How does present day Colombia fit into worldwide race relations?
This report I finished in 1974 details life in Colombia back then.
Columbia is a fortress nation with high valleys and broad plateaus of interior. The Tropical coast extends along the Pacific ocean and Caribbean sea.
Colombia is divided into two parts. One has forest and jungle. The water drains into Orinoco and Amazon rivers. In this part of the country is the Andean region. This Colombia is two-thirds of the country but only has two percent of the population.
The other Colombia which has all the population is called effective Colombia. Second Colombia has the Cordillera (mountains) and the one thousand mile Magdalena that ends at the Caribbean sea. Farms, factories, mines and businesses are also in effective Colombia.
The Politics, economy and culture of Colombia shaped by its awkward geography. Bogotá's access to the sea and outer world is long dependent on the Magdalena River. In 1920 airlines began and brought communication to and between small cities.
Colombia's land area is 439,520 square miles, more than Texas and California combined. In 1958, its population was over 13,500,000. Colombians are twenty percent whites, seventy percent mestizos and five percent Inians and five percent Negroes. The Negroes live mostly on the coast. The Indians live mostly in the forest jungle region to the South and East. The whites are the dominant group with pure Spanish blood. The language in Bogotá, the capitol, is the finest spoken Castilian in South America.
Columbia's political record stands in vivid contrast to Venezuela. It's elections are always important, and sometimes they are honest. Dictatorships are rare also unpopular, and when there are dictatorships, they're brief. Columbia's had more than 20 civil wars since 1830. Colombia settled 1909 as one of the more orderly states. Pledges were honored 'til 1948.
Before planes were made in Colombia there was very little traffic because mountain passes are too high and jungle wastes are impenetrable. Bogotá is a commercial, cultured and political center. Medellín is an industry stronghold. Cali and Popayán are important agriculture centers. Barranquilla is the Caribbean outlet to coffee, oil and other commodities.
Colombia is the only country in all Americas to be named after Christopher Colombus. Of all the South American countries it is closest to North America on map. A tiny port laps Panama, making a frontier with Panama.
Barranquilla, Cartegena and Santa Marta are all main Caribbean ports. Colombia has more than twenty important cities, a large number for a Latin American country. Colombia is called "Country of Cities". 2,000,000 live in the capitol city, Bogotá. Bogotá is an island city and has a high tableland of mountains surrounding it. Before commercial aviation, it was the world's hardest-to-reach capitols.
Medellín and Cali compete for the second best city in Colombia. Cali is a gay charming city, with friendly people and a zest for living. It also has a love for sports. There is a saying that the most beautiful women come from Cali. Medellín is an industrial city surrounded by mountains like Bogotá. Despite the factories textile mill and modern buildings, it is clearly well kept, which gives it a pleasant air.
In the upland cities of Colombia, they have perpetual springs. Along the coast it's summer all year round, and you can go swimming at any time. Bogotá is four degrees North of the equator but still feels colder, because Bogatans live in the mountains.
The mountains of Colombia make transportation difficult. Colombia has 2,000 miles of railways and 20,000 miles of roads. The road and railroads have been built and maintained in great hardships. The reason it's hard to maintain them is because of landslides, which sweep them away. Mostly these landslides occur in the Winter, because of tropical rainfall. The way Colombia tackles the problem is by air. Colombia's air transport system is the best in South America. Even Bogotá's remote villages, llanos, rain forests and selvas are reached easily by air.
Before Bogotá was a city, farmers settled themselves where Bogotá is today. These farmers were called the Chibcha Indians, and they developed a fairly high civilization. The Chibcha Indians chief had a fortune in gold, emeralds and pearls. There is a story told that at a religious ceremony, the chief took all his clothes off and rubbed himself with a sticky resin. Then he was covered with fine gold and after that was done, he bathed in the sacred lake, while attendants threw gold and emeralds into the water, as an offering to god. Today the rest of the Chibcha gold is in Colombia's national bank. The display of golden breastplates, nose rings, crowns, diadems, belts, bracelets are open to visitors. Alexander von Humboldt guessed that the Sacred Lake (Lake Guatavita) that the Indians threw gold into holds $300,000,000. All efforts have been made to recover the gold that's under the lake. One English company tried to drain the lake but ran out of money before it was completely drained.
