adolfo Le\u00f3n G\u00f3mez, Adriano P\u00e1ez, Rosa Restrepo Mej\u00eda, Carlos Mu\u00f1oz Jord\u00e1n.<\/p>\n
The chemotherapy of Leprosy against Hansen’s bacillus through the years has been a constant conjugation according to medical-scientific progress. Sulfones have been known since 1908. Medications or treatments that have served to attack evil, we find the following: D.D.S. (Dianimo-Diphenyl-Sulfone), is the Mother sulfone or Dapsone (trade name), Promin, Rifadin, Clofazimine or Lampren (trade name), Rifampicin, Thalidomide and Prednisolone. One of the first drugs used in the nascent population was “maddar”, a homeopathic treatment that, although it produced severe reactions in patients, made the external signs of ailment disappear and totally renewed the body. Among the homemade medicines we have: \u201cotoba\u201d, \u201cbermudine\u201d, \u201chunza\u201d, \u201caloe vera\u201d, prescribed by doctor Sartori, an Italian doctor; Dr. Benchetrit also amazed with his treatments. Perhaps one of the first drugs used in Colombia in leprosariums was Chaulmoogra Oil. According to the parameters set by the WHO, the Ministry of Social Protection through the General Directorate of Public Health, is responsible for carrying out the leprosy program for which it has support, such as the Contracting Sanatoriums in Santander and Agua de Dios in Cundinamarca. This program also corresponds to all the municipalities of the country, following the guidelines of the health sections.<\/p>\n
The history of Agua de Dios, a cosmopolitan city is so extensive, so varied, so interesting, with impressive features, full of memorable stages and difficult moments that we cannot summarize in short lines.<\/p>\n
AGUA DE DIOS, comes to a moment, where the national authorities begin to understand that leprosy is not contagious, nor hereditary as was believed, that the concept they had was completely shod and that is when the end of the tunnel, when hopes of freedom begin to emerge and that is how some Hansen’s patients representing the community, in the hands of the Congress of the Republic, begin to shape what would ultimately be Law 148 of 1961, the law that it split the history of Agua de Dios in two, the law that restored all the civil and political rights and social guarantees enshrined in the National Constitution. The same law that authorized the Assembly of Cundinamarca to create the municipalities of Contrataci\u00f3n and Agua de Dios, which granted the benefit of awarding the lands to those who occupied them at that time. As a result of this law, Ordinance No. 78 of November 29, 1963 was born, which created the municipality. On March 23, 1963, it was officially declared inaugurated and by Decree 317 of the same year, the first mayor was appointed, which fell to the person of JOSE MANUEL HURTADO LOZANO, who only lasted 15 days as first municipal president.<\/p>\n
Law 148 of 1961 was not an obstacle for the National Government, through the Ministry of Public Health, to set aside its commitment to Hansen’s patients in the country and especially to the residents of Agua de Dios. There, all medical-assistance services continued to be provided in the Herrera Restrepo Clinic, in the Carrasquilla Building, in the Ana Mar\u00eda Lozano Salacuna, and in the San Vicente and San Rafael shelters for women and Boyac\u00e1 and Ospina P\u00e9rez for men, especially the most disabled and those who did not have their own home.<\/p>\n
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Agua de Dios has special and broad legislation, which is not in place by any municipality or state entity in the country, it is \u201csui generis\u201d in this regard. In August 1970, the city celebrated its first centenary, which is why some of the best festivities in news were held. On this occasion, the national symbols contest was held where the teacher JOSE ANGEL ALFONSO, a sick patient from Hansen and a native of Santander, won first place with the shield. The winning hymn was composed by the teacher ARMANDO RODR\u00cdGUEZ JIM\u00c9NEZ, a native of the Valley and the flag was devised by Sister CARMEN EMILIA NI\u00d1O, HH.SS.CC. Later the Municipal Council by means of Agreement, made official the patriotic symbols of the city.<\/p>\n
As the days go by, both the Municipality and the territorial entity, as well as the Sanatorium, have presented transformations like any other municipality in the country or like any State entity. The SANATORIO DE AGUA DE DIOS, which was established from Law 39 of 1947, became a SOCIAL STATE COMPANY (ESE) with the issuance of Decree 1288 of 1994 -June 22- in accordance with the provisions of Law 100 of 1993, continued to be a decentralized public entity of the national order, with legal status, its own patrimony and administrative autonomy.<\/p>\n
