Santa Palabra: twenty years weaving stories

1. 2003The spark that started it all

   It all began with Jhohann Castell before an audience that gathered freely to listen. In Cali, telling stories on the Colina de San Antonio was not just a craft: it was the first proof that a word, well spoken, can stop time and gather strangers around a single story.

2. 2007The name is born, the purpose is born

   In a café, the name Santa Palabra was spoken for the first time. It was there that Omar Romero and Jhohann Castell used to meet to read and tell stories. It was Omar who defined the name and designed the first logo. This was also the moment intuition became purpose: understanding that words are sacred and can weave bridges between people who did not know each other before.

3. 2008The team comes together

   Cristian Fraga and Sergio Castellanos join the team. From then on, the Santa Palabra story stops being an individual tale and becomes the work of several voices building toward the same horizon.

4. 2010A leap onto the stage

   Santa Palabra lives through its great artistic laboratory: theatrical productions begin and the company gains a presence in universities, starting with the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, where a campaign on principles and values was reinforced through oral storytelling.

5. 2011A look outward

   This year, a tour of South America focused on live performance gets underway. Memorable artistic productions are also born, among them "Un cuento para viajar," a magical show blending circus arts, featuring renowned actor Diego Garzón.

6. 2012The company is born, and so is the festival

   Santa Palabra formally becomes a company, backed by a diploma program in Cultural Industries with the Inter-American Development Bank. That same year, two parallel ventures launch: "Jueves de Cuentos," at the Premier Limonar shopping mall, and the Festival Internacional Santa Palabra, at the Biblioteca Departamental. Both spaces are born from the same conviction: that oral storytelling deserves a stage of its own, even a temporary one. That same year, Santa Palabra becomes a pioneer of improv theater as a live show format in the city of Cali.

7. 2013The word enters the industry

   Crepes & Waffles trusts Santa Palabra with food safety processes, and Tecnoquímicas opens its doors to work on Good Manufacturing Practices. This was the first evidence of something that is now the heart of Storytelling 361°: that even the most technical knowledge is better conveyed when it travels inside a story. That same year, the Festival Internacional Santa Palabra holds its second consecutive edition at the Biblioteca Departamental.

8. 2014A decision that hurt

   Within Tecnoquímicas, the first proper corporate storytelling intervention takes place, while in parallel Santa Palabra supports cultural processes with the MIO mass transit system in Cali. That same year, the Festival Internacional Santa Palabra reaches its third and final edition: sustaining it was consuming ever more energy and resources, right as the corporate sector was beginning to demand the company's work in force. The decision was not easy, but the team chose to give way to a lighter structure that would let the founders keep developing as artists while Santa Palabra expanded into the corporate territory that was calling it.

9. 2017A pause with a direction of its own

   Jueves de Cuentos pauses temporarily, not out of exhaustion but out of a search: the pause is born from the desire to closely explore what was happening in the United States around oral storytelling, understanding that the craft also needs to look outward in order to keep growing inward.

10. 2019Learning to teach with stories

    In-person workshops with Sura begin. While Santa Palabra had already offered workshops as part of the Festival Internacional Santa Palabra, it is in this year that the company starts seriously exploring its own teaching methodologies: the seed of what would later become learning experiences structured around narrative, neuroscience, and gamification.

11. 2020A cycle that leaves a mark

    Because of the pandemic, Jueves de Cuentos definitively closes its cycle at Premier Limonar, after eight years bringing a cultural program to more than 70,000 spectators. Eight years of oral storytelling inside a shopping mall show that narrative does not need a traditional stage to transform those who listen. That same year, for OIM (the Organización Internacional para las Migraciones), audio capsules were scripted to explain the peace process in the territories of Urabá and Tumaco, an experience that deeply moved the team and allowed it to better understand the country's reality.

12. 2021The year of rupture and rebirth

    Cristian Fraga parts ways with the project and Santa Palabra relocates to Bogotá, a change of city that was also a change of outlook. That same year, at OIM's request, audiovisual capsules on human rights are written to be led by comedian Suso, proving that even the most sensitive subjects move better through stories and that this can be done without losing rigor. In parallel, Santa Palabra takes part in Procolombia's launch of the country brand "Colombia, el país más acogedor del mundo": proof that a well-built story can represent not just a company, but an entire nation. This same year, with Omar Romero's guidance, the first steps are taken toward what is known today as Storytelling 361°.

13. 2022Trust as the result

    Pharmaceutical company Novartis recognizes Santa Palabra as its Ideal Partner in the Breakthrough category, an award that comes as a direct result of having contributed to the transformation of its internal culture through the power of stories. That recognition confirmed Santa Palabra's intuition: when strategy becomes narrative, it is not only communicated better — it is thought about and worked on differently. That same year, while Santa Palabra deepens its work in audiovisual production, Jhohann Castell takes a step into television acting, appearing in Entre Sombras on Caracol Televisión and in Arelis Henao 2, playing an antagonist role. This exploration proves key, as it gives Santa Palabra a firsthand view of what happens in major productions, allowing it to carry those experiences into the corporate sector.

14. 2024A year of growth

    Santa Palabra fully enters AstraZeneca's processes, deploying Fábula Inc. and Mapa de Actos as part of the Storytelling 361° methodology. These products become central to its internal campaigns and to the narrative of its corporate convention, and their implementation drives growth in concepts and ideas for Santa Palabra. Also, for external audiences, the company becomes part of something far more sensitive: crafting the story of Enhertu, a medication developed to treat breast cancer.

15. 2025Two stories written in parallel

    In May 2025, Philips recognizes Santa Palabra for the global relaunch of OneBlade, celebrating the value of Storytelling 361° as a methodology capable of building, from Colombia, a solid and distinctive narrative for a global product. That same year, Santa Palabra begins scripting its first television series, co-written with actor and director Marlon Moreno. Both processes reflect the two paths Santa Palabra is walking: one oriented toward the corporate sector, and the other toward its own audiences, the general public.

16. 2026The story becomes legacy

    This year, Santa Palabra turns inward: the complete academic and methodological development of Storytelling 361° takes shape with an eye toward its literary publication, a process framed within Jhohann Castell's master's degree in Corporate Communication and Strategy, an official program of the Universidad Internacional de Valencia. This deepening springs from the same spirit that opened this story in a café back in 2007: turning intuition into rigorous knowledge, and knowledge into a legacy others can use.

After more than twenty years, the Santa Palabra team, led by Sergio Castellanos and Jhohann Castell, keeps turning words into bridges and stories into results — still eager to add new milestones and to bring new organizations into this story.