Misha+Lerner

= Colombia = Misha Lerner

//A picture of a kid with the Colombians flag painted across his face.//

** Country Profile **


 * Country: Colombia**


 * Capital City: Bogota**


 * Date of independence (****from what country?): /Founding: July 20, 1810**


 * Type of government: Republic**


 * Current Head of Government: Juan Manuel SANTOS Calderon**


 * Currency: Colombian pesos**


 * Total Population: 44,725,543**


 * Major languages: Spanish**


 * Major religions: Christianity**


 * Major ethnic groups: Mestizo 58%, White 20%, Mulatto 14%, Black 4%, Mixed black Amerindian 3%, and Amerindian 1%**


 * Area in square miles (****multiply Km by .62): 106,124**


 * Attractions (why do people visit?)**** : People when planning a trip to Colombia often pick sites like the Amazon Rainforest, the Museo de Oro, the First Cathedral, and the city of Bogota in general for its colonial feel. **


 * Color Picture of the national flag:**




 * What do the colors, shapes, emblems, images, etc., on the national flag symbolize? The Colombian flag is a layered land of land, history, and values. One version of the flags colors tells that yellow symbolizes the gold of the country, blue symbolizes the bordering seas, and red symbolizes the blood spelt in attaining freedom. The other theory says that the yellow symbolizes justice, blue symbolizes loyalty, and red generosity.**


 * Sources: __CIA world fact book__ **

Maps


The population density map I found shows that of course there is a large swath of population density near the Caribbean cost as expected, but surprising most of the population lives in the Andean mountain range. Maybe this is due to the several rivers that flow through this region, or maybe that Colombia’s capital city Bogota is located in this region. The land use map I found shows that the most intensive agriculture happens in the Andean highlands, then around that are is the less intensive more widely spread agriculture until we finally see deserts, forests, and swamps. This is peculiar because I would suspect that the most agriculture would be on the plains and not in the mountains. I suppose that this is because major rivers run in the mountainous region, but there are rivers in the plain region too. Probably this is because the mountains are much closer to the cost where the crops can be shipped out than the plains that are actually blocked by the mountains.

Topic 1. Geography and Climate

Colombia is a land ruled by its various elevations. It is a land that is tropical and at the same time harsh with elevation going up to 5,700 meters. Practically Colombia can be divided into four geographical regions. The first one is the heart of Colombia, the Andean highlands. Though its mountaintops are permanently covered with snow and its highest peak is 5,700 meters; its basins still provide good farming land due to such rivers as the Cauca and the Magdalena. The Andean mountain range can be divided into three sub ranges, the Cordillera Central, the Cordillera Occidental, and the Cordillera Oriental. These three sub ranges go on to ground our barring of where Colombia’s physical features are. The next branch of Colombia’s geographical tree is the Caribbean lowland, a triangular shape that starts out in the east at the Golfo de Uraba and ends at the Venezuelan frontier and the Cordillera Oriental. At the bottom of this shape rests the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, an isolated mountain range. At the cost this part of the country hosts major port cities including Santa Marta, Cartagena, and Barranquilla, but when you travel deeper within you see that many streams and swamps have made farming possible. Colombia is the only South American country to touch both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, so while there are the Caribbean lowlands there are also the Pacific lowlands, though much smaller in importance than its brother. Its only main port is Buenaventura and its natural resources have not been taped, but there are rivers, rivers that come off the Cordillera Occidental. One specific river, the Rio Atrato, leads up to Golfo de Uraba thus connecting this region to the Caribbean lowlands. The Pacific Lowlands is a land of swamps and jungles, the jungles resting on the Serrania de Baudo mountain range and the biggest swamp being the Atrato swamp being a murky 65 kilometers and bordering Panama. The last Climate region is Eastern Colombia that while being 3/5ths of the country’s land is virtually a foreign land to most Colombians. In the north of this expansive region there is the Llanos or plain and in the south resides the tropical rainforest. These different regions would go on to make the different people who live in Colombia.

