Graciela Angueyra y Figueredo and Eladio Gomez y Ruiz

 [her parents]                                                          [his parents]

Graciela Angueyra y Figueredo was born in Tunja, Colombia on July 27, 1882, the twin sister of Luz Clara Angueyra.  On October 24, 1919, in Bogotá, she married Eladio Gomez y Ruiz who was born in Pacho, Colombia on May 12, 1892, the son of Heladio Gomez and Ana Maria Ruiz.  Graciela and Eladio had three children, Eduardo, Gonzalo, and Carmen Beatriz Gomez y Angueyra.

In 1925, Eladio, who was a lawyer, became mayor of the town of Fusagasuga near Bogotá and the family lived there for about two years.  Graciela ran the household and was involved in many charitable activities.  She was also an artist and one of her paintings, of a church in Fusagasuga, hangs in the home of her daughter, Beatriz, even today.  In 1927, after two years or so at Fusagasuga, Eladio became mayor of Rio Negro but at about that time Beatriz contracted typhoid fever and the family moved back to Bogotá leaving Eladio in Rio Negro.

On June 9, 1929, Graciela set out by train for the leper colony in Agua De Dios to deliver radios to the children’s hospital there.  On the way, near a place called Cachipai, there was an accident and the train jumped the tracks.  Graciela who was sitting by the window was struck in the head and died instantly.  Her funeral was held soon after in Bogotá and it’s said that all the beggars in the town, out of respect for the many kindnesses, she had shown them during her lifetime, respectfully followed the funeral procession.

Eladio, meanwhile, bought a large acreage of land at Puerto Liebano [?] on the Magdelena River which he called La Graciela.  On it he forested mahogany trees, grew rice, corn and coffee and kept horses, sheep and cattle.  Beatriz and Gonzalo visited ever summer but Eladio rarely visited Bogotá and in December 1936, he remarried.

He and his second wife, Josefa Avaos had six children, German, Graciela, Eduardo, María Victoria, Martha, and Alfredo, but Beatriz recalls that the very first time she ever met any of them was in 1956, when Eladio was injured in a traffic accident and she flew from the US to visit.  Eladio died in December 1966, in Bogotá, Colombia.

#  Children of Graciela Angueyra y Figueredo and Eladio Gomez y Ruiz: