Juan Pablo Crespo / @juanpamark
Photos: Liliana Elías

After almost 40 years of hard working, Gladys Blanco had decided to retire and dedicate more time to practising swimming and dancing, which she likes very much. However, the unpredictable destiny caught her ina “sweet trap” from which she could not get away, although she knew how to take advantage of it and transform it into a business that today keeps her busy and happy at her 71 years of age.

Gladys began to make a living and contribute to her family’s livelihood early in life. At the age of 18 she had already started to work for General Motors (Caracas), where she worked until they offered her to be moved to their headquarters in Valencia, a proposal that she rejected because she did not want to move away from the house, she had recently acquired keenly. After having worked 14 fruitful years for the transnational car manufacturing company, she got a job at Revlon for eight years and then, she worked nine years for Sonográfica, always in the computer department. Finally, she worked in the spare parts department of a Japanese automotive brand for other eight years.

Hence, she “hung up the gloves” expecting to take her well-deserved retirement. “I did not want to work anymore,” she recalled. Swimming, dancing and walking along Parque del Este became part of her most outstanding routine. Before and after exercising, a few squares of chocolate, preferably Chocolates El Rey, her favourite one. “I always like chocolate with a high percentage of cocoa, one of my weaknesses”.

 

The encounter with the teacher

One of those mornings at the iconic Caracas green space, Gladys ran into Arturo Somana, from Cacao Macuare Foundation, an expert in cocoa and chocolate. “In that casual encounter in March 2015 he told me that he would teach me how to make chocolate. That proposal fascinated me, so I joined the workshop given by him that same day in the park. The activity was from elevenin the morning to six in the afternoon. I even came out with some seeds in my hands”.

Thereafter, every weekend she continued going to Parque del Este to attend the workshops taught there by Somana, her teacher. Gladys did not wait long to make her first chocolates, after days of trial and error, “but they liked in my surroundings and that encouraged me to keep going”. Six months later, I was already selling them as Choco Gladys.

 “I feel very happy with chocolate. My family tells me that my face reveals it”.

 

The first order of bonbons came from her daughter Daniela’s boss, who requested them for a fifteen birthday celebration and, no doubt she made an impression with that gift. “I saved that first payment, as well as the next one. I used these savings to buy the first 15 kilos of cocoa, from Caucagua. The beans were ground at Doña Petra’s house, in San José de Río Chico. That’s how I made my first paste for bonbons. “I’m a lover of the work from the seed.”

After completing the workshops with Somana, she did courses at the National Institute of Agricultural Research (INIA) and the Fundación Nuestra Tierra as well. Also, she has participated during three consecutive years in equal number of world records organised by the foundation with the biggest chocolate coin (2015), the chocolate tasting (2016) and the largest chocolate bar mosaic on the planet (2017).

 In her artisanal family business, Gladys is responsible for the production of chocolates, with the help of a 22-year-old assistant, who is increasingly skilled in the art of tempering, a key stage for the production. “Tempering has affected one of my arms, but I continue to do it with an infinite love“, she said, from Los Ruices, where she lives and prepares the sweet food stuff. Her assistant took a course with the chocolate maker Julio Ledezma because “he must learn about the activity he performs”. Daniela, meanwhile, is in charge of packaging, which highlights the natural beauty of different national parks of Venezuela. She also manages the social networks as well as other responsibilities. Likewise, she is being trained in chocolate making, following in her relentless mother steps.

 Bonbons, lollipops, squares and cocoa creams are now part of the offer of Choco Gladys, another example of entrepreneurship from chocolate in these adverse days. The bars of percentages of 70%, 80%, 85% and 92% are obtained in presentations of 36, 50 and 70 grams. “We have created a natural and healthy chocolate, directed to a group of chocolate lovers on a limited diet, to elderly people as well as sportsmen and sportswomen”.

 

 Gladys says that she has a special relationship with Venezuelan cocoa, which she promotes even in international fairs. Likewise, every day at the sunrise she consumes five seeds to benefit from the properties that the seed contains. “Both chocolate and seed have a natural power to lighten the mood. It’s impressive! Not to mention the health benefits. I feel very happy with chocolate. My family tells me that my face reveals it.

 At the age of 71, this woman born in Santa Teresa del Tuystates that she will continue improving herself because, according to her, learning should never stop. As a project, she expects to have her own premises and little by little acquire the necessary equipment. With Choco Gladys she could not accomplish her former plan of “I do not work anymore”, because the life path offered her chocolate and she did not hesitate to become another entrepreneur of this sweet and exquisite foodstuff.

2 COMMENTS

  1. Excelente reportaje, amiga Gladys te lo mereces, las oportunidades no tienen limitaciones en tiempo y espacio para presentarse, y tu eres una ganadora al sber aprovechar las oportunidades que Dios y la vida te brindan, besos y que los exitos sigan agarrados contigo de la mano

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