Local Luminaries: Ivan Velilla and Gustavo Sanin

by Carl Frankel, August 26, 2011

Wherever the gay action was, Gustavo Sanin and Ivan Velilla were there, for better and for worse. They were at the Stonewall bar in Greenwich Village in 1969 when persecuted gays fought back in the infamous riot that launched the gay rights movement. They were part of the wild New York City scene of the 1970s. They watched their friends die one after another when AIDS came along in the ‘80s.

In 1985, Velilla and Sanin purchased a magical cabin in the woods of Phoenicia. They moved to the Hudson Valley full-time in 1992, opening an antiques store—“Velsani,” an amalgam of their two last names—on Route 28. In 1996, they moved their shop to Uptown Kingston. Over the years, they became known locally for their exquisite taste in art and antiques, and for their annual White Party, held each July, where guests wear white and celebrate  under the pines and moonlight.

Sanin and Velilla kept Velsani in Kingston until 2010, when they relocated to the Emerson Hotel in Mt. Tremper.
The one thing the native Colombians did not do during those many decades of work, play, and love was get married—because they couldn’t. And then, this year, all that changed. On a balmy July evening, they had their grandest White Party ever. At the ages of 65 and 83, respectively, Velilla and Sanin celebrated 50 years of committed partnership by taking wedding vows under the guidance of a Buddhist priest.

I caught up with Sanin and Velilla shortly after the ceremony to chat about the wedding and, more broadly, the saga of their lives. Velilla, the more extroverted of the two, did most of the talking.