This entrepreneurial lady was born in the municipality of Frontino (Antioquia) and lives in Medellín. She states effusively that at 52 years of age, her life burns with a brighter flame because now her business is a reality which has allowed her to make many of her dreams come true.
25 years ago, after deciding to separate from her husband and leave her job as a sous pastry chef in Medellín’s Club Unión, María Aurora Múnera decided she was going to be an independent businesswoman so that she could spend more time with her son, and also make more money. She started off selling cheese straws door to door in the Robledo Las Margaritas neighborhood, which earned her the nickname of ‘Maria Straws’, as she is known there and in a large part of the city.
After selling door to door, she set up her enterprise on a sidewalk until she could get her own space, which she repurposed as a home and in which she also ran a fast food restaurant. It was then that she could extend her business offering. As well as the cheese straws, she had French fries and fried plantains; by the time she had finished there were thirty different dishes making up the menu offered by ‘María Straws’. The restaurant has cheered the neighborhood up enormously, because as well as good food she has created jobs for several people.
“In my enterprise I take care of all the administration, I became the manager and I’m also the cook; the last job is the one I am proud of”, notes the businesswoman, who has had loans for 20 years with Corporación Mundial de la Mujer Medellín, one of the founding institutions of Bancamía. “Thanks to the loans I have grown in entrepreneurial terms, I have my own house, my enterprise has been visited by officers and managers and everyone at the bank has made me feel very important”, continues María Aurora.
As of today, this entrepreneur has taken out over 20 loans, either with Corporación Mundial de la Mujer Medellín or Bancamía. She started with COP 1 million and she currently has a loan of COP 28 million. “Not everything is about the money, it’s not only about what you pay: I pay for quality and the enjoyment of seeing the faces of the manager and the officers who are always so kind and attentive to me”.
Now she dreams of buying another house and setting up an cream business. She is sure that the bank will continue to help her, “I’m going to take out loans until I die, I’m married to Bancamía”, says ‘María Straws’, full of the euphoria produced by her happiness at seeing her dreams come true and of living the life for which she fought.
María Múnera is the living proof that “the success of its clients is the success of Bancamía”.