Nydia Quintero Turbay

Nydia Quintero Turbay de Balcázar^[a] (28 August 1932 – 30 June 2025) was a Colombian civic leader and philanthropist who served as First Lady of Colombia from 1978 to 1982 during her marriage to President Julio César Turbay Ayala.^[1]

This name uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is Quintero, the second or maternal family name is Turbay, and, for married women, the optional marital name is de Balcázar.

Nydia Quintero
Turbay in 2012
First Lady of Colombia
In role 7 August 1978 – 7 August 1982
President	Julio César Turbay Ayala
Preceded by	Cecilia Caballero Blanco
Succeeded by	Rosa Helena Álvarez Yepes
Personal details
Born	Nydia Quintero Turbay (1932-08-28)28 August 1932 Neiva, Huila, Colombia
Died	30 June 2025(2025-06-30) (aged 92) Bogota, D.C., Colombia
Political party	Liberal
Spouses	Julio César Turbay Ayala ​ ​ (m. 1948; ann. 1983)​ Gustavo Balcázar ​ (m. 1984)​
Children	Julio César Diana Claudia María Victoria

Born in Neiva, Huila, Quintero was the founder of the Solidarity for Colombia Foundation [es], which she founded in 1975.^[2] Her first marriage was to her maternal uncle, Julio César Turbay Ayala. She was one of the most influential first ladies of Colombia.

Biography

Quintero was born on 28 August 1932 in Neiva, Huila, to Jorge Quintero Céspedes and Adhalía Turbay Ayala. She was of Lebanese and Basque descent. She attended La Presentación in Neiva where she lived until the death of her father when she moved to Bogotá to study at the Liceo Nacional Femenino Antonia Santos.^[1]

On 18 May 1948, against the wishes of her family, she married her maternal uncle Julio César Turbay Ayala in a clandestine wedding in a Roman Catholic ceremony at Santa Teresita Church in Bogotá.^[1] From their marriage they had four children: Julio César, Diana Consuelo, Claudia, and María Victoria.^[3] She divorced her husband in 1983^[4] after his term as president of Colombia and her's as first lady had ended, and remarried the following year in 1984 to Gustavo Balcázar Monzón,^[1] her marriage to former President Turbay was annulled by the Catholic Church in 1986.

Quintero Turbay died at the Fundación Santa Fe de Bogotá clinic, on 30 June 2025, at the age of 92.^[5]

Honour

• Spain: Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Isabella the Catholic^[6]

Notes

1. Name prior to her marriage: Nydia Quintero Turbay, formerly Nydia Quintero de Turbay, later changed to Nydia Quintero Turbay de Balcázar her current name.