Calle 23 # 66 - 46 cons. 403, Bogota, Colombia. E-mail: davidrincon2810@gmail.com (D. Rincon).In 2012, the Colombian Journal of Anesthesiology (RCA) will issue its 40th Edition and, at the end, will complete forty years of uninterrupted publication, this provides us with the opportunity to reflect on the events that have contributed to our history and to make decisions that will help the RCA to move forward as a leading publication in the area of Anesthesia, Resuscitation and Perioperative Medicine in Colombia, Latin America, and the world. The RCA was published for the first time in September 1973 during the XII Latin American Congress of Anesthesia held in Bogota, under the editorial direction of Jaime Herrera Ponton, in collaboration with Jorge Osorio Reyes, Fernando Velez de Castro and Guillermo Ortiz Castro, who are now considered the founders of the journal.