Plastic artist and cook, also trained as an economist and publicist, Leonor Espinosa stars in the new episode of the podcast Stay to eat. The creator of the restaurant Leo (Bogotá), the most reputable in the country, and winner of numerous awards -including the Basque Culinary World Price for the social work of her Funleo foundation or the awards for the best cook in Latin America and the world- describes the Cartagena where she was born and where since she was a child, always guided by curiosity and courage, she felt closer to the Afro-descendant community than to that society that “even today is classist and racist.”
Espinosa speaks fearlessly about his growing interest in politics in a Colombia that he continues to see as a narco-state and where there is no freedom of thought. “An increasingly divided society in which hatred and irascibility grow day by day and where there is no other option but to be on one side or the other. She, who vindicates reflection and the gray, defends her right to express her opinion and to build “from knowledge, experience and coherence”.
Espinosa acknowledges that at times he has been afraid to express himself freely through some networks in which he explains that many people limit themselves to attacking without knowing anything about politics. And she openly confesses that if a leader appears who wants to build in a country that is receding day by day – “but we are strong and we will not sink” – she would join. Perhaps from a Ministry of Culture or related to Tourism, from which to contribute to spreading the wealth of a country that she describes as strong, resilient and happy.
The well-known cook speaks not only about her country but also about a problem of corruption that extends through a good part of Latin America and that she contrasts with those people who, like her, swim against the current and opt to stay and fight.
A good connoisseur of the jungle territories of her country, where she usually travels for her Funleo social project, she talks about the jungle and comments on the case of the brothers who saved their lives after being lost for 40 days. Espinosa tells how they prepare the girls to live and be caregivers for the family and she assures that her older sister, who took care of her brothers, “is a heroine who represents the value of indigenous women and the great resilience her”.
