On August 10, a magnitude 7.4 earthquake shook western Colombia. The epicenter was in San José del Palmar, Chocó, but the impact reached far: Cali, Pereira, Manizales, and entire towns in Valle del Cauca were left with streets full of rubble.
In Andalucía, Valle del Cauca, Rodolfo watched his bakery, La Central de Santa Lucía, collapse. Years of work reduced to cracked walls and shelves strewn across the floor.
Anyone else would have closed the door and cried over what was lost. Rodolfo did the opposite.
Amid the rubble, he rescued what he could from his ovens. And instead of keeping it, he went out into the street.
He handed out cookies to neighbors who came out of their homes frightened. To motorcyclists passing by in search of their families. To anyone who crossed his path, without asking anything.
Content creator Durban Clavijo recorded the scene and uploaded it to Instagram. From there, it reached thousands of screens, inside and outside Colombia.
Other bakeries in Valle also bore the mark of the quake: the historic Quinipan, in Cali, and Kevin Bakery, in Roldanillo, collapsed that same day.
Rodolfo lost his business in seconds. What he did not lose was the habit of sharing bread, even when he had almost nothing left to give.