Something very important and fundamental in everyone’s life is the prevailing peace and tranquility that can be breathed in this region and especially in Agua de Dios. We still enjoy that privilege that we must defend, in a country unfortunately plagued by violence.<\/p>\n
Hansen’s sick patient, who numbers about 800, today leads a normal life like the other residents, some dedicated to their daily labor as therapy and social rehabilitation, when their disabilities allow it and others dedicated to your family to your home. He has in health matters, as mentioned before, with the Sanatorium that is in charge of carrying out a search campaign, control, treatment of the disease and rehabilitation of the patient. The health services correspond to Level I, while those of Level II, the Sanatorium processes and transfers the patient to the Hospital of the city of Girardot. Some with small micro-enterprises such as oil painting, carpentry, metalwork, handicrafts in fique and coconut, electronics, among others, seek better well-being. Health, education and other services, of course with their budget limitations on the part of the government, are moving forward in a beloved, welcoming city, full of many expectations and with a promising future, whose destiny is in our hands. ”<\/p>\n
Today, in the fifth stage of the history of leprosy and leaving aside the mere job of telling the story, to move on to creating new directions, it is necessary to strengthen the perspective of one of the principles of bioethics, that of autonomy. , that so much emphasis is placed on taking into account the opinion and freedom of those who are going to be subjected to a practice that can theoretically benefit them.<\/p>\n
In this bioethical perspective, it generates a discourse of belonging and identity among the inhabitants of the municipality of Agua de Dios, around the history of the Sanatorium it is a discourse of great significance in terms of political anthropology. And for this, what better way to create a Leprosy Medical Museum in Agua de Dios, a dream come true, with Resolution 1036063 of February 11, 2010.<\/p>\n
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Dr. Hugo A Sotomayor Trib\u00edn, President of the Colombian Association for the History of Medicine, relates in this way the creation of the Museum:<\/p>\n
In the month of March 2009, taking advantage of the appointment in property as manager of the Sanatorio de Agua de Dios of Dr. Juan Jos\u00e9 Mu\u00f1oz, very sensitive as an aspiring to that position, to the issues of history of leprosy by Dr. Michel Faizal, distinguished dermatologist Member of the Board of Directors of the Sanatorium, by Ms. Patricia Devia Angarita and sensitized to the discourse of historical recovery on behalf of the Senator of the Republic, Dr. Nancy Patricia Guti\u00e9rrez, I invited him in the company of Dr. Michel Faizal and Ms. Patricia Devia Angarita, to the Museum of the National Academy of Medicine, where I explained how the Leprosy Museum could be set up in Agua de Dios without having to rely on a large infrastructure or a large capital.<\/p>\n
The enthusiasm of Dr. Juan Jos\u00e9 Mu\u00f1oz was so much after the proposals that were made to him, that immediately after the visit he coordinated for two days later a visit to that Museum of the National Academy of Medicine of Senator Nancy Patricia Guti\u00e9rrez and her legal advisor, Dr. Isabel Cristina Jim\u00e9nez, for Dr. Michel Faizal, Ms. Patricia Devia Angarita and the undersigned to introduce this political leader – native and first popular mayor of Agua de Dios-, and her legal advisor, also born in Agua de Dios , the initiative of the Leprosy Museum.<\/p>\n
The senator’s welcome to the idea of \u200b\u200bcreating the Museum was total; And in the midst of the talk that the five attendees held with so much enthusiasm, we developed the proposal to convert the set of buildings of the Sanatorium into a space of great historical significance for the nation. This was the idea that Senator Nancy Patricia Guti\u00e9rrez with her legal assistant, Dr. Isabel Cristina Jim\u00e9nez, began to translate into a Bill to convert the complexes of the buildings of the Agua de Dios and Contracting Sanatoriums into Historical and Cultural Heritage of the Nation.<\/p>\n