Many conquistadors searched for El Dorado or lake Guatavita. Gonzalo Jumenez de Quesada a learned lawyer pushed his way through tropical rain forests along Magdalena River, then he crossed the Andes to Bogotá. He left the coast in 1536 and 800 men. When Quesada got there, the men weren't too tired to fight the Chibcha Indians for the land. Quesada won... and he settled, and it became Bogotá. An impossible coincidence happened, Sebastian de Belalcazar and Nicolas de Federman, both conquistadors, also showed up at El Dorado with 173 men, and all three showed up within days of each other. However, the King of Spain honored Quesada with the title of Mariscal.
As the Kingdom grew, priceless cargo collected by New World explorers passed through the Caribbean port of Cartagena. Cartagena's original name is Kalamary meaning, "Crab". Crab is a good description of Cartagena's coast. Its claw-like peninsulas extends into the bay and cuts it into tortuous channels and crooked lagoons. The Cartagena bay has two mouths leading to the sea, one Boca Chica called "Little Mouth". The other one Boca Grande called "Big Mouth". Fleets of English and French pirate ships forced their way into Boca Grande and blocked the passage with huge boulders. That made it easier to guard. Then they enclosed Cartagena with a wall 60' feet wide and 40' feet high. It took 27 years to finish and cost the King of Spain $70,000,000 to build. They constructed awesome battlements and terraces with watchtowers, and they linked it all together with subterranean chambers. The King of Spain would stand to lose tons of treasure if Cartagena lost.l Today you can drive along and on top of the great wall. Sir Edward Vernon gathered the largest force ever to attack Cartagena. He gathered 150 ships and several thousand men and attacked for 56 days but retreated. Mount Vernon was named after Sir Edward Vernon.
The Spanish ruled Colombia for 250 years. Then Colombia became an independent nation, with help from Simon Bolivar.
Colombia is a republic with three main branches of power: They are are the legislative, executive and judicial. They are divided into 17 departments, and also four interdencias and four comisarias. Dr. Alberto Llenas Canargo held the office of president twice and is the living symbol of his country's leadership in this hemisphere. He is a former Ambassador of the United States and served Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS). He helped his country become leaders in following groups. Columbia is a member of the UN, OAS and LAFTA Latin American Free Trade Association. The LAFTA's nine members have cut taxes on all goods shipped from country to another on at least 2,000 items.
The law-enforcement of Colombia is not very good. Hundreds of bandits move about the country in gangs of bandits... do is... Attack buses on lonely highways and drive farmers away from their farmland.
Colombia is the largest producer of coffee and every year they ship off a billion of it. It accounts for 80 percent of all the money earned in Colombia. But when the coffee is not selling for its regular price, because they sell so much, they lose a lot of money. They solve that problem by, when the coffee isn't selling, for its regular price, then they store the coffee for the next buying time. They solved this problem in 1927.
Juan Valdez represents the 200,000 plus coffee growers in Colombia. Juan Valdez owns his own farm, and if you would like to know more about Senor Valdez and his family and farm write the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia, 120 Wall St., New York City, New York, zip code 10005. Juan Valdez owns 3,000 trees, and he prunes them constantly. He does not let them grow taller than six or seven feet tall; it results in better berries. At harvest time, the family picks the berries from the lower branches. Then the berries are dried in the sun. From there, they are dumped into machines which hull them. Inside the berry is a green seed with some pulp. The pulp is washed away from the seed. Then the beans are dried and sorted. And packed in burlap bags. Only when the beans reach their destination are they roasted.
Other important exports are bananas and oil. Colombia is the second biggest producer of oil behind Venezuela. Bananas earn $10,000,000 a year. Less important exports are gold, silver, platinum and emeralds. Although, gold is one of its less important exports, Colombia is the biggest supplier of gold in South America. It is also the only country in South America that mines platinum. Colombia is practically the whole world's source of emeralds. The Gems that were thrown into the Sacred Lake were mined at Muzo mine. The country has coal mines near Cali, Bogotá and Medellin, plus deposits of lead, copper and manganese.
