Second part
WE spent a week on a river cruise of the Magdalena River in Colombia, stopping by towns along the way and learning facts about Colombia’s history and culture.
The Spanish colonization of South and Central America began almost a century before that of the Philippines. While Mexico and Peru had empires — the Aztec and Inca, respectively — other South American countries, like Colombia and Venezuela, had an advanced tribal culture that left stone monuments and other indications of an established and permanent cultural adjustment to their natural environment.
The Spanish colonies in South America started agitating for independence almost a century before we did, beginning at the turn to the 19th century, when Napoleon invaded Spain and the Spaniards were busy resisting him. When that Napoleonic adventure was over, Spanish politics was still monarchical, but with the addition of opposing factions of liberal and conservative elements that fought each other, giving the Spanish colonies in the Americas a knowledge of progressive ideas, and an opportunity to fight for independence while Spain was in turmoil. In time and with heroism, revolutionaries like Bolivar, Santander, San Martin, Sucre and many more succeeded. They were the equivalent of our “ilustrados” who eventually influenced our own.
Colombia was fully independent by 1811. But before that, it had a notable series of national events that marked its existence as a colony. Among them were the ambitions of the British and French to take it as their own, principally for its rich trade and it being a depositary, before their transit to Spain, of gold, silver, emeralds and other treasures. Cartagena de Indias, a port city in the country’s north, was a key city, much coveted and, therefore, always under siege. It became a city enclosed in walls, with a huge and dominant fortress over it for self-defense.
Along the Magdalena River is the city of Mompox, which is near Cartagena but not vulnerable to pirates, etc., as one has to enter the river to get to it, unlike Cartagena, which is open to the sea. It is a city founded in 1637 to be a refuge from pirates and other would-be colonizers. There, in a bucolic and sheltered setting, the refugees from Cartagena conducted their trade and built a colonial city of churches, stone houses, plazas and boulevards along the river. Bolivar stopped by, and so did their leading citizens that it is a chapter in Colombian history. It is now also a Unesco World Heritage Site. Today, the city seems quiet and removed from the hurly-burly of other Colombian cities. It has a filigree industry that is a tradition. The city is also a jazz capital, and we had a session with a saxophone and violin doing jazz pieces that lit up our boat one evening. Mompox, a strange name for the uninitiated, comes from its original leader, a tribal chief of the place named Mompoj, which in time became Mompox. He was called a cacique, so that is where that word comes from, a tribal chief from South America.
Another place we stopped by was the very quaint Santa Barbara de Pinto. It is a fishing village, as well as an agricultural one. We saw agricultural lands and cattle ranches all along the Magdalena River. Colombia has a vast agricultural industry and an equally large cattle industry. Their butter comes in many varieties, all good. Their fruits are a spectrum of mangoes, papaya, guyabano, atis, passion fruit, dragonfruit, balimbing (called carambola), guava, something called “lulo,” plus oranges and lemons. They also have “corazon,” which looks like a cherry but has a hard skin. They make corozo juice with it, which we tried in Mompox.
In Santa Barbara del Pinto, we went to the plaza shaded by centuries-old trees, with a visiting cow standing by the church and children. We heard a tobacco farmer demonstrate rolling cigars and smoking them, another of their agricultural products. A fisherman who made nets explained the technique and how the nets were used. He did so with the kids who were gathered into a group, sitting down with their heads down. They were the fish as the fisherman demonstrated how to cast the net and catch fish, which they were given ice candy. It was so down-to-earth, so homely and so charming.
The end of the journey was Barranquilla, the fourth-largest city of Colombia, after Bogota, Medellin and Cali. It is very Caribbean and has the second-largest carnival in South America after the one in Rio de Janeiro, which is saying something. They have murals on the carnival theme in one part of town that take up walls of buildings. They also have a Museum of the Carnival featuring the gowns of the carnival queens that are to be seen to be believed for their elaborateness, imaginativeness and expense. These gowns are meant for exhibition, not for walking about. The city is modern with condominium buildings amid open spaces of greenery. It seemed quiet when we visited with not much traffic, but it is transformed during carnival time. We had a drink in the city’s leading traditional hotel, which charges, for times that is not carnival, $75 a room, which magnifies to $500 during carnival time.
We, too, had a taste of carnival when some dancers came by the boat to demonstrate carnival costumes, dances and songs. It is all very energetic, full of color: traditional carnival characters, as well as music from native instruments like the drum, the flute and maracas.
Colombian culture is an amalgam of Indigenous, Spanish and Black from the three elements of their population. Cumbria is a traditional dance genre that starts like our “pandanggo” with lighted candles and goes on to more energetic steps that soon turn into a medley of rhythms, steps and gestures that are fascinating.
Barranquilla has famous writers and entertainers. The latter have two famous ones: Sofia Vergara, who is a big television star in the United States; and Shakira, the singer-dancer with a massive following. Both have given back to their country funds for education, especially for children’s schools, among other benefits. They also represent the mix of races and cultures in the country that makes it a to-be-envied multicultural society that thrives. So, there are two statues in an open park along the Magdalena River in Barranquilla, one for Vergara and the other for Shakira. Worth a photo, indeed.
While all of the above was being experienced, there was a runoff in the presidential elections, and the conservative candidate won. We noted a minimal number of posters and very little interest among the people we were with. For the sake of Colombia that we are much impressed and in love with, we hope their political tensions ease for a good future.
