By Adriana Mendez
«How old are you? How come you have had time to do so many things?» I asked Estefany.
“Ever since junior high, I dreamed of being an artist and businesswoman. Today, at twenty, I am an ambassador, an engineering student, a businesswoman, and a singer of regional Mexican music.
It is a matter of discipline and good organization”.
I was particularly struck by the bearing with which she walked. She straight and with firm steps. The blueprint of her dress and the crown that shimmered on her head distinguished her from the rest of the people who toured the vintage stalls. He was looking at her from afar. I sensed something special in the young lady.
When I had the opportunity, I approached Paola, a friend and organizer of the Tres Raíces Vineyard harvest, to introduce me to Estefany Valdés, the ambassador of the magical towns of Guanajuato. We sat around a table to talk.
She is a lover of culture, art and tourism. She is beautiful, dark-haired and proudly a native of Dolores Hidalgo. Her smooth twenty-something skin glowed with pride as she chatted with me. I don’t know which she caught me more, her soft and sure voice or her sweet and serious look. The eloquence of her speech caught my attention. My senses sharpened to try to capture as much information as he was sharing with me.
Her mother is a merchant. She has a forager who sells cattle feed. Her father works in the fields and produces pasture for cattle. Her brother likes livestock and he also works in the fields. They have a ranch that produces pasture. She comments with a smile on her face that her younger sister is also a very good merchant and she likes baking. «She is small, but she is there, she takes her.» It is a hard-working family with an innovative and entrepreneurial spirit.
From a very young age, she studied different disciplines at the Casa de la Cultura: plastic arts, singing and oil painting. She belonged to the Dolores Symphony Orchestra for six years as a chorister and violinist. She later joined the Guanajuato State Orchestra where she played the violin.
Her concern began when she was a child. She cooked, made, bought and resold different products with the help of her parents. At the age of fifteen, she started her first formal business through a gastronomic crafts business: Doña Hilaria. She makes and markets unconventional products such as chocolates and prickly pear liqueur, as well as exotic moles.
She currently officially represents the culture and beauty of the State of Guanajuato and is focused on continuing her professional training. She is a logistics technician and in recent years has obtained a diploma in retail sales and another in digital marketing.
She is studying for a degree in food process engineering that will surely provide her with the knowledge and tools to professionalize and grow her business.
What a privilege to come across this pound chickpea! A twenty-year-old woman who has taken advantage of the opportunities that her parents and her city have given her. A person who has come far. She has materialized her dreams through her daily effort and work.
She bravo for those parents who teach by her example, for institutions such as the Dolores Hidalgo Tourist Board and the Circle of Business Women that inspire, provoke and accompany young people who want to learn and undertake.
