Colombian Culture, Colombia Adoption and Raising Colombian Kids

We have been spending some time remembering the Salsa music stars of Fania Records. Since we are in no hurry to move on, I thought I'd spotlight another song by Rubén Blades , this one with a nostalgic connection to Colombia. Not too long ago, when I was growing up in Colombia, television there was limited to two government owned channels --three, if you lived in the capital. This technological wonder broadcast in all the hues of the color spectrum from white to dark grey and only within the hours of 5 to 10 pm. With literally nothing to see on the tube, most pre-internet Colombians became addicted to radio. On Saturday nights, all members of the Salsa cult, faithfully tuned in to a show named " Salsa con Estilo " (Salsa with Style) hosted by Jaime Ortiz Alvear . Jaime wasn't a DJ, he was one of the best sports commentators in the country, a possessor of encyclopedic knowledge about both sports and Salsa. At the beginning of the show, he would always recite: ...

Every weeknight on Colombian Institutional Television, there is a program that lasts just about 1 minute called Niños Buscan Hogar . This is a program where ICBF can publish the photograph and identifying information of children who are in Protective Custody. ICBF publicizes these pictures in hopes of finding family members somewhere in the country that might be able to assume responsibility for and the care of the child. Many of the children adopted by ICBF have appeared on the program. Here is an example of what the program is like:

Though much of Colombia has been more stable over the last 9 years, the reality that there is still much violence and many social problems. One of those problems is that there are still many hundreds of people being held hostage somewhere in Colombia. There is a radio program on Sunday nights that allows families to transmit messages to their loved ones being held against their will. The program, Voces de Secuestro , airs on Caracol radio. Here is a new You tube video highlighting the program:

Last week, I mentioned Rubén Blades once again, it must time to talk about him. This prolific artist has a remarkable story, which is closely tied to Fania records. Those who watched the PBS documentary (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/latinmusicusa/#/en/wat/02/01) might remember the story about Blades wanting to write and sing Salsa music so much that he begged Fania for a job. He eventually got the job-- as an orderly in the mail room. From there he rose to become one of Fania's main stars. It is difficult to choose just one of his songs to spotlight here, but let's start with a well known one: Pedro Navaja by Rubén Blades. This song is to Salsa what Louis Armstrong's Mack the Knife is to jazz. In fact Blades drew inspiration from Louis Armstrong for the song, just watch the video. But the song also draws from Bertolt Brecht's Threepenny Opera, and is a narrative about Pedro, a quintessential New York thug who is outwitted by a street smart woman. The song first appeared in...

Today's myth takes us to the department of Guaviare. There, between the Guaviare and Inírida rivers live a small group of Indigenous people called the Nukak Makú. This group of nomadic hunter-gatherers had been "uncontacted" by white man until 1988. However, since their discovery, their population has been decimated by disease and the armed conflict in Colombia, having lost approximately half of their population. In 1993, Colombia set apart land as a Nukak Makú reservation and expanded it in 1997. Approximately 1/2 of the now living Nukak Makú live on the reservation, where they have been victims of FARC violence. The other 1/2 wishing to flee that violence have moved to the department's capital -- San José de Guaviare -- where the government has established small settlements -- think refugee camps. (See a photo essay of those camps here: http://www.jansochor.com/photo-essay/nukak-maku.html ) Here is the Nukak Makú origin myth: Idn Kamni According to the Nuk...

When Colombians hear the word BUNDE, most will think of the music familiar to Tolima. There is also a musical tradition called Bunde, also called Chigualo, found on the Pacific Coast. It's origins are believed to be from the Wunde of Sierra Leone, in Africa. On the Pacific Coast, the term BUNDE has come to refer to a type of song used at the wake for dead Afrocolombian children, yet it is typically not sad, but festive. (The word Chigualo is used when the song is for a deceased adult.) The Bunde is a funerary right in which the pain over the loss of a loved one is transformed into joy. The happiness is caused by the belief that the the soul of the child has entered into the Spirit World. The Bunde is sung while accompanying the the decorated casket in a processional march. The march moves three steps forward and two back. The song is followed by a brief poem: Yo soy la primer madrina (I am the first godmother) que me vengo a presentar. (I am coming to introduce myse...

Long before the United States elected their first black President, Colombia had one. His name was Juan José Nieto Gil. But, if you ask most Colombians, they will have no idea who this guy is. The truth is that for reasons that historians can only attribute to racism, Colombia's only black president has been almost erased from history -- in fact, when his portrait was restored in the 1970's they changed his skin tone to white. Nieto Gil was born in what is now the department of Atlántico, on June 24, 1805. He was the son of a 1/2 black 1/2 Indian mother (a Zamba) and a Spanish father. Early on, he taught himself to read, and he became fascinated by political philosophy. In 1839, he was elected to the Provincial Chamber in Cartagena. In 1840, he participated in the War of Los Supremos (a topic for another blog), and was taken prisoner. In 1849, he started a newspaper called, La Democracia. He became governor of what was then called the Province of Cartagena in 1851. One y...