Colombia has fifty-thousand manufacturing plants. Colombia produces 95 per cent of what they need. They are third in textiles behind Brazil and Argentina. Yet Colombia has a better chance to sell these items through LAFTA. Although, Colombia produces so many things, they owe more money than they get from sales.
Colombia has twenty-two universities. Youngsters may learn English before you're aged. Other studies for about sixth grade are Spanish, grammar, arithmetic, religion, science, geometry, history, geography and literature. But half of Columbia's people haven't even learned to read or write. Jose Joagwn Salcedo thought of a way to teach those people to read and write. He raised an antenna above the church steeple, broadcasting classes, which started at 6 a.m. The farmers gather around the receiver in the village and learn reading, writing etc. Only the instructions are taught. The transmitter has 50,000 watts, among the most powerfulest in South America. The network has teached 150,000 Colombians to read and write. Today the United Nations is assisting the radio school program. The wires from the church reach a long way. The school's budget is a million dollars.
The Roman Catholic religion is Colombia's official religion, so it is taught in school. But the country's Constitution provides for complete religious freedom. Colombia's churches are old and new with starkly modern buildings. Sculptured Chapels and Cathedrals built by Spaniards. The most unusual church is the Salt Cathedral which was built inside the Zipaquira salt mines outside of Bogotá. The miners thought of the idea!
Colombia has 19 National holidays... twelve religious. The ones that are religious honor saints like Joseph, Peter and Paul. The most important holiday is Christmas. To celebrate families build mangers or nacimientos, where Christ was born. They carve figures of the Holy Family, shepherds and animals, that were in the stable. On Christmas Eve, people go to misa de gallo, which means the "mass of the clock", a midnight church service that celebrates the crowing of the cock to announce Christ's birth.
Then they come home and have a soup made of white potatoes, chicken, bits of corn on the cob, peas, capers, flavored with leaves from the fibrous tree called guasca. There is a big piece of chicken, with heavy cream floating on top. After the soup comes, tamales which was made with chopped pork, onions, eggs and olives all rolled up in cornmeal dough and wrapped in banana leaves and steamed. There're called buñuelos, with cheese fritter and syrup. In Colombia, you might have roast pork or stuffed pig and chicken stew instead of tamales. But farther North, you might have pasteles de gallina for the main dish. Pasteles de gallina is a pie of chicken and pork, with rice and peppers. Christmas day, everyone sleeps late, but children can't sleep too late, because they can't wait for the presents. Easter is the second most important holiday in Colombia. People pack the streets behind a slowly moving cart, with carved statues of saints and crucifixes. This is called Semana Santa.
Probably no other American country has so many variations and original combinations. The guitar is the most popular instrument. They have a special guitar called the Tiple; it looks like a Spanish guitar but has more strings than it. With all the tiples and maracas, the people along the coast perform pretty rhythmic dances with lots of fancy footwork. In the Andes mountains, the people do a slower, sadder dance called the bambuco. The name came from Africa's ivory coast. Slaves were shipped from bambuk to Cartagena by Spanish.
Soccer in Colombia is played like soccer in the United States but is called futbol. It is an all-time favorite and attracts thousands of spectators. Colombians also like basketball, tennis, polo, boxing, golf, swimming, horseback riding, horse shows, horse races and bicycle races.
They also have a game called tezo. It is played like horseshoes buy you use tezos.
Spanish toreos and Colombian toreos perform coridas (bullfights). You can see coridas every Sunday in February and March at Circo de Santamaria, one of the finest.
Columbia (3-16-74)
Teach: Late!
Grade: B-
Bibliography
Herring, Hubert. Latin America. New York, Alfred A Knopf, 1961
Encyclopedida - no author
Colliers Encyclopedia. New York, Toronto: PF Collier and son Corp. 1960, vol 5 pp. 297-304
Halsell, Grace. Getting to Know Colombia. New York, Coward McCann, Inc., 1964
Teach: Incomplete Where are your 5 Reference sources?
