Colombia Culture

Population

Colombia is a multiracial, mixed blood between the Spanish settlers, native Indians and African slaves brought to work in the mines in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In addition to the mestizos and mulattoes, the offspring of purebred Spanish families are called "criollos", while "zambos" people are mixing African and indigenous blood.

The Indians are now a large minority, but represent some 80 different ethnic groups who manage to preserve their traditions, helping to make Colombia one of the most attractive destinations in terms of population.

Literature

The Colombian literary genre is only a draft until the nineteenth century, with the Hispanic colonial influences, then the romantic ideals inherited from European culture.

The poet who writes Jose Asuncion Silva at the very end of the nineteenth century is considered the precursor of modern Latin American literature. He claims to Edgar Alan Poe and develops an aesthetic symbolic Colombian Gabriel Garcia Marquez opens the way to magical realism. "Gabo" is for many the greatest writer of the continent. Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982, he began his career as a journalist before signing a few cults which works Hundred Years of Solitude, published in 1967, Chronicle of a Death Foretold in 1981, Love in the Time of Cholera in 1986 ...
His friend Alvaro Mutis is the second most famous Colombian author in the world. A great traveler, he has written many stories whose adventures Maqroll el Gaviero.

For other authors translated into French, Laura Restrepo note with the novels The Leopard in the sun and Soft Company, Santiago Gamboa, Esteban hero, and of course Fernando Vallejo, a native of Medellin, whose subversive autobiographical novel The Lady of the Assassins was adapted for the screen.

Music and dance

From one end to another of Colombia's territory spans an entire world of music that blends indigenous influences, African and Spanish. The most famous music, cumbia, rooted in the music of African slaves on the Atlantic coast. Its name comes from "kumb", a term in West Africa meaning "noise". She then mixed with the melodies of local indigenous groups. It is characterized by a strong presence of percussion and sustained rhythms punctuated by flutes and ocarinas. Lizandro Mesa is the most famous representative.

Next dance, not essential cumbia not derive directly from slaves dancing with their chains and balls. The cumbia is now the national dance, queen of clubs alongside Latino merengue, and salsa with Joe Arroyo as national stars and Yuri Buenaventura. But the greatest representative of the musical diversity of the country remains the phenomenal Toto Momposina, called the "Queen of folklore." Her husky voice accompanies all influences: cumbia, bullerengue, chalupa, guaracha ...

Later, throbbing like a bolero, but catchy, vallenato, played by Carlos Vives, uses the rhythms of his native Caribbean and adds European accordion.

The latest fashion is to pace the champeta, come from the poor. It is distinguished by its jerky, somewhat comparable to raggamuffin. Representative of the genus may for example include Elio Boom, the "black diamond of the Caribbean".

Finally, youth is enamored with their International pop star Shakira. Side rock, the band Los Aterciopeladios is a safe bet to be discovered.

Painting

The colonial period is naturally inspires Spanish religious paintings. Be mentioned as representative of the genus Gregorio Vasquez de Arce y Ceballos (1638-1711), who’s Colonial Art Museum of Bogots has a large collection.

In the 1930s, Colombian artists develop their own originality, then sublimated by Fernando Botero and his famous Madonnas with voluminous shapes. The famous painter, born in Medellín in 1932, traveled to museums and galleries in Italy, Spain and France since he was 18. He moved to Paris in 1972. Great admirer of Toulouse-Lautrec, he defines his characters as a mixture of Latin American folk art and Italian Renaissance painting. This is for him to reintroduce the volumes in contemporary painting. It is now one of the most vulnerable living painters in the world and the foundation Fernando Botero in Bogotá is a must.

As for contemporary painting is one of the most dynamic continent and young artists are exhibited in many cities.

Media

Press

All major cities have their everyday lives are the most important of El Tiempo and El Espectador in Bogota, El Mundo and El Colombiano of Medellin, Cali El Pais. Side of the news magazine, the weekly Cambio, bought in 1998 by a group of journalists led by Garcia Marquez, is the benchmark for national and international news. Note also the subversive cultural magazine El Malpensante and monthly reporting Gatopardo created in 2000 and distributed throughout much of Latin America and Miami.

Radio

The radio is highly developed, almost every small town has its local station. There are hundreds of FM radio waves and large, mostly music-oriented.

Television

Colombian television was born in 1954. There are currently 14 national channels, but many residents of large cities receive satellite TV. As elsewhere in Latin America, Colombians follow essentially the telenovelas, sports and American films.