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WHO RUNS THE HOTEL?




All the Hotel staff come from local families. As well as having the knowledge necessary for organizing local tours, some have a good level of English, although they come from poor families.

The managers are María Gloria García and Milciades Mancuello. Both graduated in Business Administration in 2008 and received awards as “distinguished pupils” of the Universidad Católica. Both were on scholarships from the Santa Maria Education Fund. Help in Reception and the welcoming of guests is given by young people from the village: María Gloria García and Sonia Maidana ( who have both passed Cambridge's Preliminary English Test); Elida Palacios and Ruben Dario Maidana (who have both passed Cambridge's First Certificate in English); Milciades Mancuello (who has passed Cambridge’s Key English Test; Alba Benítez, Irma Portillo and Blanca Romero (who are also studying English). With this team we believe we can provide sufficient English-speaking support for any visitors who do not speak Spanish.

Chambermaids, laundrywomen, cooks, waiters and gardeners are also chosen from among local poor families on the basis of ability. We aim to be as fair as possible in distributing work among those who most need it and those who can do it best.

In the early years of the Hotel, two native English-speaking volunteers, Katy Hardman and Lisa Kiernan, were managers and did a lot to get the Hotel up and running. The project was conceived by English journalist and theologian, Margaret Hebblethwaite, who also worked for a time as manager.


Margaret Hebblethwaite is a journalist and theologian who conceived the idea of the hotel. She has contributed to many programmes on radio and television (including a BBC Radio 4 programme for Good Friday 2003 from Santa María, called “Room of the Passion”, and a BBC TV documentary “White Smoke” on the 2005 papal election). She writes a monthly column about the life of the rural poor in the international Catholic weekly, The Tablet. Margaret has lived in Santa María since 2000 and is the founder of a charity called the Santa Maria Education Fund. She is one of the English teachers and also teaches Bible at the Instituto Técnico Superior, where students from poor families are trained to be food technologists.


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