1 Encyclopedia
This report I finished in 1974 details life in Colombia back then.
Columbia is a fortress nation with high valleys and broad plateaus of interior. The Tropical coast extends along the Pacific ocean and Caribbean sea.
Colombia is divided into two parts. One has forest and jungle. The water drains into Orinoco and Amazon rivers. In this part of the country is the Andean region. This Colombia is two-thirds of the country but only has two percent of the population.
The other Colombia which has all the population is called effective Colombia. Second Colombia has the Cordillera (mountains) and the one thousand mile Magdalena that ends at the Caribbean sea. Farms, factories, mines and businesses are also in effective Colombia.
The Politics, economy and culture of Colombia shaped by its awkward geography. Bogotá's access to the sea and outer world is long dependent on the Magdalena River. In 1920 airlines began and brought communication to and between small cities.
Colombia's land area is 439,520 square miles, more than Texas and California combined. In 1958, its population was over 13,500,000. Colombians are twenty percent whites, seventy percent mestizos and five percent Inians and five percent Negroes. The Negroes live mostly on the coast. The Indians live mostly in the forest jungle region to the South and East. The whites are the dominant group with pure Spanish blood. The language in Bogotá, the capitol, is the finest spoken Castilian in South America.
Columbia's political record stands in vivid contrast to Venezuela. It's elections are always important, and sometimes they are honest. Dictatorships are rare also unpopular, and when there are dictatorships, they're brief. Columbia's had more than 20 civil wars since 1830. Colombia settled 1909 as one of the more orderly states. Pledges were honored 'til 1948.
Before planes were made in Colombia there was very little traffic because mountain passes are too high and jungle wastes are impenetrable. Bogotá is a commercial, cultured and political center. Medellín is an industry stronghold. Cali and Popayán are important agriculture centers. Barranquilla is the Caribbean outlet to coffee, oil and other commodities.
Colombia is the only country in all Americas to be named after Christopher Colombus. Of all the South American countries it is closest to North America on map. A tiny port laps Panama, making a frontier with Panama.
Barranquilla, Cartegena and Santa Marta are all main Caribbean ports. Colombia has more than twenty important cities, a large number for a Latin American country. Colombia is called "Country of Cities". 2,000,000 live in the capitol city, Bogotá. Bogotá is an island city and has a high tableland of mountains surrounding it. Before commercial aviation, it was the world's hardest-to-reach capitols.
Medellín and Cali compete for the second best city in Colombia. Cali is a gay charming city, with friendly people and a zest for living. It also has a love for sports. There is a saying that the most beautiful women come from Cali. Medellín is an industrial city surrounded by mountains like Bogotá. Despite the factories textile mill and modern buildings, it is clearly well kept, which gives it a pleasant air.
In the upland cities of Colombia, they have perpetual springs. Along the coast it's summer all year round, and you can go swimming at any time. Bogotá is four degrees North of the equator but still feels colder, because Bogatans live in the mountains.
The mountains of Colombia make transportation difficult. Colombia has 2,000 miles of railways and 20,000 miles of roads. The road and railroads have been built and maintained in great hardships. The reason it's hard to maintain them is because of landslides, which sweep them away. Mostly these landslides occur in the Winter, because of tropical rainfall. The way Colombia tackles the problem is by air. Colombia's air transport system is the best in South America. Even Bogotá's remote villages, llanos, rain forests and selvas are reached easily by air.
Before Bogotá was a city, farmers settled themselves where Bogotá is today. These farmers were called the Chibcha Indians, and they developed a fairly high civilization. The Chibcha Indians chief had a fortune in gold, emeralds and pearls. There is a story told that at a religious ceremony, the chief took all his clothes off and rubbed himself with a sticky resin. Then he was covered with fine gold and after that was done, he bathed in the sacred lake, while attendants threw gold and emeralds into the water, as an offering to god. Today the rest of the Chibcha gold is in Colombia's national bank. The display of golden breastplates, nose rings, crowns, diadems, belts, bracelets are open to visitors. Alexander von Humboldt guessed that the Sacred Lake (Lake Guatavita) that the Indians threw gold into holds $300,000,000. All efforts have been made to recover the gold that's under the lake. One English company tried to drain the lake but ran out of money before it was completely drained.