//A picture of the Andean highlands.//

Topic 2. Government

Colombia’s government and political process is in most ways very similar to ours. It is one of conflict and resolution. The constitution that set up this institution was created in 1886, providing for three branches of government. an executive branch, a legislative branch, and an independent Judiciary branch. From that comes a bicameral congress with 102 senators being elected nationally and 166 congressmen being elected regionally. All of this happening around a four year cycle. And with this comes of course the natural occurrence of political parties. In Colombia the main ones are the conservative and the liberal, with potential independent candidates coming in the future. For one hundred years the two parties were in conflict until they had a common enemy. The dictator Gustavo Rojas Pinilla. The two parties overthrew this man by coming together and deciding that the power will be alternated every four years between the 2 partie. This worked from 1957 to 1974 when things where returned to their natural state. This is all good, but where the progress is being made is at the local level. Colombia is separated into 32 states and one capital district being Bogota. Each state has a governor appointed by the president, and the governors thus get to appoint the mayors who governs over the various municipalities. At this level many welfare programs take place that are centred around a specific community. The Ministry of Public Health works with a community, providing mechanism for potable water, and education about sanitation, and diet. This ministry also regulates operations that might harm a community. Another big welfare program is the Housing Institute. This provides low cost housing. Public welfare in Colombia started in the 1930’s with programs such as work mans comp, health and maternity benefits, and compensation for those unable to work. Colombia is a land that wishes good for its people.

//The Colombian coat of arms.//



Topic 3. Rituals and Festivals

In Colom//bia we see the celebration of festivals as the combination of the passion and history of every Colombian. Colombia’s major festivals mainly branch from their major religion, Catholicism. Festivals that are c//elebrated across the world are in Colombia given some extra zest, festivals such as carnival. When carnival comes around the entire country bursts out into a rash of celebration. With processions through the streets of every town, costumes, and dancing. This action is culminated into the city of Barranquilla on the Caribbean cost. But the festivals don’t stop there. Sema Santa is another greatly celebrated holiday the lasts the entire week before Easter. This holiday includes such events as public bible reenactments, processions, church services and more, all of this including the fact that every town has its own saint that is celebrated once every year. This annual celebration includes processions, with statues of the celebrated saint being carried throughout the streets. We see all this and we can only begin to imagine how Christmas is celebrated, but the matter of the fact is, is that Christmas is celebrated quite modestly, with the giving of cloths to show the festive mood. Quite different from in America where we start up with the Christmas season even before Halloween nowadays. But what they may lack in Christmas they make up in Eater, the holiday that celebrates the cornerstone of Christianity. Easter includes processions, church services, and holy music. Moving away from religion we shall look at Colombia’s secular festivals such as Feria Taurina, which is international bull fighting week, which is celebrated in the major cities. This festival takes place in January and February where other more local bullfighting traditions also take place. Another one of Colombia’s secular holidays is Carnival de Blancos y Negros, or the carnival of the black ones and the white ones. This goes back to slave times when the slave masters allowed the slaves to have one day of celebration, to show their approval they painted their faces black and on the next day the slaves painted their faces white. This festival happens in the small southern town of Pesto on January 5th and 6th.

//Carnival in Colombia.//

Topic 4. Music and Dance

Colombian dance and music culminate into the country’s collective festive spirit, being layered with the Indigenousness ethnicity, the African ethnicity, and the Spanish ethnicity. The first thing to say about Colombia’s music is that it is regional like most of Colombia’s art forms. While separated by region it is also separated by the ethnic origin of the music, but when these ethnic origins combine it results in some of Colombia’s greatest music. The origin of Colombian music was the Indigenes music mostly made up of winds and percussions. Then came the Spaniards and the Africans who introduced drums and guitars. There is actually a branch of music in Colombia that is a combination of all three of these branches of music. This is representative of how Colombia has layered its culture finely. You can’t have music without instruments, and like music, instruments are also are separated by region. Some of Colombia’s many instruments include the flauta, and Indian flute, the tiple a guitar like instrument, and the raspa, an instrument played like a washboard made from a gourd. Music and dance go hand and hand, and Colombia offers some of the most creative dances to be seen, dances such as the Cumbia, a dance of African origin. The name of the dance means noise and celebration, while its movements tells a story of courtship. In Colombia dances show different aspects of the reality we live in. For instance the Torbellion represents whirlwinds and other natural occurrences. The Bullerengue is a ritualistic dance of African origin that shows the processes of a girl turning to a woman. And finally there is the Currulao which is so wild and sexual that it has been banned in points of Colombia’s history. All of this shows that Colombia is a land of many people that show who they are by not only expressing themselves through dance and music, but also by combining their ethnic spirits with others with it.

//An example of Colombian dance.//

Material for this presentation came from the following sources:

"Colombia - GEOGRAPHY." //Mongabay.com//. Country Studies Program. Web. 12 Dec. 2011. . "Colombia." //Encyclopedia Britannica//. 15th ed. 1986. Print. Lopata, Peg. //Colombia Modern Nations of Our World//. Farmington Hills: Thomas Gale, 2005. Print. "Republic of Colombia." //CultureGrams World Edition//. ProQuest. Web. 12 Dec. 2011. . United States of America. CIA. //CIA World Factbook//. Web. 12 Dec. 2011. .