In a visit I made with Dr. Michel Faizal, Ms. Patricia Devia Angarita, Dr. Fernando L\u00f3pez, Mar\u00eda Teresa Rinc\u00f3n, in charge of the archive of the sanatorium and the manager of the Sanatorium, Dr. Juan Jos\u00e9 Mu\u00f1oz to the possible places where you could set up the Museum and after defining that the most important thing was to start and the conviction that the attempt to found would be successful, it was resolved that although the best building for the Museum was the so-called Carrasquilla building, due to its dire situation and the Shortage of resources for its immediate recovery, the Medical House was chosen as the town where the Museum would start while the problem of resources was solved to leave it in the best possible place, the Carrasquilla Building.<\/p>\n
In the month of May 2009 in a very popular Catholic religious celebration, held in the Cathedral of the Municipality, and after mass, I spoke with a few words from the manager of the Sanatorium, Dr. Juan Jos\u00e9 Mu\u00f1oz, and from Senator Nancy Patricia Guti\u00e9rrez, to inform the commitment to found the Museum definitively. This idea was received with great enthusiasm by all attendees.<\/p>\n
Thanks to a brief and stimulating talk I had with Dr. Isabel Cristina Jim\u00e9nez, I developed the idea of \u200b\u200bthe Route of Suffering and Exclusion that I proposed in the preparatory meetings of the Museum’s foundation with the different professionals and workers and the cultural and political personalities of Water of God.<\/p>\n
With the decision to inaugurate the Leprosy Museum in August 2009, Mrs. Mar\u00eda Teresa Rinc\u00f3n, Miss Patricia Devia Angarita and the undersigned began a process of collecting objects between the different people and institutions of the municipality of Agua de Dios.<\/p>\n
Based on the stages in the history of leprosy in Colombia, I established that the most significant thing to show in the Museum were the documents and objects that expressed the terrible second stage of it, out of five characterized by Suffering and Social Exclusion that medicine promoted in the name of the arrest of the contagion of the disease from 1873, especially from the end of the 19th century and the first years of the 20th, until 1961, the year in which the patients recovered their civil rights and the Lazarets of Agua de Dios, Cundinamarca, and Recruitment, Santander became Sanatoriums. And this would be done without detriment to the exhibition of all the other objects and instruments that could be exhibited for having been part of Lazaret and the Sanatorium.
\nDue to her status as a Sanatorium official, her enthusiasm and her dedication to the Museum project, Mrs. Mar\u00eda Teresa Rinc\u00f3n was left by the decision of the Sanatorium manager as the Museum coordinator<\/p>\n
Four months later, on August 21, 2009, the Agua de Dios Leprosy Museum was founded with the presence of the Vice Minister of Culture and the President and Vice President of the National Academy of Medicine, Doctors Gustavo Malag\u00f3n and Germ\u00e1n Pe\u00f1a , respectively. In this meeting, as a full member of the National Academy of Medicine and with the approval of the president of the same, I publicly expressed the historical self-criticism and the desire for forgiveness that this institution made for the excesses committed against patients on behalf of of the fight against the disease of leprosy.<\/p>\n
The success of the opening of the Museum and the talks that were held with different groups of leaders and ordinary people, the successful diligence of Senator Nancy Patricia Guti\u00e9rrez in obtaining public funds for the restoration of the Carrasquilla building, and the correct direction The manager of the Sanatorium allowed the repair and restoration of the Carrasquilla Building to begin. This financial and administrative effort had a quick harvest. On January 31, 2010, 5 months after its foundation, the objects and documents exhibited in the first headquarters of the Leprosy Museum in the Medical House were moved to three spacious rooms of the Carrasquilla Building.<\/p>\n
The efforts to inaugurate the first and second venues and the academic activities carried out at the Leprosy Museum have fulfilled the missionary proposals and the vision of the Museum: to become a space for critical reflection around the mental and spiritual costs. and physical that for people has a medicine based only on the disease and not on the sick.<\/p>\n
The momentum of the creation of the Museum was accompanied during the second semester of 2009 by the successes achieved by Senator Nancy Patricia Guti\u00e9rrez in the Senate of the Republic with the Bill to initially convert only the buildings of the Sanatorio de Agua de Dios in Historical and Cultural Heritage of the Nation, and then by an addition to the Project, also those of the Contracting Sanatorium.<\/p>\n