Many conquistadors searched for El Dorado or lake Guatavita. Gonzalo Jumenez de Quesada a learned lawyer pushed his way through tropical rain forests along Magdalena River, then he crossed the Andes to Bogotá. He left the coast in 1536 and 800 men. When Quesada got there, the men weren't too tired to fight the Chibcha Indians for the land. Quesada won... and he settled, and it became Bogotá. An impossible coincidence happened, Sebastian de Belalcazar and Nicolas de Federman, both conquistadors, also showed up at El Dorado with 173 men, and all three showed up within days of each other. However, the King of Spain honored Quesada with the title of Mariscal.
As the Kingdom grew, priceless cargo collected by New World explorers passed through the Caribbean port of Cartagena. Cartagena's original name is Kalamary meaning, "Crab". Crab is a good description of Cartagena's coast. Its claw-like peninsulas extends into the bay and cuts it into tortuous channels and crooked lagoons. The Cartagena bay has two mouths leading to the sea, one Boca Chica called "Little Mouth". The other one Boca Grande called "Big Mouth". Fleets of English and French pirate ships forced their way into Boca Grande and blocked the passage with huge boulders. That made it easier to guard. Then they enclosed Cartagena with a wall 60' feet wide and 40' feet high. It took 27 years to finish and cost the King of Spain $70,000,000 to build. They constructed awesome battlements and terraces with watchtowers, and they linked it all together with subterranean chambers. The King of Spain would stand to lose tons of treasure if Cartagena lost.l Today you can drive along and on top of the great wall. Sir Edward Vernon gathered the largest force ever to attack Cartagena. He gathered 150 ships and several thousand men and attacked for 56 days but retreated. Mount Vernon was named after Sir Edward Vernon.
The Spanish ruled Colombia for 250 years. Then Colombia became an independent nation, with help from Simon Bolivar.
Colombia is a republic with three main branches of power: They are are the legislative, executive and judicial. They are divided into 17 departments, and also four interdencias and four comisarias. Dr. Alberto Llenas Canargo held the office of president twice and is the living symbol of his country's leadership in this hemisphere. He is a former Ambassador of the United States and served Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS). He helped his country become leaders in following groups. Columbia is a member of the UN, OAS and LAFTA Latin American Free Trade Association. The LAFTA's nine members have cut taxes on all goods shipped from country to another on at least 2,000 items.
The law-enforcement of Colombia is not very good. Hundreds of bandits move about the country in gangs of bandits... do is... Attack buses on lonely highways and drive farmers away from their farmland.
Colombia is the largest producer of coffee and every year they ship off a billion of it. It accounts for 80 percent of all the money earned in Colombia. But when the coffee is not selling for its regular price, because they sell so much, they lose a lot of money. They solve that problem by, when the coffee isn't selling, for its regular price, then they store the coffee for the next buying time. They solved this problem in 1927.
Juan Valdez represents the 200,000 plus coffee growers in Colombia. Juan Valdez owns his own farm, and if you would like to know more about Senor Valdez and his family and farm write the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia, 120 Wall St., New York City, New York, zip code 10005. Juan Valdez owns 3,000 trees, and he prunes them constantly. He does not let them grow taller than six or seven feet tall; it results in better berries. At harvest time, the family picks the berries from the lower branches. Then the berries are dried in the sun. From there, they are dumped into machines which hull them. Inside the berry is a green seed with some pulp. The pulp is washed away from the seed. Then the beans are dried and sorted. And packed in burlap bags. Only when the beans reach their destination are they roasted.
Other important exports are bananas and oil. Colombia is the second biggest producer of oil behind Venezuela. Bananas earn $10,000,000 a year. Less important exports are gold, silver, platinum and emeralds. Although, gold is one of its less important exports, Colombia is the biggest supplier of gold in South America. It is also the only country in South America that mines platinum. Colombia is practically the whole world's source of emeralds. The Gems that were thrown into the Sacred Lake were mined at Muzo mine. The country has coal mines near Cali, Bogotá and Medellin, plus deposits of lead, copper and manganese.
