José García Calderón, the businessman from Arequipa who turns 100 (INTERVIEW)

He always walks the city. Watch your growth. “Go in that way, go up that street, there is the church,” she says as she returns through the streets of the Paucarpata district. A few days have passed since he visited the Tiabaya district, where he was able to verify that the arequipeno “Although he has his farm to feed himself, he takes advantage of everything he can and does not waste it.” Today she turns 100 years old and exhibits the capacity for wonder, but above all the gift of wise modesty.

His father was a diplomat, he wanted to study Agronomy, he graduated as a lawyer and, finally, his name will go to the history for, among other achievements, founding the Bank of the South of Peru, influencing the development of the San Pablo University, being mayor of Arequipa, reaching the presidency of the Cervesur Corporation and being passionate about the city by recovering part of its historical heritage.

Don Jose Garcia Calderon Get my call. He is accompanied by his daughter Milagros, 54, the youngest of four siblings. I ask him what is the key to reach the century of life. He rehearses this response: order, constant effort and trying to overcome what fate has inherited. She intervenes and proposes: “He is a disciplined man”. And José adds: “I have known how to take advantage of the opportunities to show my affection for the city, to try to build something new.”

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-What is a 100-year-old man like?

He is a normal man, like anyone who has accumulated many experiences in his life, from the most minimal to those he has been able to achieve for the benefit of the city.

-But, precisely, that experience accumulated in a century makes it special.

I already think so, but one learns from the experiences of others. It is leaving a mark over time and the needs impose work, objectives, organization of dreams.

-Did you dream of living 100 years?

I never thought I could live this long. I have always tried to take advantage of everything I have received, such as the education of my parents; the unfolding of my life; the job. Life is made to produce and to improve, that is the character of the Arequipeño who wants to stand out in something. Every Arequipeño in his life has a moment when he has achieved something he dreamed of, a constant demonstration of how in his own activity he always achieves a superior height.

-Milagros, you say that your father is disciplined and that perhaps therein lies one of the keys to living 100 years. In what would you say you notice that discipline?

Miracles (M): He always gets up early, at 6 in the morning, until now. She exercises. He is an avid reader, not only of the news, but also of all kinds of literature. He has great phrases that he likes to use when you call him on the phone and ask him: Daddy, what are you doing? And he begins to contemplate and tells you: “Here, little daughter, enjoying the eloquence of silence.” He says that silence is what gives him the most mental clarity; he is a lover of contemplation, of nature. In Arequipa he has always cultivated his gardens, he has planted more than a thousand trees, which was his goal in his life, he has dedicated himself to the reconstruction of historical monuments.

José García Calderón, the businessman from Arequipa who turns 100. (PHOTOS: Jaime Rey de Castro Belon).

-How do you see Arequipa today, Don José?

stubborn. I am one of many residents who has done everything possible in the midst of their situation or strength; realization of works that are not decisive but necessary and urgent to revive. I have tried to influence something.

How has the pandemic treated you?

The pandemic has been a punishment from divinity. It has not given me COVID because I have complied with the provisions of the rulers for the elderly. If you had to get vaccinated, I have always been one of the first to get the vaccine, since I was a child. And now I have all three doses.

(M): He has all three doses and in the elections he went to vote, in the first and second rounds.

-Why did you go to vote if the law exempts you?

All his life, from the age of 21, when he came of age, he fulfilled all the obligations of a citizen, even though they are thought to be very small efforts.

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-Why did you study Law if your vocation is clearly management, the company?

I always had a great preference for the countryside, I would have wanted to be a good farmer or agricultural engineer, but my health did not allow it. As soon as I finished school, I tried to study Agronomy and moved to Lima to try to enter the Agrarian University; however, the weather treated me very badly and I couldn’t continue, I had to leave it due to a bronchial condition that constantly plagued me, I had to give up the harsh weather and return to study another career.

-And why did you choose Law?

Because there was no other career to study (laughs).

-You have ancestors who have reached the Presidency. Didn’t you want to be president?

No, I have not been so ambitious and I think I would not have been able to carry out such an important task. Unfortunately I had to be mayor when there was the 58 earthquake, but we did something remarkable, and I’m not saying this out of vanity but because of the effort I had to deploy and which I think was productive.

-Milagros, what do you find in your father that explains his achievements?

(M): Constancy, perseverance and reading. I think that my dad, being a great reader, had big dreams, that he tried to execute them.

(Don José intervenes).

My four children and my eight grandchildren have achieved some little place on this earth, they have managed to stand out and contribute from small things to the maximum. And I already have a great-granddaughter.

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-What do you think about life?

Well, God gives life and we always try to be improving or helping or being part of the creation of important things, such as the reactivation of the church of Santa Catalina, being one of the members who helped in the reconstruction. But I am by no means satisfied with what little I have been able to do.

Are you afraid of the idea that at some point we all leave this world?

Every man is afraid of ending his life before being able to fulfill all his desires. Every human being must try to overcome what he has received from divine providence.

(M): There is a phrase that I really like about my dad. I tell him: Daddy, I’ll help you stand up. And he says: “I stand alone because I feel accompanied.” He always has a poem to recite, Don Quixote to quote.

-And how would you like to be remembered 100 years from now?

Like the person who started a great work and who modestly and at the height of his possibilities began in his long life of 100 years, probably contributing a small thing or a grain of good seed, like the San Pablo University.

-What do you need to do?

Start living again to do much more than I have done.

SELF-CERTIFICATE:

– “I am Pedro José García Calderón and Bustamante de la Fuente (laughs). We descend from a man who was appointed corregidor and first authority in Arequipa. He wanted his surname to be preserved, which is from somewhere in Spain.”

– “In that part of Spain there were many García and Calderón. We have respected his wish for seven generations. I was born in Arequipa, in the same city, on Santa Teresa street. I have been one of the founders of the Bank of the South of Peru, I supported the development of a university like San Pablo”.

– “I have been president of the Cervesur corporation; I have rebuilt several historical monuments, one was El Molino Blanco and also Casa del Moral. I am a lover of architecture and ashlar. And now I give myself the pleasure of dreaming again and recapitulating the little things that one has been able to do”.