The efforts of the senator and the diligence of her legal advisor made it possible for this Bill to be approved in the Second Committee of the Senate and in the Plenary of the Senate and to file it, for its study, at the beginning of this year 2010 in the House of Representatives .<\/p>\n
The Museum of the Water Leprosy of God today is a young and vigorous reality for all the circumstances and people mentioned above and because several of them due to the close contact with the suffering of their relatives in the first degree of consanguinity, as is the case of Senator Nancy Patricia Guti\u00e9rrez, Doctor Isabel Cristina Jim\u00e9nez and Miss Patricia Devia Angarita or for reasons of their medical specialization, such as the case of the dermatologist Michel Faizal or for intellectual, professional reasons or because of childhood memories of seeing a of their grandmothers collecting and sending aid to the patients of the department of C\u00f3rdoba interned in Agua de Dios or Contrataci\u00f3n, as is the one of the undersigned,<\/p>\n
The architectural beauty and its historical meanings, the different buildings of the Sanatorium, to exhibit the objects related to leprosy and conceiving the sanatorium as an inhabited museum, it could be thought of as a site of interest for academic and cultural medical tourism and for a special type of cultural and reflection visits, for people not belonging to the health sciences, such as the one that surrounds the one that takes place in the German concentration camps, the Palace of the Inquisition in Cartagena, and the museums of objects of torture or the like \u201d.<\/p>\n
There are leprosy museums in different parts of the world, such as in Bergen, Norway that faithfully reproduces a 17th century leper colony. The Museum of Leprosy M\u00fcnster- Kinderhaus Liebe Besucher Germany, The National Museum of Hansen’s Disease in Japan, The Museum and Archives of Culion Philippines, Molokai Museum and Cultural Center, Hawaii and in Carville Louisiana USA there is a leprosy museum where Before that, the first leper colony in the United States functioned.<\/p>\n
From Lazaret to Municipality.<\/p>\n
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Today, the Municipality of Agua de Dios is one of the 116 municipalities that make up the Department of Cundinamarca, located in the Province of Alto Magdalena, equidistant from the Capital of the Republic of Colombia, Bogot\u00e1 114 kilometers, from Girardot 23 kilometers and 12 kilometers from Tocaima, it enjoys a warm climate with an average temperature of 27 \u00b0 C and a height of 400 m. asl. It limits with Tocaima on the north and east, with Nilo and Ricaurte on the south and with Ricaurte on the west.<\/p>\n
The city is on a plain, bordered by small hills, among which the Cerro de la Cruz stands out, which serves as a water pantry for Los Chorros.<\/p>\n
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The population bases its economy on the subsidies that leprosy patients receive as well as the income of public employees (municipal administration, Sanitarium employees, and teachers of state educational institutions). To these incomes are added those from their traditional and informal trade activities, the production of agricultural products is scarce, corn, sorghum, cotton and aloe (aloe) could be highlighted. The rest of the production is destined for self-consumption (banana, cassava, vegetables and some fruits). One line that is growing is bovine, pig and goat production.<\/p>\n
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In Agua de Dios there are no Industries. It is foreseen that ecological, cultural and historical tourism could become the new economic vocation of the population, for this purpose activities aimed at the protection and conservation of the nation’s historical heritage are being planned (Law 1435 of 2011), museum activities and the history chair of Agua de Dios (Municipal Agreement No. 004 of August 16, 2018), in the same way, ecological activities such as bird watching and a variety of cultural activities such as art exhibitions, music and literary conversations are being carried out.<\/p>\n
Despite all the vicissitudes that the country faces and how disturbed public order is, we can still say that Agua de Dios is a haven of peace and tranquility, a city of friendly people who continue to fight, overcoming that past of injustices and multiple hardships, people who see the future with optimism. Hence the qualifications that have been given to the municipality: City of Hope, City of Joy and Memory, Territory for great things.<\/p>\n
Agua de Dios was and will continue to be a town to house the leprosy patient.<\/p>\n
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