Colombia has fifty-thousand manufacturing plants. Colombia produces 95 per cent of what they need. They are third in textiles behind Brazil and Argentina. Yet Colombia has a better chance to sell these items through LAFTA. Although, Colombia produces so many things, they owe more money than they get from sales.
Colombia has twenty-two universities. Youngsters may learn English before you're aged. Other studies for about sixth grade are Spanish, grammar, arithmetic, religion, science, geometry, history, geography and literature. But half of Columbia's people haven't even learned to read or write. Jose Joagwn Salcedo thought of a way to teach those people to read and write. He raised an antenna above the church steeple, broadcasting classes, which started at 6 a.m. The farmers gather around the receiver in the village and learn reading, writing etc. Only the instructions are taught. The transmitter has 50,000 watts, among the most powerfulest in South America. The network has teached 150,000 Colombians to read and write. Today the United Nations is assisting the radio school program. The wires from the church reach a long way. The school's budget is a million dollars.
The Roman Catholic religion is Colombia's official religion, so it is taught in school. But the country's Constitution provides for complete religious freedom. Colombia's churches are old and new with starkly modern buildings. Sculptured Chapels and Cathedrals built by Spaniards. The most unusual church is the Salt Cathedral which was built inside the Zipaquira salt mines outside of Bogotá. The miners thought of the idea!
Colombia has 19 National holidays... twelve religious. The ones that are religious honor saints like Joseph, Peter and Paul. The most important holiday is Christmas. To celebrate families build mangers or nacimientos, where Christ was born. They carve figures of the Holy Family, shepherds and animals, that were in the stable. On Christmas Eve, people go to misa de gallo, which means the "mass of the clock", a midnight church service that celebrates the crowing of the cock to announce Christ's birth.
Then they come home and have a soup made of white potatoes, chicken, bits of corn on the cob, peas, capers, flavored with leaves from the fibrous tree called guasca. There is a big piece of chicken, with heavy cream floating on top. After the soup comes, tamales which was made with chopped pork, onions, eggs and olives all rolled up in cornmeal dough and wrapped in banana leaves and steamed. There're called buñuelos, with cheese fritter and syrup. In Colombia, you might have roast pork or stuffed pig and chicken stew instead of tamales. But farther North, you might have pasteles de gallina for the main dish. Pasteles de gallina is a pie of chicken and pork, with rice and peppers. Christmas day, everyone sleeps late, but children can't sleep too late, because they can't wait for the presents. Easter is the second most important holiday in Colombia. People pack the streets behind a slowly moving cart, with carved statues of saints and crucifixes. This is called Semana Santa.
Probably no other American country has so many variations and original combinations. The guitar is the most popular instrument. They have a special guitar called the Tiple; it looks like a Spanish guitar but has more strings than it. With all the tiples and maracas, the people along the coast perform pretty rhythmic dances with lots of fancy footwork. In the Andes mountains, the people do a slower, sadder dance called the bambuco. The name came from Africa's ivory coast. Slaves were shipped from bambuk to Cartagena by Spanish.
Soccer in Colombia is played like soccer in the United States but is called futbol. It is an all-time favorite and attracts thousands of spectators. Colombians also like basketball, tennis, polo, boxing, golf, swimming, horseback riding, horse shows, horse races and bicycle races.
They also have a game called tezo. It is played like horseshoes buy you use tezos.
Spanish toreos and Colombian toreos perform coridas (bullfights). You can see coridas every Sunday in February and March at Circo de Santamaria, one of the finest.
Columbia (3-16-74)
Teach: Late!
Grade: B-
Bibliography
Herring, Hubert. Latin America. New York, Alfred A Knopf, 1961
Encyclopedida - no author
Colliers Encyclopedia. New York, Toronto: PF Collier and son Corp. 1960, vol 5 pp. 297-304
Halsell, Grace. Getting to Know Colombia. New York, Coward McCann, Inc., 1964
Teach: Incomplete Where are your 5 Reference sources?
1 Encyclopedia
Last edited:
