Anarella Vélez
Anarella Vélez Osejo is a Honduran academic, historian and writer. She has published over twenty books. In 2022 she became the Secretary of State for Culture, Arts and Sports.
Life
Vélez was born in 1956 in Tegucigalpa. She had intended to follow her parents in their careers. Her father was Sergio Vélez and her mother, Gloria Osejo, was a gynaecologist and obstetrician. However her interest turned to history and she went to Argentina to study at the National University of La Plata. However she graduated from the National Autonomous University of Honduras. She completed her education in Spain where she gained a masters degree in history at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.Vélez became an academic and a writer. She became a Professor of Art History at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras. She has published over twenty books. Her husband was also a noted poet and he died in 2015.
Art and culture were said to have been neglected during the government of Juan Orlando Hernández, it was not a full ministry as it was downgraded. However in 2022 she became a member of the cabinet when she became the Secretary of State for Culture, Arts and Sports in Xiomara Castro's government.
She complained that the previous administration had spent all of its small budget on salaries. Vehicles, buildings and even paintings were she said unmaintained. She announced, "We have cracked the patriarchal culture".
In 2025 she was giving inaugural national awards for art and culture at the Museum for National Identity. She was giving recognition to leading artists, which she described as her duty.