On October 24, 2021, Gloria Nieto Cano de Arias, daughter of Mr. Agustín Nieto Caballero and Adelaida Cano Villegas, passed away.
She was born on January 25, 1925. Sister of Alberto (1916-1936), Guillermo (1917-1976), Jaime (1919-1964), Adelaida (1922) and Agustín (1932).
Mrs. Gloria Nieto Cano de Arias in the commemoration of the 85 years of the Gimnasio Femenino.
She studied at the Gimnasio Femenino, a school also promoted by her father and from whom she inherited her vocation as an educator. So when she served as an art teacher at the Gimnasio Moderno and the Gimnasio Femenino, she never worried about getting her students to memorize dates and historical data; Rather, he was concerned with showing them the techniques that painters used and the message they wanted to give to humanity.
Gloria always upheld the idea that human beings love to play. And so, with enviable creativity, she created games to teach literature or art. She believed in playful didactics and faced the traditionalistic fields of teaching. Pedagogical ideas very close to those that Agustín Nieto brought from Europe at the beginning of the last century.
In the photo: Mr. Roberto Arias Pérez and his wife, Gloria Nieto Cano de Arias. Credit: Publicaciones Semana.
In 1946 she married Roberto Arias Pérez, founder of Colsubsidio and former Rector of the Universidad del Rosario, with whom she managed to contribute to the construction of a more viable, kinder and less socially unfair country.
Throughout her life she served as the principal of the Colsubsidio school. She wrote books on poetry, education, and history. She was recognized as a promoter of art and culture and never hid her freethinking ideas. She said that “we all carry a Don Quixote inside, because we are all constantly, in one way or another, silently or expressly, searching through life for freedom of expression, action, meaning.”
The greatest of her virtues was always acquiring knowledge in a self-taught way. Never losing her capacity for wonder and interest in books, which led her to form as an eminence of universal culture and art. She was never happy with what she knew, because she considered that it was not enough and that she should continue exploring more, thus widening the circle of her ignorance.
Appearing in the picture: María Helena Amador and Gloria Nieto Cano de Arias at the opening of the Historical Urn on March 18, 1989..
She was always part of the history of the Gimnasio Moderno. Together with her father, in 1939, in the celebration of the 25 years of the school, she deposited in the historical urn that is located in the northeast corner of the Main Building, documents that attest the foundation of the school. Likewise, in the commemoration of the 50 years of the institution, she participated in the opening and closing of the same urn. In 1989, in the 75 years of the Gimnasio Moderno, she contributed again in this exercise that seeks to maintain the history of the school and for the centennial celebration she also attended together with her brother Agustín to the opening and closing of the historical urn.
Opening of the Historical Urn on the day of the Centennial commemoration. On the back: Doña Gloria, her brother Agustín Nieto Cano.
She and her husband were in charge of ordering the stained glass windows for the Chapel when they lived in France.
She was also a member of all the governing bodies of the Fundación Gimnasio Moderno: She was a member of the Electoral Corps, the Plenary Chamber and the Superior Council.
In 1985, he discovered the bust that was erected, in memory of her father, in La Raqueta, in front of the Main Building.
She has been so close with the school community that when she recognized that her father spent so much time at school, she mentioned: “One feels a bit like your sibling because you were his children.”
The school extends its condolences to her entire family and wishes them peace, comfort, strength and a lot of love in this sad time.
