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The territory of Santa Elena was a territory until 1917, when people lived off mining and 107 years ago they declared Santa Elena a Natural Reserve that we now know as Arvi Park.

At that time, those people who were miners changed to other ways of subsistence, some dedicated themselves to extracting resources from the forest such as the soil of the capote and moss, others to extract bromeliads, orchids and sell them, also to transform firewood into charcoal.

Other people from the territory dedicated themselves to having cattle and extracting milk and its derivatives.

And others dedicated themselves to growing and caring for flowers to then take them to Medellín to sell them and this is where they use the silleta.

This silleta was previously used to carry sick, disabled, pregnant people or people with money who paid to be transported from one place to another.

They removed the legs of the chair and adapted it to carry flowers, around 100 bunches that weighed approximately 50 kilograms.

They cultivated from Monday to Friday, on Friday they went into the garden, picked the flowers, arranged them in bunches and then placed them on the wooden chair structure, then they slept from 6pm until 9.30pm, got up, got ready and from 10pm they went out with their chair full of flowers on their shoulders and walked 20 kilometers to the city of Medellin, 7 hours away to get to the square in Medellin.

All the farmers met in this little square to barter or exchange a variety of flowers.
Some stayed selling flowers in the little square, others went to the doors of the cemeteries, others went to the churches and others walked around the city shouting: "the flowers of Santa Elena have arrived" and people bought them.
When they finished their sales they went back to the little square and made their purchases of the most necessary provisions: rice, panela, meat and always a sweet for the children of the family. Once they finished shopping they carried their groceries in their saddles and climbed the mountain again with their groceries in the saddle on their shoulders.

This was their hard work with a lot of effort every week they did this to be able to bring sustenance to their families.

This sales process was done in the 20s, 30s, 40s until 57, already in this last year Mr. Efrain Botero, administrator of the Cisneros plaza, invited them to do a parade in honor of the Virgin of Candelaria, patron saint of the city of Medellín, and 40 farmers participated there, including the Londono family. Later, this parade was moved to the month of August since in this month two important dates are celebrated: the Battle of Boyacá and the independence of Antioquia, and other activities are added such as horseback riding, parades of antique cars, and what we know today as the flower fair. It started with the traditional chair, then Mr. Pedro Luis Zapata invented the monumental chair, with a larger base and he placed a fern in the center and flowers around it.

On the day of the parade, all the peasants must sign a certification verifying that they are not intoxicated and that they are wearing their traditional costume. They also verify that the chair meets the conditions of the contest. They choose 10 finalists, then 5, and finally the first place.

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