From Colombia

When most of Americans write the name of the South American country they spell it with U instead O. Something that irritates Colombians, since we feel Americans are trying to Americanize our country’s name. I rather understand this is more due to lack of awareness or carelessness than anything else. The word Colombia is, the same as in English, a female gender derivation of the last name of the discoverer of the American continent, which in Spanish is Colón. In Italian Columbus´ full name is Cristoforo Colombo and in Latin it is Cristophorus Colombus. In this way, the name ColOmbia comes from the name ColÓn. Unlike ColUmbia, ColOmbia does not have a poetic image. That historical one that represents the United States like a woman wearing the American flag colors. That very popularized by the Columbia Pictures film company. I also understand there are a lot of places, Media, institutions, brands, transportation means, fictitious things and many other stuff named Columbia ...

Barranquilla is one of the main cities in Colombia, it is the country's first port in its Atlantic Ocean coast and the entrance from the Caribbean Sea. Important issues for development, such as aviation, Radio and soccer, among many others, have gotten into the country through this city. Because of all of this, Barranquilla is known as the 'Colombia's Golden Gate'. Its women, as the ones from entire Colombia, are consider as some of the pretties in the world. Because of the Caribbean factor, they are happy, natural and excellent dancers. Shakira's Instagram One of the most well-known Colombians in the world is Shakira, maybe the most famous Colombian alive. Her voice, her beauty and her dancing have fascinated million of fans thanks to, in part, her singing both in English and Spanish. It was her fifth studio album the first one to be recorded in English https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weRHyjj34ZE . She has Arab roots since she is a Lebanese descendant and h...

There is a man who has been able to reencounter more than 11,000 people by using his built up searching skills. He has given all those people incalculable happiness by finding relatives who had been missing for years, even decades, and some times forgotten. Thanks to him there has been people who have had the chance of dying peacefully once they  found the person he or she had been looking for for long time. His name is Alejandro Muñoz , a Colombian journalist, and most of the people who he has reencountered are Colombian too. He has also done it with people in othe countries, especially for those children who have been adopted and later wanted to find their biological parents. It happens on the contrary too, there have been parents who wanted to reencounter with the children they have given in adoption. Either way, it is a difficuld and complex task since neither part has any information about the other. In order to fullfil this task Alejandro created 15 years ago the Foundati...

Bogota, Colombia's capital city, is divided by 20 districts (Localidades, in Sapnish). One of them was named Kennedy, after the former president of the United States who founded the district himself. This district is the most populated, 1,5 million inhabitants, and one of the largest in Bogota. John F. Kennedy and his wife Jackie visted Bogota in Dicember 1961 within the framework of the Alliance for Progress, in which Kennedy founded the neighborhood for the poorest people in the city. The neighborhood was named then Ciudad Techo (Techo City) and 12.000 houses began to be build. In 1964 after Kennedy's assessination the residents of the neighborhood changed its name to Ciudad Kennedy (Kennedy City) and the Council of Bogota approved the name change in 1966.  President Kennedy inaugurates the housing project Ciudad Techo (John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum) Last November 22nd, 50th anniversary Kennedy's assassination, the residents of the d...

elcolombiano.com Today the negociation table for the peace talks between the Colombian Government and FARC was set. Talks that mean a new hope for Colombians to achieve peace after almost 50 years of war by FARC. The Revolucionary Armed Forces of Colombian was born in 1964 after an alleged election fraud that kept the then two-party government, established 6 years before, known as the National Front that used to take turns in the country's precidency. Since then the FARC has been fighting a guerilla war againt the on-duty goverment that has left thousands of victims.  What is going on in Colombia? In my opinion, the negociation will not be easy since the parts have desires totally opposed. The Goverment wants the guerrilla to stop the fight and release the kidnapped ones, among other things, and in the other hand, the FARC wants a total change of the social, political and economical system of Colombia. Most of Colombians, if you had the chance of doing a survey...

This is the translation of an article that I wrote in Octuber, 2010. It is about my point of view on the habit of Spanish speakers to call people and things from the United States 'americanos' (American), when a correct name exists: estadounidenses (something like Unitedstaters). Last week I attended the presentation of the Unitedstater Studies Institute (Instituto de Estudios Estadounidenses) in Bogota, Colombia, attracted by the posibility of getting to know something else about the United States, county which I like since my childhood and in which I have had the chance of living briefly somewhen. What attracted my attention the most was the name of the institute itself. Its name is  Unitedstater Studies Institute and not American like some others which exist in some Spanish-speaking countries. And I believe that  Unitedstater is the correct name for the people born and nationalized in the United States. Not American because that name belong to all the inhabitants o...

El Dorado is a legend place sought unsuccessfully by Spaniard and English explorers for centuries. Many of them died in the attempt. It was suposed to be a place with gold-paved streets with huge reserves of the precious metal, located somewhere in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela and Brazil. DreamWorks produced an animated movie about El Dorado (The Road to El Dorado) but it was located erroneously in Mexico. There are several version of the legend in different places but the most accepted is the one in Colombia where in a lagoon nearby Bogota (39 miles) the chief of Muisca indians used to be covered in gold dust on a rift, in a rite in which he and other indians paid tributo to the Mother Earth by throwing gold and emerald pieces into the lagoon.   After many years of wanting to go to get to know the Muisca sacred lagoon, and despite the close it is to my hometown, yesterday I went with my family and got surprised of the much I learned about my ancestors. The first s...