El servicio como brújula de la vida | Yuyita Ríos de Chiossone | TEDxSanta Rosa Women
Yuyita Ríos de Chiossone, an 83-year-old Venezuelan pianist and educator, shares her life story of service spanning from the 1940s to present, emphasizing how her mother's advice that 'the object of life is to serve' guided her through roles as conservatory director, government official, and community leader.
Summary
Yuyita Ríos de Chiossone begins by contextualizing her life story within the broader narrative of women's advancement in 20th century Venezuela. Born in 1943 during World War II, she describes how women were transitioning from purely domestic roles to entering high schools massively after 1946 and obtaining their first professional titles in the 1940s. She details the founding of music and dance schools throughout Venezuela, including the Barquisimeto Music School in 1947 under Maestro Napoleón Sánchez Duque. Growing up in a culturally-oriented family, she studied piano for 10 years and received her piano teacher title in 1960. After marrying and moving to Barquisimeto at age 18, she became the first woman hired to teach at the Barquisimeto Music School in 1963. When Maestro Sánchez Duque retired, she was appointed director and helped elevate the school to conservatory status. In the 1980s, Governor Dr. Samir Zab invited her to serve as director of education, despite her lack of public administration experience. At this pivotal moment, she recalls her mother's crucial advice given when she was 12: 'One was not born, but was raised to do only what she likes to do... But the object of life is to serve.' This philosophy guided her acceptance of the role, where she successfully resolved educational debt issues and later became Secretary General of Government. She spearheaded the design and partial construction of a new conservatory headquarters with proper acoustical facilities, though the project remained unfinished due to lack of administrative continuity. Simultaneously, she maintained her career as a pianist, performing internationally while receiving unconditional support from her husband, a 42-year judge and cultural advocate. Together, they founded Van de Siel, a wheelchair bank that has provided mobility aids to over 5,000 low-income disabled individuals. She concludes by emphasizing that positions and titles matter less than the number of people one helps and serves, measuring success by service to family, community, and country.
Key Insights
- Ríos argues that her mother's philosophy that 'the object of life is to serve' became the guiding principle that enabled her to accept challenging roles outside her comfort zone, including public administration despite having no prior experience
- She contends that successful careers require unconditional spousal support, crediting her husband as the 'crutch' that enabled her to develop both her artistic career and community service work
- Ríos claims that administrative continuity problems in Venezuela prevented the completion of important infrastructure projects, specifically citing how her acoustically-designed conservatory building was left unfinished when administrations changed
- She asserts that true life success should be measured not by positions held or titles obtained, but by how many people one was able to help and whether one served family, community, and country effectively
- Ríos demonstrates that women in 1940s-1960s Venezuela could break gender barriers in professional fields, noting she became the first woman teacher at Barquisimeto Music School and later the conservatory director when her male predecessor retired
Topics
Transcript
Maria Luisa Martínez Reviewer 1 I'm cold. Well, good afternoon. First of all, I want to tell you that I undoubtedly must be the oldest person in this room, because I'm going to turn 83. I must tell my story in the context of what we women and people did in the last century. I was born in Caracas in 1943, during World War II. At that time, women were busy with what we know as household chores, and they even put it in the documents. Of course, women were already in school, because since the 19th century, with Guzmán Blanco, compulsory and free education had been promoted. And women went to school and private schools. But it was from…
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