Teresa Román Vélez

Teresita Román de Zurek (29 December 1925 – 2 May 2021) was a Colombian writer and chef.

Biography Teresa Román was born in Cartagena, Colombia, 29 December 1925. She came from a family of prominent chemists who emigrated from Spain in the early nineteenth century. Her father invented Kola Román, a pink soda drink, which she used as an ingredient in many of her recipes. She had a collection of 1,470 dolls representing the nations of the world. She began the collection in 1948 with a Romería del Rocío baby doll in a frilly linen skirt. One of her most recent acquisitions was a doll of Shakira. The dolls are stored in glass displays in a corner room of Casa Román.

She was awarded several times for her contribution to and preservation of the culture of Colombia and Cartagena. In 2006, she was named Honorary Mayor of the City of Cartagena de Indias.

Legacy Roman was included in a book by Gabriel García Márquez about real-life characters who had inspired characters from his books.